Return to Jinan

We returned to Jinan late Monday night, Feb. 10th.  Our personal driver, Mr. Zhang, was waiting for us at the airport.  There was no traffic so we "flew" home, anxiously looking forward to sleeping in our own bed for a change.  When we got to our apartment, we found that our outside gate door was locked.  We had left it unlocked three weeks ago.  Fortunately, we had taken the one key we had for that door with us.  If we hadn't done that we would have frozen to death trying to find someone to let us in.  (It was past midnight).  Once inside, Nancy noticed right off a putrid smell.  We quickly determined that someone had come into our apartment and unplugged every electrical device that was attached to the wall, including our refrigerator!!!  We had to throw away everything.  Added up, the amount was about $100 US.  We were quite upset.  We were locked out of our apartment and it smelled like someone had died in there 2 weeks ago.  It took 24-36 hours of cleaning and recleaning to get the stench out of the refrigerator.  It is much better now, but Nancy swears that she can still smell it.

The first few days back were spent catching up on wash etc.  We also had to reregister at the police station.  (China security policy requires you report in any time you leave the country).  A fellow foreign teacher, Ben Hammer, helped us do that.  Ben is a professor at Shandong University.  He is married to a gal who was born and raised in Jinan.  They have two boys.  Ben's mom and sister actually live in Banks, Oregon.

Friday was Valentine's Day.  The Chinese also celebrate this holiday giving flowers and candy to their "sweethearts."  Many girls from our classes were "bummed" about NOT having a boyfriend for Valentine's Day.  The 14th is also very close to another holiday called the Chinese Lantern Festival which is February 15th.

"The fifteenth day is the first full moon of the lunar solar year. According to Taoist tradition, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Shàngyuán, corresponds to the "Official of Heaven," who enjoys bright and joyful objects, so there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve puzzles on lanterns, eat glutinous rice balls named after the festival, and enjoy a family reunion." (Wiki)  The Chinese combine the two celebrations.   It is the end of the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year/Winter vacation.  We have been witness to continual fireworks for the last two weeks.  (At all hours)

Displays like this elephant are also considered "lanterns."  This one was located at an up-scale mall called Wanda Plaza.

Also at Wanda Plaza

 

At the plaza, Valentine's night, we took this

 picture of a "kissing contest" in progress. 

 

On Saturday, the 15th, one of our Chinese friends took us to this display of lanterns not too far from our apartment.  The displays lined both sides of the street and were sponsored by various governmental and municipal entities.  It was a little like floats in the Rose Parade built by different organizations.  One had the head of a cabbage as a lantern because that province grew many veggies.

This is a picture of Nancy and Mary, our friend from the International Office at SDU.  Mary was working for Shandong University when Elder Nelson, now an LDS leader, taught at the SDU medical school many years ago.  She knows him personally and even spent time with him in SLC.  Elder Nelson was the contact person who instigated the BYU China Teacher's Program over twenty years ago.

 

While wandering around the Lantern displays, we saw a vendor with pineapples.  It reminded us of the story we heard in Vietnam on our recent trip.  We had noticed that pineapples tend to be carved or have all the eyes "dug out" before being served.  Our Vietnamese tour guide related the story about  how the pineapple got eyes.  The internet indicates that there are various versions of this story in many Asian countries.  The following is information from Wiki....The legend says that a young girl (Pina) was very smart, but she did not have much common sense and was spoiled by her mom.  Her mother was ill and requested the young girl make some rice porridge.  The girl was banging pots in the kitchen and couldn't seem to be successful.  The mom was frustrated and complained that the girl needed "a thousand eyes" to complete the task. The mom didn't hear any more noise from the kitchen and couldn't locate her daughter.  The neighbors helped her recover from her illness, but the daughter was still missing.  One sunny day Pina's mom was cleaning the backyard and saw a strange yellow fruit, about as large as the head of a child, that had sprung up from the ground.  The spiny yellow fruit had a thousand black eyes.  The mom realized it was Pina!  However, there was nothing to be done.  The eyes could not see and could not cry any tears.  The mom decided to honor her daughter by planting the seeds of the fruit.  At harvest time she gave away the fruit and in an unusual way Pina shared her generosity with others.