Say: "茄子!"

I tried asking these guys to say "cheese" since it is my Tuesday 10 a.m. freshman Oral English class, but the result was not pretty... so I broke the "no Chinese rule" on this occasion and asked them to say "eggplant" ("Qiézi") in their native tongue. That brought out the pearly-whites! (though they may have been laughing at my attempt at speaking Chinese)

November Coffee House

This one was given a "Thanksgiving Theme". In the sharing portion, students were asked to share the five things they were most thankful for... their answers? #1-Parents #2-Grandparents #3-Teachers ...wonder how many college students on the other side of the planet would've had those three at the top of their list?

Missin' Fam

Grace and I know we are where we are supposed to be at this point of our lives; there is great comfort in that... which is not to say that we don't miss family, particularly when special events are happening in our more familiar home-away-from-home!
Thankful that Tim was able to fly down from Montana to "represent" at last Friday's big event in Orlando... Cousin Jason's marriage to his high school sweetheart, Lauren Parrish.

P.S. On that same note: Happy Birthday to my brother Steve (whose youngest two represented him and appear next to our "little" brother Mike in the photo below)!

L2R: Mike, Jordan, Caitlyn & G-Mom Kynast, the parents of the bride (my sister Susie & her husband Jay), Kailey, Nicholas and TK

English Corner

Affectionately dubbed "Corner the Foreigner" by some of my colleagues, this is a regular event sponsored by a variety of organizations on many of the campuses in China to give students a place to practice their second language with a native speaker in the room. It is fun to hear the varied perspectives on the topic chosen by the organizers, and to be asked to comment at the end of each 30-minute segment.