What I learned about China!

     I went to China with preconceived ideas. I think everyone probably does. I thought it would be much more primitive. I also thought that due to the cultural revolution, it would have lost much of its cultural identity and lost the things that made China special.

       This picture is of  Alice. She is one of John's graduate students. She is as tall as I am. She took us around to shops and interesting places on the day I arrived. She is wearing a short skirt and long boots with this top.
     The first thing that I found was that China is very modern. Everyone has a cell phone. Most young women wear very stylish clothing; leggings with short skirts and cute tops with short jackets. Lots of long boots. The older people dress in heavier clothes in dark colors. They usually wear pants and long sleeved shirts and jackets. Even when it is very warm outside. My sister, Ginny told me that they are hot, but wear these cloths, because that is what they have been conditioned to wear. They looked at me strangely when I wore capris. 
     Buildings are tall and skyscrapers are being built with huge cranes everywhere. The buildings do not seem to be maintained like our buildings are. Many that are just a few years old need paint and/or cleaning. I saw small repairs made in sidewalks. They would patch a spot with cement, but would not put any barriers around it, so people would walk through the cement and leave footprints. I found one place where they had put in a large cement pad about 20 ft. by 10 ft. It had a string of footprints across it. They then came back at a later date and added cement into the footprints!
     They still are a very superstitious people. Numbers have significance, such as the number 8 is a lucky number. One company paid a lot of money to have the phone number 88-8888888. They still use colors and many other things because it has to do with feng shui or other good luck.
     Their education system is interesting. My sister says that it is difficult for them to get into college. But once they are in, it is difficult to get them out! They learn by memorization. I witnessed numerous students outside a classroom building standing separately, repeating over and over, their presentation to the class. They have difficulty in translating the memorization into understanding. So whenever you hear about how China tests higher than we do, understand that they can memorize and repeat back info, but cannot easily transfer this info into usable ability. There teachers also teach to the tests as the goal is for the teacher to look good by having the most students pass the tests. I saw a road sign that gave directions to the Party School. I laughed, thinking of all of the colleges that have reputations as party schools. We understand this term to mean schools that have lots of drinking and partying. In China it means the schools where the members of the Communist Party can attend. Big difference!

    

First of several about China

     I have wanted to go to China for a long time. Having my sister live there this year helped in getting me there sooner rather than later. I flew into Beijing and then onto Qingdao where Ginny lives. I spent three days there with her and her husband John. Then Ginny and I flew to Chongqing. We then went on a tour of Chongqing, a small town of 30 million people. Built on hills; we visited the Three Gorges Museum, The Flying Tigers Museum, the old town and KFC.
      That night we got on a very nice boat to start our trip down the Yangtzee River. The next day we went to Fengdu (the Ghost City). Many other BYU teachers on this trip. A fun group to be with! Ended with a trip to the Three Gorges Dam (although you couldn't see it or enter it.) Flew back to Qingdao.

     Was in Qingdao for 3 more days, then flew on to Beijing. There I went to Wangfujing Street, the dirt market, the Lama Temple, The Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, McDonalds, the subway, a silk store, a jade store, a pearl store and a Chinese medicine shop. That was interesting, in that the doctor looked at my tongue, took my pulse and diagnosed me with a weak liver and a weak kidneys. Oh well!!!! I guess it could be worse. I will put more detail about some of these places in another blog.
    

An interesting note from my grandmother, Ruth Estella Beery Landis

     I was going through a notebook that belonged to my mom. I found this tale told by my grandmother. I found it an interesting insight into her life. The family she talks about were the Buckinghams. They had a cabin near my grandparents cabin on Lake St. Mary. We always knew them as my grandparents best friends.

     "At one time, cleared the upstairs floor of our barn and had three ping pong tables and  basketball hoops up there for the young folks of the church and community. Cleo Harrison was always there to guide and watch over them. They had tournaments. We had a blackboard to keep score on.
     One evening I was going out to the barn to see how the attendance was, so to know about refreshments; when I saw the Aurora Borealis (Great Northern lights). The only time in my life that I saw them. This was a beautiful sight never to be forgotten.
      When friends of ours with six children had a fire and their home burned, we took two boys and one girl and kept them. We sent them to West Alexandria to school and sent our three to Lanier school until the parents could care for their own.
      The two little boys were put in bed with our little boy and the one girl was bedded down with our two girls. This was fun for the children, we got along fine. Sometimes we wondered if there was clothes for all.They called me their second mom. Seems like I have enough love for all.
     I don't know why, but Barbara seemed more like a sister to me than did my own two who were married to preachers and lived farther away. I was with her when her last four babies were born. I took the last one to the hospital when he died after 2 days of life (Denny)."

      I don't remember ever meeting my grandmother's two sisters, Zelma and Naomi or their families. But, I definitely remember Aunt Barbie and Uncle Mardo.

     There is a picture of Ruth in the photo above. She is framed behind us.

How I am NOT like my mother!

     I was talking to my brother, David today. I had lent him a series of books that I have enjoyed, "Gregor the Overlander."  This series is by Suzanne Collins who also wrote the "Hunger Games", but these books are for a younger audience and not as dark. David said that he had read all five books. Then Katy read them all and now Charlene was reading them.
     The story takes place in an underground world with giant bats, giant rats and giant cockroaches. The cockroaches are actually some of the good guys. So I said to David, "doesn't it change your view of cockroaches? He laughed and then said that he remembers in our youth coming downstairs and finding drinking glasses turned upside down on the kitchen floor with a cockroach under them.
   I then laughed because I was the one who did this. I can touch most bugs, but cannot abide cockroaches. So if I saw one, I would capture it under the glass. My mother would come down in the morning and she would pick up the glass. Then she would pick up the cockroach. I remember her putting it down the garbage disposal (ugh! gross!) and David remembers her pulling the heads off. Oh what good memories!
     I guess that came from my mother growing up on a farm.
    

Family history

     My sister has decided that she wants to make a trip in October to visit relatives, to see some Church history sites and to visit some of our family history sites and do genealogy. This means we will visit Colorade to see our Aunt Beverly, Justin & Larie and my friend Pam. Then back towards Ohio to visit cousins and graveyards to take pictures of gravestones. Go to Deleware to visit our cousin Steve Brubaker.

     I need to dig through stuff to find the pictures that Ginny and I took many years ago in Ohio of gravestones, so we don't have to duplicate our efforts.

     We will also be heading to North Carolina. I made a list of ancestors that showed either a birth, death or marriage in this state and came up with 52 individuals. Then I was looking at my genealogy program and found more.

     To get to North Carolina we will pass through Tennessee where my friend Cindy lives. She is the person that I got Izzy from. She lives on a farm in Cooksville and has horses and donkeys and dogs.

     From North Carolina we will head north. I am not sure what areas we will visit on the way, but Ginny wants to go to Canada to see one of her students from China. Then we will go to Detroit to see Matt.

     I have lots of research to work on, to determine what ancestors lived in all of the states we will pass through and if we need to do any research along the way.