train trip

At the beginning of October, Jon had more than a week off due to the National Day holiday. We decided that it would be a good time to take a trip. It was a good time because Jon did not have classes, but it was not a good time because most other Chinese were also off of work and could travel as well. We had a hard time getting tickets. We did get train tickets to Xi'an. We had "hard sleeper" tickets. That means we did have a beds but they were in an open car. There are 6 beds in each compartment and several compartments in each car. It is not as nice and comfortable as " soft sleeper" but it is not bad. The train to Xi'an from Hangzhou is about 24 hours.

This what the train looked like from my bunk.

What do you do on a train for 24 hours? Well, you sleep some... you eat some meals...you play cards...

You play video games....


You read.... You stare out the window....

The country side on the way to Xi'an is very beautiful! I enjoyed just watching it all go by...

Train travel is one of the ways to really see China. We love traveling by train (it's cheaper than flying too).

Pumpkin

Pumpkin or nan gua is easy to find in China. But what the Chinese call pumpkin we would probably call squash. There is no different name for pumpkin or squash, it is all nan gua. The big one in this picture is not really carvable. We did find a small regular orange pumpkin. A lady was selling them for decorations Most of the ones she was selling, had Chinese characters on them. Unfortunately this one grew too many gross black moldy spots before we could carve it for a jack-o-lantern.

We did however cut up the big "pumpkin" and made a bunch of pumpkin puree.

We baked the pieces in the oven for about an hour (until soft) then we took the peel off and ran it through the blender. This pumpkin yielded at least 6 cups of puree. I have already made 3 batches of pumpkin muffins and one batch of pumpkin cookies. I will need to get another one before Thanksgiving. We love pumpkin!

Since we could not carve pumpkin this Halloween, what did we do?

We carved orange candles! I brought these from the States this year. We "carved" them with tooth picks and then colored the carved spots with black marker (Jon did not color his).


These won't rot or get moldy!

Update: I saw two orange pumpkins at the market today. Where were those 2 weeks ago?!

Rights

Our apartment is on the corner of two pretty busy streets. We hear all sorts of comings and goings. Many times I hear people yelling but when I look out I can't tell if anything unusual is going on. Today was a little different. I heard some yelling and looked out. There were a few guys around a cart on the far side of the street. One guy was on the ground (maybe sitting) and another it looked like, was under a cart. Another guy was yelling at him. He was dragged out from under the cart and they had his hands behind his back. The guy that was sitting was handcuffed too. I guess I missed seeing the actual arrest. Three or four guys put the two handcuffed ones into the back of a silver mini van. Then they took the less cooperative guy out of the van (the one that was under the cart). They brought him to the side walk. They were not gentle with him at all. He was not fighting them but they were pretty mad at him. They slapped him some and I even saw a few kicks thrown in. We watched it some, and then decided to video it. I am not sure why. We did manage to get a few still pictures but you can't really tell what is going on.

The guys doing the slapping and arresting were wearing plain clothes but we think that they were police because they had real handcuffs. Normal citizens do not have handcuffs in China. Eventually some uniformed police came in police cars and took one "criminal" away. They also videoed and took pictures of whatever was inside his cart.

It was really weird . As an American it was disturbing to see the guy getting hit and kicked but he was caught
doing something bad. The criminal justice system here is very different than in the States. There are no Bill or Rights, Miranda Rights, or Innocent until proven guilty. But we really feel safe here. I don't fear for the kids like I sometimes do in the US. There are few repeat bad guys here. Bad criminals (murders, rapists, drug dealers, corrupt government officials) don't get second or third or fourth chances.

We enjoy many rights and privileges as Americans. Sometimes we forget that other countries do not share our views about what rights people should have. Today was a reminder that this is NOT America and this country can be VERY different than home.
This is the cart that was involved some how. There is a box in the back that they opened and took pictures of.

New Snacks

One of the things I love about living in China is all the different foods we get to try. I miss many snacks and foods from the US, but there are some great snacks here.

We ate all our Chinese snacks before we left for the US so we needed to replenish our pantry. I saw these cracker/ cookie things and thought I would give them a try. There were a couple of different varieties. I chose these because I thought they were grape flavor from the picture.



I tried one. They are a little sweet, but those are not grapes on the package. They are green peas! The kids won't even eat these! I admit they are pretty gross. I won't buy this again! Oh well! It is a learning experience.

Public Bathing

Man, it is HOT! It is strange though, no one really knows how hot it is. You see, in China when it gets above a certain temperature ( I think it is 40 degrees C. or 104 F) then people don't have to work because of the heat. But it NEVER gets above 40 degrees. It is amazing how hot that 40 degrees can feel! We are VERY glad that we have air conditioners. However, to go anywhere you have to get out in the heat. It is not the same as in America. In the US, you have to walk in the heat to your overheated car and then blast the AC until you feel better, then when you get out, you have to walk a minute or two and enter an air conditioned building. Here, we have to walk to the bus stop or at least to the gate of the apartment complex to get a taxi. Then the air in the bus or taxi may or may not work. Then we get out in the heat again and walk some more to the store or where ever you are going. The AC here is not as cold as in the US. Also it does not really cool down that much at night here. I think it is because we live in a big city. All the buildings and stuff just hang on to the heat.



Our apartment complex has two swimming pools. We heard that they did not open until 4 in the afternoon, but when Jon and I were out the other morning we saw that the gate was open and there were people swimming. So we decided that we would go swimming after lunch. The kids were really excited.



I smeared them all with sunscreen, we grabbed towels and floaties and were off. When we got to the pool, the gate was closed and locked. But there were people swimming. So a little locked gate didn't slow us down much ( it was only two feet high).



The people swimming were really just three little boys, and when we got closer we realized that the boys were naked as jaybirds!



Their clothes and house keys were strewn about on the steps of the kiddie pool. They were also using the lifesaving rings as their personal floaties. They were having a great time.



After we were there for a little while a couple of guys showed up and then 3 teenage girls. Then one boy about 9 or so yelled something at Jon and he answered. Jon thought he asked us if we paid and then when Jon told him, "no" the kid jumped the gate and started to strip out of his clothes. I wondered if he really asked if Jon was wearing clothes or not....



That kid jumped in naked and started having a conversation with us. He wasn't shy at all, on any level. We only stayed about an hour. The water was really very warm. Then we came home, took showers, and had a long nap! We will go swimming again, soon, but probably in the morning when the pool is really open. Maybe everyone will have their clothes on then.



P.S. Just for the record, all of the Hardins were wearing bathing suits.

MSYC

Hallie went to MSYC for the first time this past summer. She was a little nervous, but she had a great time! She really wants to go back again next year!

This is what 9 year old girls look like after a week of camp!






She really had a GREAT time and I know that she made some great Christian friendships that will continue for the rest of her life.

hair cut

Two years ago, Hallie decided to cut 11 inches off her super long hair and donate it to Locks of Love.

She decided to do it again this summer.

Before....

Then Mrs. Brenda measured her braid just to make sure....

Snip, snip, snip

Ta Dah! She loves her shorter hair too!

And mom is very proud!

Eryn's first study

This is Jane. She is a young single professional girl that used to live very near us. She is super sweet. We only met her two weeks before we went back to the US for the summer. We did manage to study with her a few times. Over the summer she hooked up with the downtown group and really plugged in. We are excited about that.

While she was at our house in June, Eryn got out her picture Bible story book...

She started telling Jane the Bible stories that go with the pictures.

It was super cute, so I just had to take pictures of Eryn's first Bible study!

First Meal in th US

As soon as we booked our plane tickets to the US, we started doing some research. We flew into the the Detroit airport, so I looked online to see the restaurants available at the airport. So what was the first meal we ate in the US?



Taco Bell! And even in Detroit, they had Dr. Pepper! Yum Yum!

This was also the last thing we ate before boarding the plane to come back to China. We really miss Mexican food while we are here.

Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is held in June. It is a strange holiday. It can be fun because there are usually boat races and they are fun to watch. Like most holidays, there is special food. Zongzi is sticky rice that is wrapped in bamboo leaves. The rice is often mixed with different things, like meat, or sometimes fruit or nuts. zongzi has a triangular shape. Jon really likes this food, but it is not my favorite. You can find zongzi all year round, but it is even more popular near Dragon Boat Festival.


Dragon Boat Festival, also called DuanWu remembers a great poet and scholar called Qu Yuan. When he was 37, he drowned himself in a river. The local people searched and searched for him in their boats. (That's where the boats come in). Then they were afraid that the fish would eat his body (ewww) so they threw zongzi in to feed the fish so they would not eat Qu Yuan. I told you it was a strange holiday.

There is a river that runs right in front of our apartment complex, so we went out to watch some of the boats.



See the dragon on the front of the boat?

After the "race" This guy was hot, so he jumped in to cool off. I really don't think I would have jumped in that water!

They let this boy take a ride in the boat. Look at his grin!