From East to West...Home is Best

Rob and I love China. Its a great place to be, and I haven't missed home much at all. However last weekend we went to some plays that the post graduate students were putting on. One of the plays was the Wizard of Oz, and having never seen that movie before I really enjoyed the play. They put their own words, and change some parts of the play, and it was fun to watch. At the very end Dorthy said something that made me tear up, as she was trying to get back home, she said "From East to West, Home is Best. I had to agree with her. People ask us all the time where we are from, and get so excited when we say America. The translation for America here is beautiful country, and they think that everything about America is so great. Even after living in Utah for a year, Rob still claims So. Cal as home and I still claim Boise.

Huntington Beach ,California

Boise, Idaho

As much as we love it here. We both agree...that From East to West...Home is Best!

A Chinese Fashion Show

Last night Rob and I along with the other foreign teachers were invited to a fashion show that was here at the University that Rob teaches at. One of the big majors here is Textiles, so they have a huge fashion program. The outfits were all pretty out there, there was one, that I really wanted and would have worn. It was fun to be able to go, and see the different designs that the students created. Here are some of my favorites.

Puzzle Piece Outfit

Business/ Party Outfit

Trying to keep warm Outfit

Lampshade Outfit- We joked that it looked like there were two girls in this one. Doesn't she look about ten feet tall

The dress on the left is the one I really wanted. Me and one of the other foreign teachers are going to go there in a few days and see if they can make it for us.

Far Out in the Far East

This last week has been the Chinese National Holiday, which is also a paid holiday for teachers and a nice break for Jacque and me. We spent an entire day exploring the ancient city of Chu at Mo Hill and saw a lot of ancient temples, city walls, statues, and artifacts that were very interesting. Also during the past few days we’ve explored areas of Wuhan that we’ve never been before both on the western and eastern sides of the Yangzi River. We’ve found some interesting markets and shopping malls, but mainly we’ve discovered that shopping in Wuhan (at least at shopping malls) is similar to the food selection in Wuhan in that it’s lacking variety. Its mainly noodles and rice. There are thousands of little privately owned shops all selling the same dainty, overpriced, pastel-colored stuff. Maybe I’m a little short sided because I’m a man but it seems like every store just has the same thing as its neighbor, namely clothes, shoes, and eyewear…that’s it. If you need electronics, art, books, furniture, novelties, antiques, etc. then you must find some special ‘district’ in which all they sell are those things. The night markets are a lot of fun however, passing street vendors and they’re multiple (fake) wares adds a little bit of spice to what I consider to be relatively bland shopping experience in the enormous shopping malls.

During our explorations Jacque and I have stumbled upon a few markets that sell imported American products. These establishments have come to allow us to enjoy the simple pleasures that we often take for granted in the states. For example, the other day Jacque and I ordered two pizzas from the Papa Johns we found in our city and had it delivered to our apartment. We ordered one Hawaiian style and one BBQ Chicken. We later discovered that we had to pay for the delivery boy’s taxi fare to and from our place which didn’t make us happy but a few minutes into our delicious, cheesy pizza melted our anger away. Also, near the large pedestrian mall just a few blocks from our home is a Dairy Queen…its outstanding. I swear the vanilla is the best I’ve ever had (imagine an Oreo blizzard made from Haagen-Dazs ice cream) so rich and so good. It’s even a treat to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the Chinese people haven’t even heard of such a thing and rarely eat sandwiches anyway so when I found some quality Jiffy Peanut Butter and some strawberry jelly I went to town.

These are just the simple American pleasures we enjoy, don’t get me wrong we have discovered some excellent food selections near our place that we enjoy on a regular basis. There’s an establishment in the backstreet which makes mainly noodles that is run by a Chinese family who believes in Islam. They have pictures of teary Muslim children hanging on the shop walls looking up to heaven with Mecca in the background. Naturally we’ve dubbed this establishment “The Muslim Noodle Shop”. There are also various restaurants we dine at with our fellow American teachers where we can all sit down, order various vegetables (bok choi, eggplant, carrots, potatoes, bamboo), meats (duck, chicken, beef, fish) , and tofu (gross) which we eat together at a round-robin style table. There are also several juice stands and street vendors that we eat at regularly (ask me about a Chinese Taco sometime).

Work is going very well and as expected I am enjoying teaching very much. I feel that I have a good connection with my students which makes their learning fun but also allows me to push them. Last week I assigned the students in my freshman class to prepare a dialogue with a classmate and then come perform that dialogue in front of the class and one student in particular (who I’d previously named William) refused to come up. I told him repeatedly in English and Chinese to come to the front but he just shook his head and sat there with his arms folded like a 3 year old. I threatened to give him a “zero” if he did not at least give it a try and he still refused. I was about to give up and just let him fail when the class began pounding their desks and yelling “Will-um…Will-um…Will-um!!” to which he finally stood up and came to the front and read his part of the dialogue. He didn’t do so bad either, he wasn’t William Shakespeare by any means, but he did OK and got full credit for trying. The post-grad students are all great, they perform superbly and do as they’re told. These freshman kids though…sometimes I feel like I have to kick them in the face to get them to do anything. I enjoy my students though and we get along well, most of them have never had a foreign teacher before, and none of them have had one that speaks Chinese. I allow them to ask a question in Chinese if they absolutely do not know how to ask it in English and then I teach them how to ask that question in English so they can do it next time. I only speak Chinese to my students outside of class or if they are having a particularly hard time understanding an assignment. I also put the fear into them that if they are saying something bad about me I’ll understand them. I’m known for giving “fist-bumps” as the students enter or leave the classroom. At first they didn’t understand it at all and they thought I wanted to hit them or something so they’d back away or duck down as I went in to “bump” them. Now most of them get it and I get fist-bumps by students who aren’t even in my classes when I walk around campus. Preparation for each class does not take up a lot of my time, the classes are pretty basic and based on oral English so the most important thing is giving the students a chance to speak to me and have me correct them when they say something wrong. Nothing too strenuous, life in China is good.

Jac and Rob's Excellent Adventure (posted by Rob)

Well we've finally found a way to access our blog and Facebook, it can sometimes be a long, slow, tedious project but it beats being completely in the Dark Ages. We are so glad that we've been able to talk to so many of our friends and family via email, Skype, and now Facebook. Please continue to keep us posted on everything you're doing and if you can reach us by Skype, it has become our favorite means of communication. Its a very quick and easy setup and even if you don't have a webcam it is still an excellent free service that lets us talk with you. Our Skype Name is robandjacskaggs so feel free to look us up anytime.

This first week in China has been great. Jacque and I have made a lot of friends with the fellow English teachers and even a few helpful students. We've spent the first few days getting everything situated, going to orientation meetings, and sightseeing around Wuhan. I won't begin teaching until Tuesday and I've already got a few ideas about how to make my classes effective and entertaining. I now know which classes I'll be teaching and where they are located, I'll be teaching a few post-graduate classes upper level English and one Freshman English class which will be in the Economics and Management Department. It was a little strange when I learned that I would be selecting the reading material for this class and one professor took me to the public bookstore and told me to pick out a book I'd like and he'd arrange to have all the students buy their own copy... a little different from our style in the U.S.A. but I found a good one which should help the students focus on oral business English. With the 'Where' and 'What' all covered I'm left thinking about the 'How' which seems to be left largely go my discretion, I thought I'd be a little more nervous about starting classes but I feel confident that things will go smoothly and it will be... interesting.

Jacque is doing exceptionally well adapting to life here. I had braced myself for her to undergo much more of a culture shock then she has. She has no problem walking out through the market place on her own and taking care of everyday needs using basic communicative skills. Jacque loves the children. Everywhere she goes she is mentioning how cute the babies and toddlers are and she's learned how to say hi to them and tell their parents how cute they are. People stare at us just about everywhere we go, its something that you come to accept. Its actually pretty funny and Jac and I have a fun time with it as we walk around. I am really glad we've made so many friends here so soon, the other teachers are a lot of fun and we enjoy their company. (I sent an email out to some friends telling more about them and if you'd like to read it just let me know.) Everyone here is very friendly and honest, we feel very safe. In fact, the other day we went out to the street market to find lettuce for our turtle...Franklin. We found some and the street vendor asked for "5" but didn't say a denomination, i figured it was 5 yuan (about 70 cents) which still seemed a little steep but we handed him 5 yuan anyway. This old, skinny, poor market salesman shook his head and explained it was only 5 jiao (a jiao is 1/10th of a yuan) and took that instead. He could have easily taken my 5 yuan and I would've walked away not knowing much of a difference... 70 cents wouldn't hurt me too much, but even the poor street vendor had the honesty to correct me. That is how much of our experience here has been so far.

Yesterday Jacque and I visited the Yellow Crane Tower, one of the four greatest pagodas in China. It was massive and a real site to see. We had a great time and took lots of pictures (I'll try to add some here but getting through the block isn't easy. If I fail check out my Facebook or ask for an email and I'll send you some). We also walked around the most famous backstreets in Wuhan and took a ferry across the Yangzi River to see the sights there. There were lots of public events; rows and rows of men playing Chinese Chess, people singing and dancing, and even teams of people swimming across the Yangzi itself. We had a good time seeing everything we did and we were pretty tired afterwards.

This morning we attended church via our telephone with the branch in Beijing. This was the absolute first time that they've done a teleconferenced session of Sacrament Meeting and it was a huge blessing. The familiarity of the spirit was felt even though we were sitting alone on our bedside listening to the phone. We sang, and heared prayers, and heard testimonies during fast and testimony meeting and I felt the spirit there just as much as I have in any chapel building. It truly was a great blessing, there was period where we didn't know if we'd be able to attend any kind of church during our stay here and so this will be a wonderful experience for us.

I've taken several pictures and made a few short videos and I'll do my best to post some of them here on the blog. If I can't, again check Facebook or email us and I'll try to send you what I have.

We're thinking and praying for you.

On the Edge of Adventure (posted by Rob)

Only five more days now. This next Saturday Jacque and I will be boarding a plane to start our adventure in China. It seems a little surreal now, after repeating our plans numerous times to everyone we meet, explaining the details has made our trip seem more like a story we tell rather than real life, but its getting more and more real everyday.

We are so grateful to our friends and family members for thinking of us during this time before we go. We had such a fun time at the bonfire/variety show that Scott hosted and invited all our friends to. We had such a nice evening at Matt and Betsy's house the weekend before we left Provo as we chatted with friends and shared a delicious meal Betsy had prepared. Grandpa and Grandma Klinzing were gracious enough to let us stay two nights at their home in St. George and we enjoyed their company before heading back down to Corona and its been so fun being home with the family this past week and have enjoyed sharing the home-cooked meals and laughter together. If anything this short time has only left Jacque and I with a heightened sensation of just how lucky we are to have such great friends and family in our lives. We want to thank all of you for the time and concern you've put into our departure and we want you to know that we love you and we will miss you all very deeply.

One thing I've learned in particular while preparing for this trip is Jacque's ability to plan ahead. She took our moving out of Provo into consideration months in advance and due to her diligence we were able to clean out our apartment and fit all of our final belongings into our two little cars for the final trip home. I can't help but think that if was up to me, I would have put it off a little too long and ended up giving appliances and furniture away to anyone who would take them, its due to her planning that we were able to move/sell all of our things in time.

Jacque and I are very excited about beginning our new life in China. Jacque has a great attitude about the move and is ready for anything. Everyone tells me that they wonder if Jacque will encounter a great deal of culture shock and all I have to say in reply is "I'm sure we BOTH will." Although I've lived abroad in Asia before I have never lived in Communist mainland China, I've never lived abroad as a married man, and I've never worked for a living abroad either. There will be new, wonderful, and terrifying varieties of life for both of us I'm sure. However, whatever befalls us we are ready and look forward to the challenge. I can only hope that we will be able to continue posting here at blogspot.com, I'm not exactly sure about the country's policy on censuring this site, but I hope we will be able to keep you all posted. I'm sure we'll find a way.

Again, thank you all for your love and concern and we look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

We love you all.

Rob and Jacque

Onward and Upward (posted by Rob)

I made it! You know that feeling you get while your in school that tells you this scholastic train ride is never going to end and you can never quite catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel? A feeling that no matter how many classes you sit through, tests you sweat through, and semesters you manage to survive, it still feels like graduation is never gonna happen? I know that feeling and now I know what it is like to make it through... it feels wonderful.

Now that we've completed the "Collegiate Undergrad" chapter of life Jacque and I are looking forward to some exciting new opportunities and adventures ahead. Earlier this last semester Jac and I toyed with the idea of spending some time teaching English overseas and we explored some organizations that facilitated doing so. About a month ago, we got a return notification from the Wuhan University of Science and Engineering in China who seemed impressed with my background and after an interview process invited me to come teach in their Foreign Language department. The school provides housing, utilities, and a considerable amount of paid time off to allow for travel. We'd be there for about ten months. Jac and I are really excited about this venture and feel that its coming at a time in our life where we can take time out to explore, see a distant part of the world, and make some really great memories. I don't foresee this expedition in China to yield anything as far as a major career boost, as of now we're just going for the experience of it, but if anything does materialize while we're there we definitely won't be opposed to looking into it.

Aside from teaching at Wuhan University of Science and Engineering (or WUSE) there is also a possibility that I could be taking up a government job as an opportunity has just arisen recently in that field as well. Needless to say, Jacque and I look to the future with much anticipation and are excited about several big events coming up in the next few months including: Betsy (Jacque's younger sister) and Matt's wedding, Donovon's (my younger brother) homecoming from the Peoria, IL Mission, and Nathan's (my youngest brother) departure to the Oaxaca, Mexico Mission. So Jacker and I.... we're just happy, smilin', and looking onward and upward towards the future.

Spring Training and the ACM's (posted by Rob)

BYU doesn't have a spring break, but by golly we took one anyway. Jacque and I hit the road with the rest of the gang to go see spring training in Tempe/Phoenix Arizona. We all piled up into James' 4Runner (including someone in the very back laying on a homemade bed consisting of luggage, blankets, and pillows) and headed out. We stayed at the very nice Xona Resort and when we weren't out on the town spent a good amount of time just relaxing poolside. Watching the game, exploring the shopping centers there, and going out to eat was a blast but most of all it was nice to just hang out with our friends under the warm Arizona sun.

While we were checking in to our room at the Xona, Jacque got a call from a radio station she'd called into just a few days before. The radio host announced that she'd won two all expense paid tickets to stay at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to attend the Academy of Country Music Awards. We thought this was amazing because we'd just won tickets to take a vacation while on vacation! The ACM's were a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of Country Stars up close and even took pictures with the Zac Brown Band. The MGM was amazing and our room was very nice. I joked with Jacque that I never win things like this on my own and she said the same so we decided that it's the combination of the two of us that makes us lucky (kinda how two negatives make a postive.) I started to doubt this for awhile but as we were heading to our seats in the nosebleed section of the award show a woman pulled us aside and said "You two look like a fun young couple... would you like to stand near the stage?" Of course, we said yes and we spent the rest of the show standing basically on top of a side stage where many artists performed throughout the night and we were in a great spot to see the main center stage. During the trip we saw Reba McIntyre, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Zac Brown, Kelly Pickler, George Strait, Julianne Hough, LeAnne Rimes, and a lot of other country stars. We had a blast!