CCP: Classes, Church, and Packing (Nothing Political :P )

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Hello from Xi’an! It’s been a little more than a week since we last posted; c’est à dire that it’s time to write again! To open, I want to make something clear. There’s plenty to complain about in China (gray skies, dangerous crosswalks, etc.) but I love living here. It just feels right and I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now. It’s an adventure! Constantadventure, haha. I’ll fill in on a few happenings in the past week, which may or may not be in chronological order. We’ll see.

First, Sundays. Our Sunday in Beijing was delightful; our first Sunday in Xi’an, not so much. We knew the meetings were held on another university campus ad we made a plan to take a bus to a well-known landmark where we could take the metro to the university, at which point we would pull out the directions we’d received from the previous branch president (in Chinese) and ask for help in locating our destination. Simple, right? Well…

We asked several people which bus to take and even confirmed their suggestion online but somehow things went awry. The campus we’re looking for is in the southern part of the city, the landmark/metro stop is in the center, and our bus took us to the northern section. Finding another bus that would actually take us to the metro took maybe 30 or 40 minutes even though we were at a central bus station. Thankfully, lots of kind people helped us out. At last we made it to the subway. That part of the plan went smoothly, and we were even able to locate the campus without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, upon arrival we realized our Chinese directions we for a taxi driver to get to the university. Period. There were vague indications of what building, but nothing about a floor or room or anything. To make a long story short, we wandered all over the campus for hours, even passing down the hall where sacrament meeting was taking place but only checking the rooms to either side of it (it had no windows and one door was locked). A woman had told us there were Americans around there, but said they were busy and didn’t tell us what room. When we looked for her again, she had disappeared, and her colleagues had no idea what we were talking about. We eventually wandered back there and caught ahold of someone in a white shirt and tie (funny; he was actually my zone leader in the MTC and was just visiting Xi’an with his family!) who showed us the way. We only got about the last half hour of Church, but we made it. With some directions from members, making it home was straightforward but it still took about an hour.

On the other hand, the branch members are fantastic. There’s 12 or 13 of us in all, mostly older couples who are here teaching English through BYU’s Kennedy Center. We had dinner with a few of them that night, and they are all so kind. This Sunday was a night and day experience. It still took us longer to get there than expected due to construction and rain, but we made it during the opening hymn. Good thing, too- we were assigned to speak! Our talks were about submitting to the will of the Lord in all things. Everything went well! Kaylee did a great job! She’s a living example of it, after all…

Thursday was definitely the biggest day of the week though. We started classes at 8:20 am, finished at noon, thought we had classes again at 2 pm but didn’t (that starts this week), found out that we got to move apartments and moved out within the hour. Thankfully we don’t have much stuff! Kaylee and I both laughed; coming to China was probably one of the best packing jobs I’ve ever done- everything was organized, clean, just underweight, etc. Conversely, moving apartments had to be one of the worst packing jobs ever, haha. That’s ok- we moved up two floors and down the hall, so multiple trips were easy. At least, until the hotel pulled a China on us and our previous room card stopped working halfway through the move (btw, our new room card didn’t work at first either… and in fact, the previous one also didn’t work right when we got it, so I guess it’s to be expected). Still, it was all in all quite easy and painless. The new apartment is way nicer than the other one. It looks a lot newer, and we suspect that it recently had work done on it… mostly because it was still full of construction dust. It took a lot of cleaning but at long last we felt settled in and now we’re quite comfortable. This is actually more of an apartment- we have a bathroom, bedroom, living room space with a couch, desk, and bookshelf, and a room with the potential to be a kitchen should it ever be furnished with all the things a kitchen needs (right now we have some cabinets and a sink). The branch members have offered us everything though; it seems there’s quite a treasure trove that has accumulated from people who left things behind. We can even get a free little fridge if we want. They’re so kind!

Lastly, I’ll give the rundown on our classes. Monday through Friday we have class from 8:20 am to 12 pm, and Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays we have afternoon classes from 2 to 4. Our main classes are speaking, listening, and a comprehensive course. Once a week we have each of the following: reading, writing, calligraphy, and Chinese painting. Right now Kaylee and I are in the same level; we figure it’s easier to work together if we’re studying the same things. The classes are quite international; sometimes there’s another American with us, but the vast majority are Korean, Japanese, and Kazakhstani, with a few Belgians and a Ukrainian. The school’s international student population is a lot smaller than normal, so that’s about it! Our class has between 10 and 15 students (this week students are allowed to hop levels to try and find the class they think most fitting, so numbers fluctuate).

We spend most of our free time studying; there’s a lot to prepare! Although next week there’s an opening social of sorts for the international students and, having learned that we sing, the office really wants us to perform. We’ve kind of been press-ganged into strange practices and finding music. It’s hilarious, but I’ll write more about it next time J Today is only the 2^nd day of it, and we’ll go there in two hours, so I can’t report yet. Stay tuned!

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Photos

Xi'an City Wall
We spent an evening walking around the wall that encompasses the city center. It's the only complete city wall left in China, hundreds of years old, 9 miles long...

Water Calligraphy
Just a guy in the park practicing his characters with water and a brush...

Temple of the City God
We found this little temple while wandering around. There's so much cool stuff hidden all over the place!

The Wall
We've now seen the two best walls China has to offer.

Night Lights
It gets lit up at night :)

The View
This is almost the view from our new apartment. You just have to step out onto the balcony right outside our door.