The Day of 10,000 Saints

We have now experienced our first American holiday here in China, Halloween! The school in which I, Jennifer, teach English, had a Halloween party. The week previous we  passed out flyers at some primary schools to invite new students to join us for this fun American celebration. Passing out the flyers seemed to bring their reward as about 50 children came to celebrate with us. I mean, who is going to pass on a Halloween party for only 20 RMB with real Americans!

We went early to help decorate and were given masks that we could wear. However, shortly before the party started we were told that we shouldn't wear the masks so that people could see that we were indeed American. This way there was no doubt at all. 

We decided to have rotations for the party to allow the kids to do several activities in a slightly more organized way. There were four classes and it ended up being a lot of fun. One of the classes was a mix of musical chairs and the human knot game. One of our friends Laurel and her husband decorated oranges as pumpkins and decorated the classroom. The games were new to the kids, but enjoyed by all. 

Another room had Halloween Twister. Instead of the color circles there were werewolves, cats, ghosts, and pumpkins. We didn't get to see this one in action, but the idea sounded really clever. The class that Daniel and I were in charge of was mask making. It was the only class in which the kids made something so it was a little crazy. Depending on the age groups we had they all wanted to make kitten masks or masks that allowed them to draw their own unique design. Some of the masks were rather good! But what all the groups had in common is that they left the room an utter mess, with broken crayons and soda spills.

The last class was BINGO. They played picture BINGO and won ghost suckers that we had made. This is always a classic in school Halloween parties and had to be included in our school Halloween party here in China. Kids of all ages find this to be fun and enjoyable. 

Before we sent the kids home we showed an American movie. The original plan was to show an American classic, "The Adams Family". This proved to not be the greatest idea, as the movie did not have any Chinese subtitles and did not feature much dialogue. After a boy expressed that the movie was scaring him, we dialed down the intensity and starting showing "Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". Thus turned out be much better! The older group of children continued to watch "The Adams Family". The movies were enjoyed, but what was enjoyed even more was the popcorn they had as a treat. The teachers simply handed the kids bags of popcorn and they went to town. By the time the movie was over there was some serious damage. We tried to clean up a little before we left, but as in China, we were told not to clean up and that the cleaning lady would take care of it in the morning. I can attest that the next day I went into work and she had cleaned up all the popcorn. But I'm glad that I wasn't there when the cleaning lady saw the mess.

Before heading home we decided to stop for dinner, as we hadn't eaten any real food yet. We stopped at Paris Baguette where they serve pizza slices and other yummy treats. Earlier some of the parents had given their kids some pizza and I inquired where they bought it. The parents took this question to mean "Give me some pizza!" and were eager to give the pizza that their children wanted so badly to us. But we were able to ward them off. We enjoyed our own meal at Paris Baguette greatly and had a very fun time with friends. 

Laurel & Paul Niedfeldt, Jennifer & Daniel Evans, Trevor & Katie Heder
Our great husbands came and helped with our Halloween Party. Thanks for the help!

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Flagship also had a Halloween party the next day, so our Halloween wasn't quite over yet. We didn't stay for very long, but had a good time chatting with fellow students. There was a bucket full of water set up for "bobbing for apples" but who really went to town on it were not the students, but rather two of our Flagship babies, Peter and Clara. Their water party got kind of wild, so the water had to be removed. 

Another highlight was Shura, a fellow student, playing a piece on the Guzheng, a classic Chinese instrument. This little performance proved to be a great lead up to the next day's wonderful cultural enjoyment. 

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Happy Halloween!

Pulling Back the Curtains on a Chinese Research Lab

As a participant in the Flagship program, I am required to have a Chinese native language tutor. These tutors are usually assigned to fit the flagship student's field of study or interest and future career. In the past, I have had students majoring in the sciences as tutors, but no medical students, as BYU lacks a medical school. But here in the southern capital I am in luck! My tutor, named Chen Liang (the same Chinese last name as I have), is a 9th year medical student at Nanjing, so he is just getting started! (This is not exactly true, but close enough).

Chen Liang works at the big, multiple thousand bed Gulou Hospital close to campus, a hospital building that looks somewhat like a modern art museum because of the unusual design. Unusual for hospitals anyway. He is studying fetal development at the moment and more specifically, effects of malnutrition of the mother on the offspring. To accomplish this task he does what anyone would do: starve pregnant mother rats and see if their kids are normal or not. This may sound unpleasant, and it is. The rats do not like it and some develop diabetes and die. But that is how science works, and I really mean that, no sarcasm here. Currently Chen Liang is in the stage of examining the rat offspring, both males and females and looking for how their mother's hunger affected them.

So one day I, under the guidance of another student participating in the research, ventured outside of the gates of Nanjing University and made my way to the lab. Chen Liang usually researches in the hospital, but for this day he needed an ultrasound machine that can be used on rats and other smaller animals. There are only two of these rare and expensive machines in Nanjing, and since Gulou Hospital has seen a great decrease in rodent patients over the last decade, this year's budget did not allow for one of these machines. But don't ferret..err... fret, there is another place in Nanjing that specializes in researching animals, and that is where this machine is located, and that is where we went! (Sorry for the pun. Speaking of puns, what do you call a soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray? A seasoned veteran!)

***Liquid Nitrogen for the Lab***

***

 After ringing the bell, Chen Liang greeted us wearing an authoritative white coat and let us into the facility. The inside air carried a strong animalistic scent, which undoubtedly came from the rooms filled with rat cages, including white and red-eyed inhabitants.
We made it to the rat imaging department, where I beheld a rat MRI machine, a rat CT machine, a rat EKG machine and, of course, a rat ultrasound machine. The ultrasound machine had its own person working the machine, employed from the research center. My tutor was there to oversee the experiment and to shave the rats. Ultrasounds have to be done on the skin, of course. He used a small blade held with some medical tweezer-like scissors (I will learn the real name of those eventually) and some sort of shaving cream. Carefully and only slightly injuring the rats, he shaved their chests. In order to do that, he had to sedate the rats first. This he did with a drug cocktail he mixed himself, a concoction of a muscle relaxant and a general anesthetic. He would grab the protesting rat, stuff its head into a glove to guard against bites and give it a shot right in the abdomen, disregarding the disproving squeals. As a note, the male rats were much more wimpy than the females. After just a little bit, they would be just as lifeless as the aforementioned glove and could be shaved and examined. The actual ultrasound was done similar to human ultrasounds, with the exception that the patient was totally knocked out and his four limbs taped to the table. But they used gel, like with humans!
This was all that Chen Liang was going to do today. After all the rats are examined, the last step would be to kill them and look into their tissue for other abnormalities.



I did not stay for that.

Blood and Bricks

Here we are again, sharing some more pictures from our adventures in the Far East. We are actually quite lucky to have this experience in Nanjing, the southern capital. As I have probably said before, at least I should have, Nanjing was at times, in total about 10 times, the capitol of China, where the Emperor and his, on average, 200 concubines lived. As a result, there are a plethora of old buildings in Nanjing. Sadly what is left is only a shadow of its previous glory, as basically anything of value in China was destroyed during the cultural revolution, one of General Mao's most brilliant failures. But nonetheless, there are some cool, and old, things to see.
The first few pictures are from the Chaotian palace, which is now the Nanjing Municipal Museum. Its history is fairly straightforward, it served as a school and confucian academy before its destruction during the Taiping Rebellion. Now, rebuilt, it serves as a museum with plenty of cultural relics in exhibition. But for many visitors, the highlight of the trip involved two of the babies of our Flagship group, Peter and Marshall. At the tender age of about 9-10 months, these two are real Chinese people magnets, real celebrities. Crowds of people taking pictures and following us like ravenous paparazzi is a common occurrence. And today they were in luck: Marshall and Peter, sitting in a stroller, exchanged pacifiers, as a gesture of good will and mutual support. From the mouth of babes, everyone learned a valuable lesson about sharing what you have, something that seems to be lost in China's own brand of communism.

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After the palace, we moved on to the Nanjing City southern gate, which has now been renamed to "The Gate of China". An ambitious name, one might think, but a name well earned! This section of the city wall and gate is very complex and has stood as it is for over 600 years. Wikipedia even goes as far as to say that it is the most complex city gate structure in the world. As there are still a few gates that Jenn and I have not seen, I cannot confirm that, but I can add my testimony that it is an impressive gate!

It has a complex of multiple gates, that all serve to strengthen its defensive properties. The walls are thick and old! They also come with a built in proof of their age: Each brick has Chinese characters inscribed in it, and if it does not, it is not one of the originals. Here is a proposed reason for the longevity of the city wall: Intense quality control. Quality control was something of ultimate importance to the wall builders, and rightly so, as the wall was the main defense against enemies. When a shipment of bricks would arrive at the construction site, the contractor would throw a brick on the ground. If it broke, the shipment was sent back to the supplier with the mandate to try again. If the problem of breaking bricks would persist, the contractor would make sure to not do any more business with those guys. And to really make sure that these irresponsible brick makers would no longer pollute the brick market with second rate bricks, everyone at the brick plant would be executed. With such a high stress work environment, only adrenaline junkies worked at brick plants, I am sure!

At the end of the day, this wall, built with the blood of countless Chinese peasant workers, stood the test of time and is a magnificent sight! And a site! Here I go again...