ben·e·fac·tor (běn’ə-fāk’tər)
n. 

One that gives aid, especially financial aid.

Etymology:  1451, from L.L. benefactor, from Latin phrase bene facere, from bene "well" + facere "to do"

My greatest benefactor, when it comes to my writing pursuits, seems to be my mom.  Not only did she buy the majority of the copies of my self-published novel, Titan’s Tale (see it in the sidebar) but she also has offered to help "fund" the yetispeak this summer.  Now that’s what I call altruism–does this mean I’m writing stuff only a mother could love?

If there is one concept I believe in, it’s this:  give the benefactor (or benefactress) what they want.

My mom wants more family photos and updates, so this post is a move in that direction.  I haven’t been posting as frequently lately because, frankly, I haven’t felt like I’ve had too much to say.  I could tell you what we’ve been eating for lunch OR I could tell you about the riveting conversations Christa and I have had about whether or not Severus Snape is going to turn out to be the true hero in the Harry Potter saga, but I just don’t think that’s what you people want to read about.  I could give you more insight into Chinese grammar structures or astound you with Chinese characters, but somehow I think that would make my hit count go down over time.  You can’t please everyone.

So we’ll just keep it simple.  Some pictures, some updates, some reports, some amusing anecdotes.

Here’s a family photo taken at the Cultural Park in town.  Xining has a tulip festival every year, but having seen the tulip festival in Washington state, it’s a bit hard to NOT make comparisons.  Don’t get me wrong, we appreciate the colors…any colors in the environment other than brown are welcome.

We really like to live like the locals here in China.  We call it living contextually.  So if you’ve heard us talking about the girls’ "bunk beds" you probably had a certain picture in mind.  It probably didn’t look like the close quarters seen here though, but don’t worry our daughters are very limber–they hardly ever complain.  (I’m joking!  This cupboard isn’t REALLY their bed and contrary to popular opinion we didn’t even ask them to pose for this picture.  This is how we found them…honest.)

Anna’s teeth just keep falling out!  She is currently missing 3.5 teeth in the front.  (It’s .5 because the new tooth for the first one has grown in half-way.)  It was funny watching her try to eat corn on the cob the other night.   She’s rolling in the tooth fairy dough and spraying her S’s like Sylvester the cat.  (Thuffering Thuckatash…)

When Sarah gets behind the camera, I can’t help but make ugly faces.  This is my Voldemo…I mean He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named pose.  But I’m really not all that angry these days.  I’ve moved on.  Seriously.

On an unrelated note, I sat in on an English teaching class a week ago.  I wanted to see what teaching English here in Xining might look like.  When the teacher introduced me, a Chinese student immediately asked me, "Do you believe in God?"  Talk about shocked.  Luckily, I didn’t pause with my reply, "Yes," I told her.  She then told me that she had been reading the Bible and wanted to know how to say something in English.  The phrase she wanted to learn:  The Tower of Babel.  Yeah, I think all language learners have a few bones to pick with that pesky Tower of Babel.  I know I do.  It was a brief conversation, but definitely got me excited about the concept of teaching English here.  We shall see…

Christa has been diligently working on progressing in her language.  When we started the semester she was 10 lessons behind me, but she worked hard over Chinese New Year and caught up so that she could join my class.  Having a real teacher has made a big difference but has had its challenges too (like trying to read Chinese characters!) 

She has also started doing a language exchange once a week with a Hui gal who attends the same college we do.  For 45 minutes they chat in English and then they chat in Chinese for 45 minutes. 

During our recent language assessment, Christa was praised for her great tones!  The assessor said that Christa has very clear, very natural sounding tones; some of the best she’s heard from a language learner at her level.  Ironically enough, tones are my greatest weakness!  So I guess we complement one another in language learning and in life.

So that’s the Johnson family wrap-up for this week.  Hope you enjoyed it.  In the future, I’ll try to be more mindful and share more of our daily life with you.