Journal Entry #28: Thursday, June 10, 2010

I was up early because I knew that Donna would be at the airport in Chicago waiting to board the plane for her trip here.  I had told her to call me from the gate to tell me she was on her way.  I was expecting that call about 7:00 a.m. here which is about 6:00 p.m. the evening before in Chicago.  On cue, the call came and she was on her way!

I had one last class appearance to attend.  It was Barbara Last’s class.  I answered the same questions I had from the previous classes with a few exceptions.  It was still fun.  And then at the end I announced that I had been waiting all week to make the following statement, “My work here has now come to an end and now that I have spoken to Mrs. Last’s class, I have spoken to my last class!”   They didn’t understand my humor but I was so proud of myself.

Mia and I had planned to meet Sally and two other students for lunch.  The other female student did not have an English name and had heard that I had been naming the students that needed an English name.  She wanted me to do that for her as well.  I listened to her name again in Chinese and the sound that I heard sounded a lot like Suzette, so that’s what I told her, and she loved it!  I had met the young man that was with us a couple of times before and I remembered he had a funny name, but I couldn’t remember what it was, so I inquired again. “Big Earth” was his response!  “Big Earth?” I asked again.  Yep, I heard correctly.  “OK,” I said. “Big Earth it is.”

Big Earth pulled a Steve Shaner on me.  While I was deep in discussion with the others he slipped away and paid the lunch bill.  I guess he could afford it.  He selected the restaurant, and he paid without my knowing, but it’s still hard for me to let college students in China pay for my meal at a restaurant.

I finally felt like I was in transition mode from teaching mode to preparing for Donnas’ arrival and vacation mode.  I went home to make sure everything was in order at the apartment.  

Mimzy and Cindy were to meet me at 3:00 o’clock to escort me to the train station to purchase our fast train tickets to Changsha the next day to pick up Donna.  The bus ride was eventful and fun as are all the bus rides here.  Somehow the trip seemed so much shorter than when I had previously taken this trip.  I guess with familiarity it grew shorter or easier.  The lines at the train station were really long.  But I knew that it wasn’t going to take any less time unless we got started with our waiting.  The lines in China are like zoos!  It’s very common for people to cut in front of you blatantly, and especially for them to walk right up to the front of the line, stick their money in the window, and ask for what they want without regard to the fact that you are in the middle of a transaction.  I had two petit, young girls with me that were going to make the purchase for us so I was trying to act as a block for others cutting in front of us.  Sure enough, as we were conducting our purchase, somebody tried to barge in front of us and make a ticket purchase. I body blocked them and said in English, “Wait for us to finish!”  I don’t know if my words or me waving my finger back and forth scared him off but he left.  We got our tickets and we headed back to campus.  Mimzy and Cindy are the best!  I think I may miss them more than anybody when I return to the states.

This Thursday evening saw the return of American Culture Lecture.  Because of the English majors’ graduation party the week earlier the lecture had been cancelled.  Each week the American Culture Lecture took on a subject of our choice that enlightened the Chinese students of the American way of life.  We always took the opportunity to weave our faith and its application into the designated subject as a part of our speech.  The lecture was voluntary but sometimes there were as many as 300 students who showed up in a hot classroom at 8:00 p.m. to listen to one of our American teachers.  The first week I attended Edwin Myers spoke on love and marriage and the place was packed.  The following week I spoke of the American culture of success.  Of course, I chose to weave the spiritual questions of “what is real success without a purpose in life”?   My message spent a lot of time espousing some of my favorite opinions of success and money vs. eternal and spiritual success.  I even used a quote from an ancient writing that said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?”  Barbara Last spoke on the American ritual and culture of celebrating deaths at funerals.  She drew a difficult topic to explain to a group of Chinese college students.  She explained a few of the ways that Americans as a people deal with death.  She also showed some photos of her own father’s and pet dog’s funeral.  The crowd was smaller but no less enthusiastic about what she had to say.  Perhaps the most entertaining thing she had us do was to have the six American Christians that were in attendance come up and sing a couple of songs together such as “To Caanan’s Land I’m on My Way.”  The audience seemed to think we were a professional chorus.  Of course we knew that we had been singing those songs all of our lives and it was just second nature to us.  After the lecture was over Barbara stayed for a long time to answer the questions of many who stayed to inquire more.