Hosting Students

This is what our apartment looks like when we invite students to come over for tea, cookies and conversation... a couple of hours of a really good time with some terrific young people!

National Museum

With grades done, we're taking the opportunity to spend a little quality time with some of the students we've gotten to know through our regular routines.  Steven and Jessica are graduate students who plan to marry at some point in the future, earn PhD's in Mathematics at a yet-to-be-determined college in the US and become college professors.  They say they plan to have two kids, which is now permissible for all Chinese citizens (without fines), provided at least one of the parents is an only child.

Photos taken in the National Museum on Tiananmen Square (2 hours by subway from our campus)

Final Exams... Done!

54 Freshmen Automation and Electrical Engineering majors... nine students over the class cap, and quite a large number for a Speaking and Listening class, but we made it work!

...now to grade a large stack of English major exams, and average grades for everyone!

Finals Week

Grace and I taught through Christmas and New Year's Day, and are currently in the middle of final exams.  I gave my first two to the classes pictured here... big gender ratio difference between the English majors (pictured at right), and their Mechanical Engineering & Electronic Science/Technology counterparts (below.)  We, of course, love them all!

Big shout out to our grandson, Joshua Strickland, who is celebrating his 3rd birthday today!

New Year's Eve

A couple of the girls Grace has been helping prepare for their exams to get into grad schools in the English-speaking world insisted on fixing us a meal as a way of saying thanks!

Here's hoping all of you have an absolutely fabulous 2015!!

圣诞快乐

We all taught full loads of classes today, but made time this evening to celebrate our Elder Brother's birthday with sibling colleagues over hot cider and cocoa...

We miss all who are likely to read this entry dearly, especially at this time of year, and send our love with the hope that your own celebrations are filled with the joy of the season!

We haven't seen a snowflake in these parts yet, but the local mall created a little for those who wanted a white Christmas!

Beijing Opera

Strange place to see your first opera, you say?  Well, we thought so too, but never having been to the Water Cube, we couldn't resist the offer to do two firsts in one evening!

We got to see "Madam White Snake" based on an ancient Chinese legend about the love between a man and a snake demon disguised as a beautiful woman...