September 24, 2017

This was an adventurous week for the Roses and their friends.

Hi everyone!

This week we jumped into our teaching with both feet. At 8:00 am and 10:00 am on Wednesday and Thursday and at 10:00 on Friday we were trying to learn everyone's names, trying to see what the proficiency level of the students is, and trying (mostly successfully) to work the technology in the rooms. We have quite small classes (11-16 in Oral English and 20-24 in Business English). The students we're teaching are English majors and, like most Chinese university students, have been studying English for most of the years they've been going to school. They're really quite good. The department chair wants us to work on critical thinking skills, which we are happy to do. In English.

But we've been scrambling--trying to plan lessons and syllabi and to get bank cards and continue working on all the requirements for work visas. Plus figure out where to find groceries. One night we trekked for an hour in the rain to find a supermarket we'd been told about. What an adventure! Then another night we found a nice supermarket quite close to home. It had every flavor of potato chip we could possibly want, such as "Pure Spicy Flavor," "Seaweed Flavor," "Italian Red Meat Flavor," and "Dried Squid Flavor":

We had some adventurous experiences eating out, too. Whether at the school cafeteria or at a restaurant, though, we were never completely sure what was on our plate.

This lightly steamed chicken was sliced in such a way
that there was pink meat and bone in every slice. We
didn't end up eating much of it. But the sauce was great.

This was thinly sliced beef, breaded with Panko crumbs and fried.
Then it was topped with drizzles of mayonnaise and garnished with sprinkles.

At the end of our meal at one highly popular restaurant on Friday night, an inebriated gentleman serenaded his table with a snippet of opera. He was delighted when we clapped for him, and so performed a bit more for us.

A member of the branch presidency of our church invited us to his home for dinner one evening, and we enjoyed some great company and views of the city.

Shanghai is a city with a flood of faces and experiences waiting for us. We've barely even gotten our feet wet.

Our trip to church.

September 17, 2017

We're not in Kansas  any more--or Iowa, or Utah!

Hi everyone! We begin this post on Sunday night at 7:00, trying valiantly to stay awake, because we’ve been up since very early this morning. Jet lag is real.

16.5 hours of flying to get to Shanghai. We are traveling with Clay and Tammie Anstead, who will also be teaching English at Tongji University for the China Teachers Program, part of BYU International Studies.

Our apartment building--for foreign teachers at the university

We began familiarizing ourselves with the area the first morning we were here, beginning with sampling some local dumplings (large, delicious, soft-but-not-soggy stuffed dumplings for $.40). We checked out the university and did some shopping at local markets. We realized we weren’t in Kansas any more when we passed a fish market where they had eels in plastic bins full of water, one hopped out into the gutter, and the store keeper picked it up to put it back in with the others. Then a worker started picking the eels out of the bin, nailing them to a board, cutting off their heads, slitting them down the middle, scraping out their innards, and plopping them in another bin. We shall not be buying any eels to fry. 

                                                                                                             

Today we attended our church branch by taking two subway rides and walking a couple of blocks. It took an hour and fifteen minutes each way, and we were proud that we did not get lost. Over half attending were just arriving (like us) or here on a business trip.  We understand there are a lot of young single adults--we'll get to meet more of them soon. Wonderful people we met today!

The entry into our apartment

Now for a tour of our apartment...

Our living / dining / office room. Rather spacious, lots of books,

 office supplies, and comfortable seating.

Our bedroom - plenty of room for us with a king bed
composed of two twin beds put together.

Pretty normal bathroom, except you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet.  

It goes into a garbage that gets emptied daily.  The item on the left is a small

washing machine.  Clothes are dried on a rack.

Our kitchen--small but well stocked by 15 years of BYU China teachers

Checking out Tongji University

So far we are finding that food is inexpensive.  We can have a nice lunch or dinner out for $4 each. Our apartment has a water cooler (5 gallon water bottle). A bottle of water is about $2.00 delivered to our door.

The people have been great, but not many speak English and we know little (very little) Chinese. Some signs have English, but many do not--stay tuned for further communications adventures.

Well, we decided to go to bed before finishing our Sunday post. But on Monday we found out good news! We now know what classes we are teaching: four "Oral English" classes and one "Business English" class apiece. It's nice to know when and where we are teaching.

We are having a wonderful time with our new adventure.

September 12, 2017

A New Chapter - New start to our blog

Back row, left to right: Matthew, Stephanie, Cameron, Sherri, Bobby

Middle row: Kayla, Lillian, Brysen, Steven, Parker, Jennifer, Kara
Front row: John, Kathy, Michelle, Darren, Kristina, Erin, Matt

This is the Rose Family as of July 2017, when Michelle and Darren got married.  It is all our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren.  We will miss our family so much while we are in China!  We leave for Shanghai on Thursday, September 14 and will both teach English to English majors at Tongji University for the school year.

The purpose of this blog is to inform our family and all others who are interested about our experiences and adventures in China.  Our plan is a weekly update, and we invite you to "follow" so you will be notified when we post.

John & Kathy Rose