CITY VIEWS AND BUDDHAS

About three days ago, we had a really good rain with wind, and the day after the rain, we had clear skies for the first time since we’ve been here!  This is a view out of our apartment’s window.  This is our campus for Shandong Normal University.  You’re looking out on a student dormitory at the bottom left.  The taller building that’s about mid-page, just below the base of the really tall buildings is where I (Sue) teach my ten hours a week of Oral English Classes.  It’s on the 7^th floor of the Music Building.

Today, we got up and took a short hike up the hill to the south of us to a park area called “Thousand Buddha Mountain.” We got in some good exercise, and had a really enjoyable time.

You wouldn’t believe how big this Buddha is!! We can see him from a window on the South side of our hotel. There are tons of smaller Buddhas all around as well.

Here we are. He’s a happy Buddha. The pearls hanging over his right knee are each about as big as a bushel basket.

Here’s one of the other Buddha that are in the park (the one on the right!). They always have really big earlobes.

They have very nice female Buddhas as well. (The one on the right is a good example!)

They even had their own Chinese Stonehenge.  It is erected to celebrate the “Bird” people or totem based on what we were told.

We hiked to the top of the mountain.  It was a bit strenuous!—a pretty good work-out for us.  There were no hand rails and a lot of the rocks were really slippery.  It wasn’t as clear today as it was a couple days ago, but the vistas were still pretty nice.  This is much clearer than it is normally!  It was a great outing.  It took us about three hours, and we had a nice time.  Then it was back to the grind-stone to figure out some more lesson plans.  Uggggh. . . .

This is a picture of our hotel and campus from the top of the mountain.  The hotel is one of the multistory buildings in the middle right.  It has red letting on it if you can see that.  The treed area to the far side is the campus of Shandong Normal University where we teach.  We are on the top floor overlooking the campus in one of nicer suites.  If you know when you are looking you can see our bathroom window.  Our main windows are on the opposite side.