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Temple visit

A couple of weeks ago, the school invited us to dinner. They picked us up in the early afternoon and took us to a tea house. We sat and drank tea and chatted for a while...

then we walked over to a near by temple.

This was an active temple.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about going to temples. On one hand it is a glimpse of a different culture. Often times these temples have very beautiful grounds with lovely gardens and old trees...

But on the other hand I am very uncomfortable with idolatry! I feel very sad when I see people actually worshiping and praying to the idols.

These are used to burn incense and prayers written on paper.

With all the burning going on, they are bound to need some of these.

These are incense and fruit waiting to be offered

I was not really supposed to take this picture. There were desks set up with books to read. People will come here and read the "holy" texts and there are monks to answer questions.

I will leave you with a thought an then hopefully a video.

while we were looking at the statues and all, one of the Chinese said that it is not good to stand on the threshold of the temples. I asked why, and they really did not know. One person said it is disrespectful to the Buddha, and another person said because the thresholds were once made of wood and it would wear them down too quickly. Then a few days later, I was reading in the OT, look up and read 1Samuel 5:5.
I thought it was interesting.

Some sounds we heard while there:

Fermenter?

This morning Mr. Li called Jon and asked him if we had a fermenter. Jon said no. Why would we have that? What is it? Do you use when making beer? Then he said that the school has decided to give us one because of N1H1 (swine flu).
A fermenter!? How is that going to help? Then he said he would give us five and if our temperature is over 38o we should call him immediately!
Oh!
Now do you know what a fermenter is?
Yes, he meant thermometer. Of course in his defense Mr. Li speaks three languages, Chinese, English, and German. It is ok that he makes some mistakes. Sometimes even if someone speaks English it can still be hard to understand some things. But it does make for a funny family joke.

I guess it was good that we did not have the fermenter last week. I know I had a fever, but I did not know how high it was. I don’t guess I had the flu because so far no one else in the family got sick!

We go Monday to have our annual Chinese physical exam. It is always interesting. Maybe we can get some pictures this time. Last year they told Jon he had fat in his liver and I had gallstones. I wonder what they say this year.

HAPPY DAY, SAD DAY

Caleb started day care at the Kid Castle yesterday. The Kid Castle is a great facility with clean rooms and toys. They have an American English teacher and it is right next door to our building. Caleb’s teachers are Teacher Becky and Teacher Chokehold.
We took Caleb to his classroom where 17 other parents were dropping off their child. Ten of the kids were screaming and crying. Caleb turned around and ran straight for the playground. We had visited the Kid Castle as a family many times. Caleb was always excited when we said this is Caleb’s school. But when he figured out Mom and Dad were not staying in school that was no good.
GaoYan gave him a firm talk. Then Caleb grabbed my hand tightly. “What about you? (Are you going to stay?)” We felt so sad. Finally we handed him over kicking and screaming to Teacher Chokehold.
GaoYan and I are happy we have more free time, but we feel sad remembering Caleb crying when we took him to school that morning.

Clarks: The Junie Report

A couple of days ago we went for the second OBGYN visit. It went really well -- much better than the first time (which was fine, too) -- because, for one thing, we had a different doctor to see Cec who was more communicative and more calming. We were told clearly that the "liver issue" we'd wondered about is nothing at all to be worried about, and that everything else seems good also. The doctor used a hand-held microphone and speaker set to let us listen to Junie's heartbeat. [Oh, Junie is the baby's name -- until s/he joins us on this side of the womb. Maybe you can figure out why "Junie" a little faster than I did when Cec first said it to me... Get it... June-y... due date of March...] The doctor didn't seem impressed, but we're pretty sure that the faint "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" was Junie and not just Cec's Doritos. [We ate Doritos in the cab on the way to the doctor.] Anyway, after the doctor visit we were led by a nice young lady from the Int'l Dept. to the OB unit. She introduced us to the English-speaking head nurse [whose Eng. name is Wendy -- we don't know the tour guide's name], and we got to see the rooms for pre-/post-delivery, the outside of the delivery room (which was occupied by busy mommies, thus not available for touring right then). We found out clearly and concisely that -- YES! -- I will be able to be in the delivery room to assist & support Cec. That's not the common practice in China, and we'd heard conflicting reports about the policy at this hospital. And, there are even private rooms available with beds for Mom, Dad, and Baby -- another unusually comfortable situation for Chinese [and American?] hospitals. So, all-around... it was a very useful, encouraging, and informative visit. Oh, and we signed up for Chinese pre-natal class. There's another mom-to-be signed up for the February class [you take the class on one single day the month prior to delivery] who also shares our March 8th EDD, so maybe we'll have twins! Well, you know... not real twins, but... OK, so that's all, I guess. Pray please for things to continue to go smoothly. I know you will, so thanks in advance. We really, really, really appreciate your support and encouragement more than you know.