Internet

Hi all!
We had a fun trip to Guizhou, were absolutely exhausted when we returned. It didn't help that our internet has been down with exception of about twice when we had it for 15 min, then it would crash again. We finally got hooked up with DSL yesterday, this morning I installed a wireless router so we could hook both of our computers up to the internet. It is really nice to have it again, even if we have to pay for it this time. It's still cheaper than in the US, about $15 US a month. It isn't quite as fast as ours was at home, but it's WAY better than the cumbersome system the college provides for us.
We have our classes for real now, and they are much larger than last year. We met two weeks without rolls, finally got them this week, and I found out that in my class of 60 students, only 40 are registered. The others just want to come and practice their English. My other classes only have three or four that aren't on the rolls, so those classes are only about 30-40 students in size. I'll have to check with the administration and see what their policy is on that. It sure is a lot more work to check extra journals each week, but they are so excited about having a foreign teacher I have a hard time telling them they can't come! I have medical doctors, several high-school and college teachers, political leaders, chemists, scientists, math majors, you name it! Some of the journal entries have really been touching. They are really talented and read and write English really well, but really struggle with understanding the spoken language and speaking it. I have had some speak in class, and they need work on their basic pronunciation, but their vocabulary is great! I'll attach a couple of their journals so you can get a flavor of what we are enjoying.
We went over to Bro. Cheung's home tonight and he barbequed hamburgers for us western style, we had a fun visit, then watched the Priesthood session of conference and the women watched the Relief Society session downstairs at the same time. It was really nice to see them, as we can't get them on any TV, and if we watch them live we have to get up at 2:00 a.m. I can't stay awake in the day time, let alone in the middle of the night! The session was good, though. Tomorrow we will watch the Sunday morning session for church. I made copies of the DVDs, so Mom and I will watch the rest of them at home as we get time.
Guizhou was really interesting, though we spent a lot of time riding the bus steep, narrow roads in really mountainous country. It is a part of China that most people don't get to see, though. Many of the people are living just like they did hundreds of years ago, but share the roads with water buffalo, donkey carts, busses and trucks, as well as cars. I'll try to attach a few pictures to give you an idea, but don't want to make this too long. The minority costumes are beautiful, but I think largely for the tourist traffic. The people are very humble and gracious to us, though.
Well, I have to get to bed, we have early meetings before church tomorrow. We'd love to hear from you, hope we have more time now that are classes are settling in. We have been spending hours trying to get rolls created, lesson plans made, journals read and church responsibilities met. We have made pictures of all of our class students, have used up an entire ink color cartridge, so need to go to the market Monday and get another one. Everyone is green now. I tried re-filling the cartridge, but must not know the secret for the color ones, because it worked for a couple of days, then quit again. I've filled the black one lots of times and it works fine.
Let us know how you are doing. We sure love and miss you! Hard to believe we have been back here a month already! Love, Dad.

(Student journals)
Maggie, Medical Science major.
Today I attended an English class given by a foreign teacher. Professor Powell. It was the first time in my life to talk with a native English speaker. It was really excited. He was very humorous and really very kind. He smiles all the time. By the way, he looked like the Santa Klaus. He was really tall and handsome. I like him very much.
I have been studying English for almost 16 years, but my oral English is so bad that I have difficulty in expressing myself clearly in English. This class is really a good chance to improve my ability of speaking. Also this is the spirit of Professor Powell's class. He improves us to talk, talk, and talk in English all the time.
In China, most of the classes are given in a lecture form. Teachers come into the classroom, open their books, and start to lecture. All we students should and allowed to do is sitting quietly at our desks and taking notes. We never ask questions during the lecture, because we don't want to interrupt the teachers, and most of all, we don't want to be seen as fools asking foolish questions. We are not allowed to talk to each other. The only chance we can talk is to answer the questions asked by the teachers under this system of teaching. I have developed the temperament of not daring to speak in the public, and having no courage to raise a different opinion.
This is quite a different from the classes given in the United States of America, where students can raise their hands during the classes and ask questions whenever there is something they don't understand well. Professor Powell also told us we could go to the toilet and answer the cell phone during the classes without asking for his permission. This is really the mode I like.
We are going to have a great semester together!
Zoe
I went to the International Language Institute Building Room 138 at 6:30 p.m. to watch the English movie today. Because I have had a driving training every weekend, I must go home every Friday and I can't watch the movie normally. But the driving training will be cancelled this weekend because of the National Day, so I can stay at school and have a chance to promote my poor English through watching the movie this Friday. I was very happy, and then I was taught the sentence, "more expectation, more disappointment." I waited in the room 138 for about an hour just to be told that the movie was also cancelled because of the National Day.
When I got to my dormitory and told my roommate the whole thing, she gave me another shock. She told me that Mr. Powell had said this thing on the class though the date wasn't changed on the paper of movie introduction. I feeled depressed and confused about why I didn't know that. Maybe I was in a trance when Mr. Powell said that, but it was more possible that I heard but didn't understand. My English is always too poor to help me understand others exactly. I think I must pay more attention to my oral English to make me communicate with others with no problem at least.
By the way, the only thing make me don't feel too sad is that a lot of people waited in Room 138 for the movie with me. I'm not the only stupid man.
I am so sorry! It will be held each Friday now.
Rita:
A miserable trip to Beijing! During the seven-day's holiday, my friends and I made a trip to Beijing. We got up as early as six o'clock in the morning with the hope to visit Olympic venues, such as National Stadium, National Aquatics Center and so on. However, it did not turn out to be a pleasant trip at all. Maybe it is the most miserable travelling experience that I have ever had in my life.
When we reached the railway station, the first difficulty occurred. All the tickets to Beijing had been sold out, so we had to change buss to get there. From then on, the nightmare began. Because of the heavy fog, all highways to Beijing were closed. As a result, the bus only ran along national ways. Thanks to the traffic jam, it took us nearly five hours on the road. When we arrived at Yongdingmen Station, the only thing we could do was having lunch.
After that, we took a taxi to the subway station. There we experienced another exhausting period of time. To get to the Olympic Green, we transferred as many as three different lines, No 10 to No. 5, then No. 5 to No. 8, which spent us nearly fifty minutes. When we finally reached the place, all of us felt so tired that we did not want to move one inch. What was worse, there were thousands of people wandering around venues. We could not even approach to the National Stadium. Therefore, our visit in Olympic Green only lasted one hour and a half.
The most terrible thing happened on the way back. The train which had only one thousand and five hundred seats actually carried nearly four thousand passengers. It was even more crowded than the bus in rush hours.
When I finally got home it was nearly eight o'clock in the evening. Because of such miserable experience, I would never travel to Beijing in public holiday.
I don't blame you! It wasn't as crowded where we went, but there were still a lot of people!
[We have made this trip several times, and the bus trip usually takes about two hours, the subway about 15 minutes, and the train back 30 minutes with very nice seating and a smooth ride. When we came back from the airport we took the bus and it took about 2 ½ hours, but we had to wait an hour just to get on the bus.]