Hello to Family and Friends,
Happy Birthday to Connor and Ayden this week.
This week it has become obvious that China is a try mix of the ultra-modern and the traditional.
As you move about the city you can tell that shopping is a mixture of the new and the old. I
like to call it the malls and the stalls. The stalls are the thousands of cubby-hole stalls that are in
the old market areas, and even on some of the modern streets, while the skyscrapers in the new city
have remarkable design that could rival any modern city.
In class students have taught me about some small differences. After our Handshake Lesson,
a student came up to say that a 2-handed handshake was a sign of respect. This was after I had taught them that
it was too personal when meeting someone for the first time. In China it means respect. In Canada it means affection.
Another student said that in China a handshake, just grasping the fingers, is appropriate when shaking the hand
of a woman. I said that in Canada all handshakes should be the same.
Annie, you would be proud of my techno skills. Consider this. I can now plug in my computer, use a thumb drive, project my
power points and use a clicker, and do this on machines that are labelled in Chinese.
Today we went to church. The meetings were held in the Ramada, or the Ra-ma- da- (with the accent on the "da" as they call it here)
and it was a group of about 100-120. To let you know how international it was: the person conducting was Chinese, the branch president
has a British accent because he is from England, the young man sitting behind us was a Samoan, one sermon was given by an African-American man from Illinois, and we spoke with a man from Spain who had been introduced to the church 7 years ago after they had moved to
Guangzhou. It was good to once again have the security and strength of a church unit.
Don is still getting drenched with the shower faucet in the middle of the night.
We are wondering when he will learn to avoid the downpour.
Good bye for now,
MOM/Kathy
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