This & that from Instagram

Right or wrong, we typically do not post a blog until we have a lot to say/show on a topic. As a result, of lot of smaller but still perhaps interesting items never quite make it here to the blog. As social media challenged as we are, we do however also post on Instagram and a lot of our daily China living shows up there (grammaann and pwilson75 if you are interested). This post will be a recap of some of the one-off photos from Instagram.

Jenny has a new roommate for a summer internship. Abby Curran. Niece of Carol and Steve Hansen. Jenny has not met her yet but she just visited us in Xian this weekend.

Small world enough that Abby was, one of the fellows in this group of six BYU MBA students was a cousin of Ann Hedstrom's. He will be living this summer with my cousin Dow Wilson near Stanford while he does an internship. Dow is married to Lynne who is Ann's sister. Aren't we almost all "shirt-tail" relatives to everyone else in the church?

Abby came to church this week and ate luch with us. Fun time!

Ann's office chair broke this week. Paul went out to buy a replacement on Friday. Combination of bus and walking a couple of miles to a street of very small furniture stores. Found one full of chairs. The proprietor spoke absolutely no English. Paul finally negotiated an acceptable price that included delivery to our apartment and carrying it up the stairs. She whistles over a delivery bike and they start loading it while Paul got a pedicab for his transportation and to lead the delivery bike. The proprietor nixes the pedicab and indicates Paul should sit on the back of the delivery bike. What an adventure. Watching him arrive he looked hilarious. Apparently Paul reported the same thing. All the motorcycles he was around either had huge smiles or were laughing. Seems they don't see many westerners riding on the back of a delivery vehicle over here. He was likely the first most of them had seen. Not many westerners in Xi'an period.

Here he is just leaving the furniture store.

He made it! This is the entrance to our apartment.

Our university grounds are so beautiful. We love living on the campus. Out walking last week this rose just begged to be made into a MormonAd so Ann did.

Tree moving in China is not anything like what we have seen in the US.  Size or age is no barrier. We have seen some amazing things as noted below.

These very large trees were dug up, bound, and transported out to our new campus to be put into the landscaping being done at the new library.

Umbrellas are used constatnly in China. With all the walking we do we very often have one with us. It is fun to go to the market and see all the colors and patterns.  Then there are the parasols used only for the sun. They are just as pretty but are tinted black on the insde.

They have to be put somewhere to dry and the hallway outside the classroom works just fine.

Western bathrooms are just not that important in China to anyone but us westerners.  We were told there were not any on our New Campus. Often they are found hidden away behind lock and key and used as storage closets. One day Paul opened a "forbidden door" and found these. We have subsequently found dozens more - all out of comission for storage. Many Chinese, when forced to use one, stand on the edges because sitting is unsanitary.

Often when we go into a store we are followed the entire time we are shopping. I am not sure if it is because we look suspicious or if the employees are bored or if they are just curious. Anyway, it has a way of shortening our shopping! The following pictures give convincing evidence of being followed.

\\






















I think our favorite feature and attraction in Xi'an is the City Wall.  It is flat out the most compelling, impressive and beautiful structure here.  We love it in the daytime and we love it at night. the view from the top is spectacular and we love walking and biking on it. Here are a few pictures from the top as we bkie around it and at night when you are allowed to walk along the top and get close to the guardhouses.  Memorable!!

A very wide wall with great views of the city

Often when we are touring we find people dressing alike. A romantic couple, 2 or more girlfriends, 2 or more men like to do it.