Good day!

GLORY HALLELUJAH!! The Chinese gods smiled on us today!!


John & I went to the campus canteen for lunch and as luck would have it we spotted two women sitting at a table for four.

I asked them if they could speak English to which they enthusiastically replied that "YES" they could; and they accepted our request to join them for lunch. Qin Dongxin teaches English Literature at Shandong University and attended an Emily Dickinson conference this past summer in Ohio. Her mother (who lives with her) is presently visiting family living in Springfield, Massachusetts and will return to Jinan in mid-October.  June (her English name) is a graduate student who is from Jinan, China. :)) 

We had a marvelous time getting to know them and as we were talking I pulled out a map of various tourist sites in & around Jinan. They were both very well acquainted with the map, the bus routes, the tourist sites and the train routes & schedules. 

We all struck gold today: they are thrilled to get to be our tour guides and translators and we are thrilled to have their help getting to know and see more of this ancient and incredible city that now houses 6 million people. 

John enjoys accompanying me to my classes. He helps me tons with the technology involved in running PowerPoint through the computer console and gets ideas watching me teach. Today he took some pics of my sophomore English Writing class and I took a few photos at lunch.   

'Twas a new day in China for the Kuzmiches. :-) 

Missive from Roslyn

First...I want to thank my lovely daughter for starting this blog at my husband's request and maintaining it for us during the difficult first weeks of our China odyssey. But now it is time for the baton to be passed to us to share our experiences first hand.


Thank you, Reva.

I have never blogged before...don't do Facebook and am singing a slow diminuendo to most emails. Nevertheless, since my good husband loves to take pictures I shall endeavor to caption them and share pithy observations of our teaching adventure in China.

Along with blogging for the first time, another first is Power Point. Never had the equipment to teach with it before now. And wouldn't you know ... I GET to teach with it now. As if my learning curve isn't steep enough.
Here's something remarkable:  not one ounce of preparation or thought needs to be given to classroom management in our classes. This makes me work even harder to produce the best possible lessons I can to supply their ravaging hunger for knowledge. They don't just work hard; they work smart. You can't help but fall in love with them. They're just so much fun to teach!

We both teach on the northern-most old campus of Shandong University. They assigned us each to teach 3 written and 2 oral English classes. Written English requires hours of preparation and even more homework, reading and assessing students' written work. All freshmen must participate in mandatory military training for the first 3 weeks of school. And because our assigned oral English classes are entirely freshmen, we won't start teaching them until Sept.24th.

A few observations from the peanut gallery

I get to talk to my Mom every morning and hear the progression she and Dad are making into settling into their routine and life in general in China.  And then there's the challenge of developing a curriculum in a subject neither of them have ever taught in - and despite being told their students would be the most basic of English speakers, they discovered students in their classes had already read Gone With the Wind and the Harry Potter books!  Back to work on those syllabi!  Dad tends to lean on his knowledge of technology more, with lots of PowerPoint and web examples, but that gets complicated on a day like yesterday when Dad walked into class and found some facility workers who had just REMOVED the electricity wiring from the room!!

They've had things slightly lighter at the start of classes, because they haven't had to teach any freshman level courses yet, because freshman have required military training and no academic classes the first two weeks.  They'll begin teaching those next week.


Also, here are some random things that they've observed since their arrival in China: 

First, it is NOT a handicapped-accessible country:

 Between their limited menu and the massive amount of walking they are doing, they don't present too much of a problem for our fair heroes, but Mom estimates it would cost a at least billion dollars for China to become handicap compliant.

Secondly, they are well-seasoned world travelers and have come to a realization about language and the countries they've visited.  Of the many, they've only been to 3 countries that were so large that they have no driving need to speak a language other than their own: America, Brazil, China. However, people living in the countries of Europe are often mullti-lingual, speaking at least 3 to 7 languages so they can interact with all their neighbors.  Mom attributes this to their geographic situation putting them practically in each other's back yard, whereas the other 3 are large enough to get by on just one.

Also, they've come to not pray for missionaries the same old way anymore, now that they know more nearly what they are experiencing in the MTC and in the mission field.  The weight of being a beacon and putting your boots to the ground hits a lot closer to their hearts than it did before.

Last week one of Mom's students asked her, "Why do you come to China to teach? Our elderly people just stay home and relax or take care of grandchildren."

Funny, I had the same question!  Her answer though, spoke volumes about who John and Roslyn Kuzmich truly are:

"'Where more is given, more is expected.' If we in American have been blessed [Chinese: lucky] to have good health, an education and a comfortable (not rich) bank account, then we fee it is only right that we SHARE our resources/blessings with others who can use our help."

And that, folks, is the heart of this Chinese adventure.

Figuring out the food thang in China

A GOOD MORNING from Roslyn:

I discovered the steaming feature of the common rice cooker, which works similar to a crock pot.  I thank my brother-in-law, Allen, for this nifty culinary trick.  So, Monday's dinner was potatoes, beans, carrots steamed together and served with watermelon. The Polish Papa loved his potatoes again.  Tuesday night I steamed some cabbage, carrots, beans and served with sweet potato and Chinese pork dumplings (because I finally figured out how to use the gas burner to boil water w/o gassing myself to death - it makes me eyes burn)...served with watermelon.

Deeelicious, if I do say so, myself.


'Twas a bit disconcerting to watch the gas meter move, though. Like paying cash. Hmm. Won't be boiling much water.  Pretty frugal I am, it would appear. Yuan go pretty fast and we don't get that many of them in our paycheck. We had to pay 800 yuan (more my paycheck) just for the privilege of taking up residency hereabouts for a year. That, and waiting 7 hours plus 6 taxi cab rides to get the precious residency permit. 
But dinner was memorable. I think I might be getting a handle on cooking here. Next food adventure is trying out the campus Canteen.


Bon appetite, China!

Jinan traffic

From John:  Here are some examples of how crowded things can get here in Jinan with people, cars, bikes and buses.  People are patient with incredibly high traffic of stop and go, and to my knowledge, there's no road rage!  Also, merchants are on the streets cooking up a storm to sell food during their 5 p.m. rush making it even more crowded, all the while people in the background are flying their kites miles into the sky.

Another packed bus!

PS from Reva - I'll just add that Dad grew up near New York City, so he KNOWS traffic!

A Sunday letter from Mom

Dear Family,

We gathered at a twig of the virtual CCID  [Central China __?__ District]. There were 9 of us who met at the Han Lin Hotel on the south side of Jinan. Man-o-man is this one BIG city; and CRRROWDED. With all the people crossing streets and bicycles, mopeds, cars (really nice ones), and oddles of buses it is surprising that we have not seen any accidents anywhere so far.
Lots of horn honking...but not out of anger or frustration; just plenty of warning to get outta da way.

It takes us about an hour front door to door to get to church. Came home in a down pouring rain. Unlike Colorado where is pours for 10 mins. then rains for an hour, it rains hard & steady here alllll for hours & hours. But nothing stops the crowds of shoppers, though. Pretty easy-going, assertive sort of people who are generally patient and respectful of those around them.
Serious respect for the elderly, hearabouts.

Church is 2 hours long and the second hour changes focus from week to week. Today was R.S. Next week with be Gospel Doctrine and then Priesthood meeting the following week, followed by Gospel Doctrine the 4th week. We'll be having potluck dinners afterward starting next week. I'm bring in a dozen meat pies I found at a new eatery yesterday. Quick 'n easy plus a culinary adventure. That should satisfy the luck pot.

Did you know that it is possible that the 3 Kings (Wise Men) came from China? See BofM footnote reference.

Thank you for your prayers. We feel their love and strength.

HAPPY SABBATH.
m & pb

Exploring a Jinan outdoor market

From John:  Unbelievable outdoor market to say the very least covering many, many acres and buildings!  Huge is an understatement.  And what produce.  You must see to believe.  And the vegetables and fruits are Darwin in size.  We also visited the largest tea center in Jinan with 7 stories of tea, tea furniture and even freezers to keep the tea fresh.