Prayer requests

The Buddhist temple we visited yesterday with Professor Ma and his wife Xiao is a functioning worship community, not a museum. Such temples are for veneration of the Buddha; but in addition to shrines, there are gardens and walkways, so the area is more like a park than a house of worship.

Worshippers make prayer requests by wrapping red ribbons around a particular tree as this woman is doing (see below).

Water Sports















My current rock climbing skills in no way equal those of young Andy Ma, who served as our tour guide in Bai Springs Park in Jinan (above).
However, I was able to climb near enough the springs to immerse my hands in their waters, which are supposed to possess special powers.
At least the water was cool-- it was a very hot day.. Joe and I engaged (rather indecorously) in a brief water fight.

Chance Companions

The group that was marooned at the zebra and Christmas restaurant became really tight over the hours we were consigned there. None of them spoke English, so it was an occasion to practice my minimal Chinese. Despite the language barrier, we found it possible to communicate. We had such a good time together, that after supper, we all exchanged contact information.either by offering our business cards or by inserting phone numbers in our cell phones.

Passage of Time

We have a group of friends here in China whom we see only once a year but frequently instant message or email..When we get together, it makes me very aware of the passage of time.















In 2006, when I first arrived in Nanjing, Carl and Jenny's daughter Doreen had not been born (seen above with Carl); Bonnie's daughter Miranda was just finishing elementary school. Now, she has several years of high school under her belt and tells me she wants to study at ETSU. (Miranda is seen with her mother below). Sandy (pictured with me below) was not yet married in 2006. She too has a child now.





























Yesterday, our group had a reunion.at Carl Mather's favorite Pujabi restaurant on Lion Bridge Road in Nanjing. In 2006, we put together a teacher training program for the Nanjing Department of Education. It was very successful, and our group has remained close.

Lion Bridge Road is a "walking street" i.e., no cars are allowed. Joe and I have had very good times here, strolling around and poking into the shops. There are often interesting commercial displays, such as the one of the lion below, pictured with Joe.

Marooned among the plastic zebra.

Our 1:30 flight for Jinan was cancelled, and the one they rebooked us on doesn't take off 'til 11:00 this evening. Rather than make us wait at the airport, Shandong Airlines bussed us to an out of the way hotel where could lunch on beef bones with rice and tomatoes, pork nuggets, and egg drop soup. All this is free of charge and way more than American airlines do for their stranded passengers.















The place is clean, well-equipped, and weird. The lobby (pictured above) is done up with Christmas trees, red lanterns, and plastic elephants, There's a huge lily pond in the courtyard, stocked with obese gold fish and fake water fowl. (below) The crepe myrtle trees are well-tended, but the nearby pavillions are rusting out, though the plastic zebras it shelters do not appear to have suffered any ill effects.

Any Relation?

The Gann family, into which I am married, has organized an historical society celebrating the roots of people named Gann. They publish a quarterly newsletter and hold annual reunions. Hundreds of years ago, the family migrated from the Franco-German Palitinate. Most Ganns live in the American South and Southwest, and supposedly, we're all related to each other by blood or marriage. Some Ganns are obsessed with working out geneologies and will lend a hand to Ganns with similar interests. There's even a Gann family cook book.

Yesterday, we visited the Nanjing Museum of Folklore housed in an ancient mansion which, until modern times, belonged to a family named 甘, which in Chinese is pronounce Gan. Do you suppose...? Maybe some of these Gans would like to attend a reunion, or help revise the cook book which is heavy on fried chicken, cream pies and grits.

Photos taken at the Gan family mansion, AKA The Nanjing Museum of Folklore