Finally Married

Here is the story. We were asked a few weeks ago if we would go and do a wedding ceremony on the beach with some other couples. We said we would so Halladays and Stevens (who had both done it before) and we were taken down to some buildings by the beach (in the area with the German architecture) and were trained how our part of the "show" would go. There were about 20 couples and all of the rest were Chinese. We were the last "act" of the show and we marched on to the performance area to the wedding march (with a Chinese touch). There were many photographers from the newspapers and press there snapping our pictures. They turned on some other music and we did a little dance in a circle where we all joined hands and then went in the circle and back out again a few times and then circled again and back to out places. At the end we were told to turn around and the officials at the tables gave us our marriage certificates. I'm not sure what it was all about but I felt very important in China today.

We weren't told that the wedding day was today until about Thursday so thank goodness we had no other plans. I'm not sure why the American teachers at Qingdao University were chosen as the foreign representatives. The teachers at Ocean University weren't even invited. I would think that there would be other foreign representatives in town and even others at our university but I guess they can count on the BYU people to really be married. ;)

What I planned to share this week is the building in Qingdao. I haven't seen any building in greater Qingdao that isn't made of cement. I included a picture that I took through my bedroom window on a foggy/smoggy day but you can see through the windows of a building that still seems to be in the building stage. We have watched one come up across the street from us. They put up frames and scaffold and then the huge cranes pour cement into the slots. The building looks somewhat like a patchwork quilt with uneven patches of cement in different stages of drying. When it it dry they grind it smooth so that you don't see the patches. There are so many huge cranes in Qingdao that we jokingly call them the national bird. Because the town is 7 million and growing there is continual building and everything is up. The one across the street is 13 stories. As I was walking home from class the other day I noticed that they are now painting the building and it looks quite a lot like a stucco building at home. Every doorway and window opening has to be the correct size for the doors and windows (that would be a real challenge for the builders we have dealt with in Utah). There must be conduit poured into the cement for the electric but all plumbing is external. It is lovely and rusted in our apartment. It has really helped me to believe the stories we got while we were building where they said that all of our cement was being shipped to China.


As far as our cement building goes, the floors and walls are cold and there are cracks around the windows and doors. (They could use some sealing materials-- want to start a business here?) We put slippers on even to go to the bathroom at night because the floor is so cold that you don't get your feet warm again. It isn't winter weather here yet. Thank goodness we brought thermals. Our classrooms have no heat but we do have steam heat here once they turn it on in November. What an interesting experience.


Love, Mom