Hello Mr. Famous Dog

Famous Dog Park (aka world's cleanest duck pond)

Our training center is located in what I assume are new parts of La Quinta. We are surrounded by desert mountains and palm trees. And if we take a walk to the park down the block, we meet famous dogs. M'Lynn met two famous dogs while on a walk this evening. While feeding the ducks with Kanyon, a black lab came over and gobbled up the bread meant for the ducks. Turns out the dog had been in some movies, but who knows which one. (Plus, I think everyone, including all dogs, in LA have been in some movie at some time.)

Later on the same walk, a boxer dog (not famous) comes up to Kanyon's stroller and snatched a little stuffed dog right out of the stroller. The boxer, in typical boxer style, took off running knowing what Kanyon considered the most important thing and turned it into a game. Other dogs watched the boxer, saw him running, and joined in the game of chase offering little help to retreive the stuffed dog. Finally the little stuffed dog was returned covered in slobber.


Davita, our former teammate from China

During one of the few breaks, our teammate from China come to visit us and see Kanyon for the first time. She is now returning to work in the states so we won't get to visit her in China.


Dinner with friends

We completed the last day of classes in TEFL training today. All that remains now are one 10 minute practice lesson and a semester's worth of observations. At the end of 4 months, I receive the TEFL certificate. As we come to the end of our time here in CA, we realize how deep our friendships here have become.

12:2 Time September 2008

Stepping Out

I can hardly believe we’ve already been at training for over a week. We’ve settled into the hotel room in La Quinta, California where we’ll be living until September 23. Just in case you’re wondering, we’re not actually staying at a La Quinta in La Quinta. It’s the Embassy Suites. We hear they got a really good deal for our group to stay here as it’s not exactly peak season since the daily weather reports are varying versions of “Abundant Sunshine. Currently 109 degrees.” Word to the wise: don’t leave the hotel if at all possible!


Before stepping out onto the plane

We had quite a goodbye gathering at the Lubbock airport last Friday. We sure were glad to have enough help with the six 50 lb. suitcases we checked (this doesn’t include the two backpacks, one diaper bag, one rolling carry-on suitcase, one computer bag, and the stroller)! To tell the truth, I felt royalty when I finally got to the hotel room in La Quinta because I never had to carry a single one of the big suitcases! We arrived in California and there was a large group waiting to help, then there was more help to get them all to the rooms. I did carry Kanyon & my backpack all day, though! He was a great little traveler! We had 3 take-offs and landings because we were on one of those flights that lands in El Paso but you don’t get off the plane. It was a little harder than a direct flight because as soon as we reached cruising altitude and Kanyon’s ears adjusted it was time to descend! He sure did sleep well when we finally got him to bed that first night.

Training Classmates

There are about 50 of us in the University Teaching Program and around 35 in the China Teaching Fellowship at training. It is awesome to meet people in every stage of life here at training as they are all preparing to serve in China. To name a few, we’re inspired by Andy, the recent college grad who’s never been to Asia, Gene & Michelle and their two daughters, who are three and nine, and Woody & Sherry who are leaving behind their grandchildren! We’re learning a lot about Chinese culture from people like Joanne who is an American who speaks fluent Mandarin and has served in China for the past 24 years.

The training continues through September with the meaty courses in TEFL training. This is not to say the other courses are not meaty, as we have been soaking in everything presented.

30 Hours of Travel

The last day of training can more accurately be described as the longest day ever. We are boarding a bus from our hotel at 2:30 AM on September 23 to travel to the airport in LA. Then board the flight over the Pacific Ocean to China before arriving in Beijing at 2:25 PM on September 24. To try to “beat” jet-lag, we will then try our best to stay awake until an appropriate hour that night to go to sleep. All totaled, we will be traveling, dozing off and on, for at least 30 hours. All that on a less than a full night’s sleep the previous day. So we will be awake for 47 of the last 50 hours.

Stuffing Diapers

As we were preparing to check in for our flight to California, we had some last minute packing to do at the check in counter. Not being able to accurately weigh our bags before the airport, we knew that some of them would be close to the 50 pound limit.

We carefully put each bag onto the scales at the counter and anxiously waited for the weight readout. The firs bag on the scale weighs 52 pounds, over the limit. The next bag weighs in at only 48.5 pounds. So we quickly took things out of the heavy bag and stuffed them into the light weight bag. This continued through all the bags.

Finally the last bags were weighed and were all underweight. To make the most of the opportunity, we stacked diapers on top of the bag on the scale until it reached 50 pounds. It was amazing to see how many diapers we could stuff into the bag.

Travel Leg One

We made it safely to CA. It was a rather relaxed trip across the country on the Southwest flight. I always compare flying Southwest to someone skipping a rock across a lake. SW is always a series of short hops up and down until you finally reach your destination. It was no different fro us as we skipped from Lubbock to El Paso to Phoenix to Ontario, CA. None of the flights were any longer that about 50 minutes.

Kanyon did great on the flights. The first one was a little difficult as we were still trying to figure out how to get his ears to pop on the way down and he did not want to take any water from his sippy cup. For the next skips, we changed the strategy some. We put the water in the bottle and put food in his mouth. Kind of a way to trick the baby into swallowing and popping his ears. He was much happier for the next skips up and down.

We had packed toys for his to use on the flights, but never had to use any of them. For the first leg, he was simply entertained by the airplane seat. The second skip, he found time for a nap. And finally on the last leg of of the flights, he was entertained by one Cheerio. He picked it up, dropped it, repeat. Finally he decided it would be worthy of eating. Then on the bus ride into La Quinta, he played with his bottle lid. So much for all the toys. But we will still bring a bagful of toys for the long international flight.

After the long day of traveling and meeting, the little one was so exhausted:


He awoke the next morning ready to go:


We have more stories from training later. We are enjoying the time here meeting so many different people and learning so much more about the culture and work we love so much.