Shapes in Suzhou (sue joe) Suzhou, 5.7 million, Jiangsu Province, known for classical gardens and canals. Last weekend was spent in Suzhoe, a beautiful garden city between Nanjing and Shanghai. We took the fast train and got soft seats, so we were comfortable. You can’t choose first or second class tickets, or business or coach here, just hard seat tickets and soft seat tickets, or hard sleeper, soft sleeper. The train was fun. I love trains! The station was clean and very well organized. It’s a new station in Nanjing with a coffee shop and small acquariums. Your bag goes through security, but I didn’t see anyone looking at a screen so I can’t figure out how the security system works, or if it works. Linell made the arrangements for the train tickets and hotel reservation. ... read more

Here are more photos from the field trip--cows, milk factory, and buddhist temple. I ran into technical difficulties loading these yesterday. Susan... read more

The Pedestrian Mall and Hunan Road After the experience in the fabric store, the Bububu, we walked out past a lot of bikes. Someone had put flyers in all the bike baskets—you know, like the flyers people put on our windshields at home. We walked around the corner and down the street. Hunan Road has big signs, WELCOME TO HUNAN ROAD. All the signs and lights and color make the area very exciting. We walked for a little while, then turned on the pedestrian road. It’s a shopping area with no cars. Each end of the street has a carved arch with stylized lions and other figures. There were bronze statues at the beginning, like the statues in Decatur, GA and downtown Atlanta. These are life size models of old time street vendors. One is blowing ... read more

Let’s go back to Guatemala for a moment My sister, Gailey, who is trained as a Presbyterian minister, led us in our worship every evening while we were in Guatemala on the mission trip. The group in Philadelphia is working on a DVD of our mission trip. Gailey submitted the following daily scriptures and short descriptions. I was very moved by her contributions and want to share it with those who read my Guatemala blog. I’ll get back to China shortly. --------------------- #1 Matthew 6:34 So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. We headed out early in the morning with lots of excitement! Yet we worried: did we remember to pack this or that, would our flights go well, would we have any ... read more

Interesting Calendar Everyone does the same thing at the same time here. The whole country is on Beijing time. There are no time zones. Everyone eats at the same time, for example, at 6:30-7:30 AM everyone eats breakfast; 11:30-12:30 is lunch; and Oct. 1-7 is the holiday. It doesn't matter which days of the week it falls on. Everyone, schools, businesses, government, etc. is on vacation and may be traveling. It's a time to be with your family. Because universities have weekly schedules, the days are adjusted to match the holiday. So, on September 30 which is really a Saturday, I have my Monday classes. I'm on holiday Oct. 1-7. On October 8, which is really a Sunday, I have my Tuesday classes. On October 9, really a Monday, I have my Monday classes. When the ... read more