Category: General

About the Author
Gavin Lyle Inglish was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2007 and is the author of three books. His first book, Sara’s New World, was written about his beloved golden retriever Sara. He wrote his second book, Carlow Finds His Way Home, for his chess coaches Pete and Marge Helzer and their “son” Carlow. Gavin’s third book, A Football Story, was written especially for his uncle Jeff Richards who shares the same love and complete obsession with everything football. When asked, Gavin said “Books are fun to write and give to people”.
Gavin lives in Dexter, Oregon with his parents John and Laurie Inglish and Sara. He has two older brothers, Gage and Cameron.
His hobbies are football, soccer, chess, basketball, baseball and the Oregon Ducks. Go Ducks!

Trip up was (relatively) uneventful by JA Inglish family standards.  Blew a tire 1 mile south of Idaho Falls, which blew a gaping hole in the septic tank (we hadn’t used it yet so no harm no foul there).  2 hours later (and a thousand bucks poorer) we were back on the road with 6 new all-terrain bad boys ready to tackle the high mountain passes of Oregon.  Boise greeted us with 40-50 mph winds–not too keen on driving through those in a 27′ motor home.  Finally hit Baker City (Dad thinks he went to first grade there), and followed the John Day River drainage through some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen.  I thought Utah was horse country, but I believe this neck of the woods competes for horses per capita.  Spent our last night on the road near Smith Rock camped on the Crooked River. 250 foot drop off with golden eagles flying around–needless to say we kept Gavin on a tight leash.  The Cascades got a ton of late season snow, so McKenzie pass was closed.  Thus, we had to take a detour over Santium Pass, but this was really gorgeous as well.  Gavin loves it here.  Took him to Autzen Stadium (where the Ducks play football), which felt

sort of like finishing a pilgrimage to Mecca with him.

First week in Eugene was rainy, but it has been beautiful here for the past couple weeks. Very impressive system of bike/running trails, which connect various parks along the river.  I’ve never been in a place with so much preserved open space/parks.  Now on my third RV park since arriving (I’m thinking about writing a guidebook on the topic)–this one is right on the river, and affords me easy access to a bike trail which takes me right into the University (about 7-10 minute commute by bike).

Was in DC for 3 days, and will be back there 3 more times before the end of the summer, and likely Hawaii and Am. Samoa this fall.  Job is a steep learning curve and a welcome challenge.  Good people–good place–good mission.  Hope you are all well.  Give a kiss to baby Emma for me.

JAI

Tests are graded and grades turned in.  This time I actually met the guidelines of the University.  I must assign a certain percentage of A’s, B’s, etc.  Last class had earned too many B’s and I had to arbitrarily take away points from their scores until they fell in the C range.  Once I met the correct percentage, the rest of the B’s could keep their grade. 

Bai Wei arranged for his brother-in-law to take us to dinner last Thursday.  He’s a physician here.  Val had been morbidly admiring the rooster claws for sale in stores and restaurants, and she finally got a chance to sample them.  The presentation was lovely:  a fish head surrounded by chicken feet.  Her assessment:  you can eat anything with the right sauce on it.  Another eating first for us was the spudburgers at McDonalds.  We’d been watching TV commercials that showed potatoes being mashed and placed on top of the meat in a certain burger they’ve been marketing.  So we tried one.  Sure enough, you get bacon, two patties, and seasoned mashed potatoes in a bun.  Even though we originated unhealthy fast-food, I don’t think it’ll catch on in the States.

We have great toenail art.  People here have the steadiest hands.  They can paint on anything, even grains of rice, so our toenails were no problem.

We took the bullet train to Nanjing yesterday.  It was cool there, both figuratively and literally.  We almost needed jackets.  The natives were wearing sweaters and coats but carrying their ubiquitious umbrellas.  These umbrellas are not waterproof–in fact, they’re very fancy and used only to protect from UV rays–and are made of lace, silk, embroidery, etc.  Even on the warm days here the women are wearing black tights.  The shoes continue to amaze us–many of them zip up the back.

Had a little excitement in the Metro stations on Saturday.  We were on our way to People’s Park to watch the weekend mating service.  Chinese parents advertise the assets of their unmarried children to other parents of unmarried children.  On the way there, a man came rushing through the crowd,  nearly knocking Val down.  He was followed and caught by another man who held him in front of us until five policemen showed up and hauled him off.  On the way home, two guys got into a fist fight, blood and all, and had to be separated by a cadre of transit police.  (Yup, they have guys now who stand in front of the train doors to remind people to let people off the trains before they swarm aboard.)

This blog was drafted days ago, but I was unable to post it before we left China.  I’m home now and will find more pictures to post.  The trip was a great success.

Today I review with class 2, and tomorrow they take the final exam.   As I am correcting their resumes, I thought I would share with Gage that one of the students listed her hobby as graffiti.  You would like her, her name’s Vanilla Chou.  I’m trying hard to persuade one of The guys to change his name to something other than Grubby–it doesn’t look good on his resume.  OH, and Gage, remember that I wondered why the Chinese were so fond of rabbits?  It’s the year of the Rabbit…..duh.

During the time I was unable to blog I notified the registration desk that I had a friend coming to stay with me in my room.  The clerk said, “OK, what’s the problem?”  I replied that I just wanted to make sure that it was OK.  The answer was, “Sure, just have him show us his passport when he gets here.  Should I have been flattered?

I had my blood pressure checked yesterday on the sidewalk on my way to tai chi class.  If I understood the numbers correctly, I’m in great shape.  I’m always so proud of myself when I can ask “how much” in Chinese, but then I never understand the answers.

I should carry my camera with me at all times.  On my way to the post office I passed, at our front door, a vendor selling the chef turtles for that night’s dinner.  It wasn’t the fact of the live turtles, but the fact that the vendor was a scruffy old man on a rusty bike with the turtles riding in the basket on the front.  I don’t think they have FDA here.

• Today is spa day.  Back to the singing hairdressers to have our eyebrows threaded and have a good pedicure.
• 
• If you can’t read the sign from the kitchen, it says in case of fire to throw the blanket on it.

Just returned from the watertown again.  But this bus driver dropped us off on a different side of the town.  We weren’t sure how far it was to the entrance, so we took a pedicab.   He took us on a long, roundabout way so he could drop us off at the shops of his friends and relatives.  He was acting as our tour guide, glibly speaking Chinese as though we understood it.  We had been feeling sorry that he’d had to pedal the two of us uphill–in fact, we were downright embarrassed that he’d had to get off the bike and pull us up a hill.  But when we couldn’t shake him later, we didn’t feel sorry for him anymore.  Found a great mousepad that I wanted to get for you, Adam, but I didn’t think you’d use it, so I took a picture instead.

 

Chinese people can sleep anywhere.

 

 

Went to Church today, then to the top of the highest building in Pudong to look out over the metropolis.  The pollution is so bad that you can’t see very far, so you didn’t miss much, Gage.  But we discovered the farthest extreme of toilets that we’ve ever seen.  They had control panels with temperature control for the seats, as well as a range of other services (think bidet).  An right across the river you can’t even find a seat….

 There’s a Metro stop at a shopping area called Xujaiohui (Shoo zow wei).  When Val first heard it announced, she brightened up and said, “Really, Shoes Our Way?” and was ready to hop right out.  The shoes here really are something–everything from 5-inch heels to funky hightops with turned-down cuffs.

(fishnet stockings)