Armstrong China Epistle #3, Holiday Greetings


December 28, 2011
Greetings Nimen (Chinese for "you", plural.  I wish there was a word for this in English, besides ya'll)

I tried to make a fancy dancy Christmas ecard but kept on getting foiled so we're just going to have to make do with an email with pictures attached. We hope this season finds you happy and well.  Here's some news bits:

LEARNING CHINESE:  Richard is and Kate kind of is.  When someone tells me how well Richard is doing with his Chinese, I just smile. It's funny when someone is telling us something so sincerely in Chinese and Richard repeats the sounds of the last phrase, not knowing what they're saying. They think he understands and grin and point. 

TEACHING.  Walking across campus I hear, "hello Kate, hello Kate!" (teachers are called by their first names on this campus).  Most recently we heard  "Merry Christmas".  Class is started with Good afternoon, class.  Good afternoon, Kate.  How are you?  I am fine, thank-you, and you?  It always makes me smile.  Richard tutors the English teachers and teaches some 7th and 8th grade classes once every two weeks.  I teach 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders.  I just begin to think I have a handle on things, and I'll face an out of control class with kids running around, throwing things, shouting in Chinese, fist fighting in the back of the classroom, you know general all out naughtiness.  So, I'll have a little fear storm (what in the world was I thinking?  I can't do this!  It's hard).  Then the next class, for no apparent reason, will be wonderful. It proves my theory about living in China:  The only thing that you know for sure is that you don't know.  It's expected that we'll be surprised.  "Planning"  takes on a whole new meaning.

CHURCH.  Here's our routine.  We have a standing invitation to spend Saturday night with members who live in Hangzhou.  If we're going Sunday morning, we leave our 4th floor apartment at 6:50am for the early bus or 7:20 for the later bus.  We flag down a bus that takes us to the bus station in the next little town.  We buy our tickets and ride for about 1 hour 10 minutes to the Hangzhou bus station.  Walk about 3 blocks and take another bus to the church.  There we meet with our church family that we love so so much.  Twice a month we have a potluck after church.  Yummy.  We enjoy every American bite!  Richard and I gave talks on Christmas day, then shared a waffle brunch.  Only 11 people (besides us) were there because many families were traveling.  We then did a little "white elephant"  gift exchange.  Our dear neighbor and fellow teacher from the Philippines went with us on Christmas day.  I'm music chairman, switch off playing the little table organ, and teach Relief Society when asked.  Richard is Sunday School Pres and teaches once a month. 

HEALTH/FOOD.  Feeling pretty good!  Richard is doing Acupuncture for a pain in his shoulder/arm that bothers him at night.  I'm feeling great so I'm not doing Acupuncture or drinking any gross brown Chinese medicine.  4 flights of stairs (RFA: it's only 3, but feels like 4 to Kate) a few times a day is aerobic!  Some of the classrooms are on the 4th floor so it's down one staircase then up another.  Found a doctor in Hangzhou where I can get my meds for cheap.  Good.  I ate something that made me so so sick a few weeks ago but once it was out of my system, I popped back up.  This is one place where ice cream is not a temptation....expensive and a bit hard to come by.  We can buy almost anything on the internet, except ice cream:  (waffle iron, molasses, wheat flour, fritos, ink cartridges, books)  Grocery store is a block away, just on the edge of campus.  I wonder if I'll ever know what's in all those packages!  It may be dried duck or something.  Or maybe fermented bean curd.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION.  Here at Hailiang school, they know how to celebrate.  People had to try out to be in the Christmas show.  Richard and I sang "Angels We Have Heard On High"  at the end of a very cute show.  Every classroom had a Christmas tree and there were cute little Santas everywhere, as you will see in the picture

TRAVELS. At the first of December we spent 4 days in Beijing, where we taught the first time we were in China. We mostly hung out with our dear friends, who started out as our students, at China Women's University. It was so much visiting, looking at pictures, reminiscing, catching up on news and progress, and eating with these very special Chinese friends. They even went with us to a karaoke place, and sang happy birthday to Richard, one of his best birthday parties ever. We also got to attend a church meeting in Beijing before having to catch a return flight, and thus we got to see many of our former dear church friends. We brought them their first snow of the winter season, and were told the first snow is a blessing. ... Tomorrow we leave for a 6-day trip to Chongqing, where our hostess will be Yulin, a young Chinese woman who Richard tutored while we lived in Boston. We look forward to riding a boat on the Yangtze River, the great long river of China. We have always longed to see this river. We'll tell you more about this adventure in a later report.

Enough for now-  Here's love coming to you from China,
Kate and Richard Armstrong

PHOTOS:  dancers, jingle bells, confetti, Chirstmas card message board, Kindergarten Santas