Connecting Mandarin and English,
          Chinese and American,
                    people with people

We're set - the tickets are purchased
(June 20, 2008) (return to Homepage)
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      This day may be a sample of late summer and early fall in Nanhang. We're just outside of Yosemite Park in California and the temperatures are 70 at 7:30AM and forecasted to reach 100. First-hand advice suggests to us that temperatures and humidities will be similar. Advice about later in the term tells us that we should take layers, including for in the apartment. Because the weather is typically warm to hot in Nanchang, building are built with central heating.
      When we get back to Dallas in a couple days we expect that all the papers for our visas will be waiting for us. Emails have told us that all the papers have been approved by the five or so departments and agencies. We bought the tickets and will be leaving Oregon early on August 25 as expected, and arriving in China August 26 or 27 after supper. Our return tickets are for December 29 arriving in America just a couple hours after we leave China. The trick will be getting from the international airport to the domestice airport in Shanghai in the allocated four hour layover.

A note about the Chinese flag: The Chinese culture is very old; about 5000 years old, but the country as we know it today is very young. The modern China was formed in 1949 at which time the current flag was adopted. The red is for the blood shed to create the new country the spirit of the revolution. The yellow stars represent the glorious history of China and the unity of its people. Before 1949 the flag was yellow with a blue dragon. This was the flag of the Qing (pronounced ching) Dynasty.

     Our trip with Wiewei and her mother, Yiqi, was grand and we continue to learn about the country and share discoveries of each other's languages. Nature, flowers and animals, seem to Yiqi's favorites.