December Office Hours

Before coming to China, we had no idea the diversity that exists in this country of 1.3 billion people.  At least three of the 55 minorities (as well as the Han majority) are represented in this group of 13 students... the mustachioed young man in the center of this photo is from the Uyghur ethnic group... he speaks four languages, including Arabic ("so that he can read the Quran")... it has been fun this week!!

December Coffee House

Sophomores perform during the Open Mic segment of the December Coffee House "Beginnings and Ends"

Decorating for Christmas

With the help of the eight pictured below, we got the place ready for the BIG December 25th Birthday Party, baked some cookies, and had a great little chat over tea and goodies...

Really cool getting to tell the story to college students who've really never heard it before!

Our decorating crew (L2R): David, Eleanor, Greg, Elizabeth, Grace, Victoria, Vicky, Eddy, Echo, Sherlock

1000-year-old Egg

Word got out during Grace's Office Hours this evening that neither she nor I had yet tried this popular choice... the four pictured insisted on treating us to dinner on the third floor of the North Canteen (one of seven cafeterias on campus.)
There are many ways to enjoy the preserved eggs; in the version we ate, they were cut into small chunks and cooked with rice porridge to create "century egg and lean pork congee"
(Chinese: 皮蛋瘦肉粥; pinyin: pídàn shòuròu zhōu).

Grace in Action

Managed to get a picture of my girl as she wrapped up her fourth hour of instruction today... she was working with these sophomores on the conditional perfect tense, which doesn't exist in the Chinese language and seems especially hard for them to learn!

Wednesday's English for Special Purposes class at dinner time (just before the 6:00 p.m. bell)... do they look hungry?

Thanksgiving Day

It's a regular day of classes here in China, but part of today's assignment was to express appreciation for the things for which my students were most grateful... at the top of almost every list: #1-Parents; #2-Grandparents; #3-Teachers ...Gotta love those guys!!

Special treat for Grace and me:  My sister, Betsy and her two arrive tonight from Shanghai for a six-team tournament.  Son Ryan (behind #3) is a power forward on the SCIS Dragons, and we will get to see him play tomorrow (they've given us the day-after-Thanksgiving off ;-)

November Office Hours

Grace and I spend about 8 hours/week in our office... most of the time we have between two and twenty students there and talk about anything and everything!
Here's a look at two groups from the past week... terrific group of young men and women!

Grace in Charge

Here's a look at the staff and crew 15 minutes before we turned down the lights and opened the doors for our November Coffee House with ten of our BIT teachers in attendance.  The crew is composed of students who are officers and members of the Pretty English Association.

This month's theme was "Thankfulness"... Grace served as MC and did a super job... I'm really thankful for her!

A panoramic view of classroom 2-B505 after its Coffee House makeover, with Grace introducing special guests.

Beijing Residents

Hwa Mok and Thomas are Juniors at Beijing Business and Economics University

We got together with our Korean friend, Hwa Mok Kim, last year, but it has been a full year since we saw him since he lives a full two hour commute away on the north side of the city... this time he made the trip, and brought his Indonesian friend, Thomas.  We had fun showing them our apartment and campus, and then going out for Chinese!

I was his Principal in Nicaragua from Preschool through Grade 7!!

A New Section of the Wall

At Juyong Pass with little brother Mike, his wife Suzanne and a woman who asked to be in our picture

I realize it's the second entry in a row of us on the Wall with family, and you're probably wondering, "are they actually working or on a fairy-tale vacation in China?"

The answer is, "Actually, both... like all teachers we have plenty of work to do, but there's always room to work in time for family and friends!"

Find time in your own schedules and come see us!

Gone Already?

Eddie, Kara, G&G on the Great Wall at Badaling October 8, 2013

It is truly one of the great joys of this life to watch a little girl bloom into a beautiful woman... Grace had gotten there before I met her; in Kara's case I've had a backstage pass!


P.S. Dropped our guests off at Peking International at 5:30 this morning... missing them already!

Guest Speakers

Kara and Eddie helped me teach this afternoon's class... such a treat for these Sophomore English majors!

Visitors from Georgia

Kara and Eddie are on the last leg of their China vacation... what better way to spend our Sunday morning than at Haidian Christian, a registered church in the heart of Beijing with a dynamic bilingual ministry to the community!

Surgery

The patient ready for what ended up being about a three-hour surgical procedure (after 4 hours of teaching and a 3 hour commute)

Grace has had her fair share of "skin issues" over the years... her first experience with Mohs surgery came 11 years ago, when they removed a squamous cell from her other cheek in Jacksonville.  We are thankful that (at least thus far) all of the malignancies have been of the type that could be eliminated without the chemotherapy and/or radiation required by more invasive types of skin cancer.

The patient is amazing... planning to teach her afternoon class less than 24-hours after having her face carved up!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Specifically scheduled for the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar (September 19 on the solar calendar this year), this festival has its roots in the millenia-old worship of Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality...

In today's practice, the gifting of moon cakes is a way to wish friends and associates long and happy lives.  Pictured at right is 5/6ths of the delegation to express our appreciation to 18 of those who work so hard in the offices of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Languages and English to make it possible for us to teach at the two campuses of Beijing Institute of Technology.

Kick-off Luncheon

This was our English Department "Welcome Lunch" and Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, complete with toasts and moon cake exchange... tomorrow its dinner for all the foreign teachers (including those from Germany, Japan and Spain) at the main campus, and yes, we have started teaching!

L2R: Lydia, Catherine, Emily, Sabrina, Min, Greg, Grace, Ben, Valerie

Gratitude

It is only through the generosity of so many of you that Grace and I have been able to serve half-way around the world, and we feel a warm kinship with each of you whose name appears on our support list each month.
We also love anonymous gifts in that they make us thankful to all of you, and even more clearly to the True Source of all blessings!

Our sincerest thanks to the one(s) through whom He provided so very generously earlier this month!

Lunch Time

This is what our "canteen" looks like at mealtimes during the three weeks of military training that our freshmen undergo.

Full Team

L2R: Greg, Catherine, Grace, Valerie, Emily, Erika, Ben

We had our first team building meeting at full-strength this morning.  Ben was at his brother's wedding in Michigan last Saturday, and we share Erika with the main campus.

We now have 11 days to be ready for the first day of classes...

Should be a great year!

Getting to Know our Colleagues

"Andy" and "Rose" are husband and wife Engineering profs who live on the 12th floor of our apartment building... he also serves in an advisory capacity for the student government organization on campus, and claims his students are always talking about what a great job their foreign English teachers are doing... so they took three of us out for pizza and a movie (Monsters University) ... in English with Chinese subtitles, although they probably would've been fine without the latter!

New Teammate

L2R: Catherine, Valerie, Emily and Grace @Xiabu Xiabu

Our first chance to eat out as a team (right after our second team building session of the year)... we chose a popular hot pot chain.  Emily (pictured on Grace's right) is the newest addition to Team LX (LiangXiang)... but she too has been in China longer than we, so we can still can't shake "newbie" status!

Back at BIT

We arrived to blue skies and a crowd of proud parents helping their incoming-freshman sons and daughters settle in... Grace and I remember being in that role ourselves with Bonnie, Kara, Nate, Tim and Will... and miss them already!

Summer Wrap-Up

It has been a whirlwind of a summer... back in Jax now for the last few days before our flight back over the north pole.

It's been fun sharing with friends and family, and even with former students like these young men (Andy and Stanley) who both had Grace as their 6th grade Math teacher. They're Chinese-Americans and have worked in their parents' restaurant "China 1" for as long as we've known them!

Connect Group

Bill and Sharon Grady have been our hosts for the past couple of days; tonight they hosted a reunion of the Biltmore BC class that Lana and I were a part of during our time in Asheville... needless to say they are all very dear to me, as they've helped me through some challenging times, cheered as they watched God bring Grace and me together, and most recently supported our efforts in China!

Mission Accomplished

At the top of our priority list this summer was the hope that our time in the States would afford us a chance to be together with all five of our kids and their significant others... this had never happened, even before we moved halfway around the world. What a blessing to spend a weekend with this crew in the Kelly's beautiful mountain cabin!

Family Photo - July 20, 2013 (L2R: Will, Grace, Andrew, Joshua, Bonnie, Greg, Nathan, Kara, Eddie, Anna & Tim)

Tim and Kara Join the Fun

L2R: G&G, Tim, Mike, Caitlyn, Betsy, Jordan, G-Faye, Nicole, G-Mom, Susie, Kara, Kim, Jay, Eddie, Steve, Ryan

More Family

L2R: Steve, Susie, Jay, Jason, Jordan, Lauren, Mike, Ryan, G&G, Leif, Brinley, Caitlyn, Jennifer, Nicole, G-Mom, Betsy, G-Faye

It's still far from everybody, but a nice gathering at G-Mom's nonetheless... Tim and Kara arrive tomorrow!

Visiting Family

Will, Bonnie and Grace in Pompano Beach, Florida

We have five "kids" between us... and a grandson; so we intend to take full advantage of this break in the teaching schedule to see all of them, as well as "G-Mom", "Mom B", our own siblings and their families, and as many as we can of those who have been so supportive through your gifts, prayers and encouraging words throughout our first year in China!

Joshua in his Thai boxing trunks

Back in the U.S.A.!

Passengers headed to the airport in style!

 

Cool artwork at Peking International & 3 really cool people!

It was a 36-hour day with the time change, so we were actually able to make it home the same day, and BIT supplied us a driver and van for what would otherwise have been a three-hour commute to the airport!

Beijing International is the second largest airport in the world (the biggest is in Dubai)... after our layover at O'Haire, we were excited to reach the relatively quaint Jacksonville Airport before midnight!

Now, to get a good night's rest and try to see everybody!

Back in LX

We took the scenic route to Hong Kong, spending 41 hours on the rails... this "bullet" got us home in ten! (cruising at just over 190 mph)

This experience was a lot like flying, but with a little more leg room and freedom to move around the cab... we still liked our "soft-sleeper" leg best!

The Old Apartment

One of the really cool things we've gotten to do on this trip is to visit some of the places where Grace's mom and dad lived in the 50's... from 1958-1960, the family lived in apartment 13F, Kimberley Mansion (Kowloon)... we found it!

...and rang the doorbell!




Nobody home... Jonathan actually remembered being here 53 years ago even though he was three years old when they moved to the US.

Tour de China

We've been planning and looking forward for months.  The four of us will be visiting the province where Grace's mom lived in the late 40's (Anhui) and the Hong Kong (where Grace and her brother Jonathan were born.)

We spent the first 20-hour leg on this "hard sleeper", which means we had a couple of cell-mates above us, one of whom was kind enough to snap this picture during the first hour of our ride south on the K-Train!

Dinner with Junior English Majors

L2R: Johnathan, Grace, Lucy, Nico, Bonnie, Diane, Lorraine, Gloria, Eve, Greg

Vinnie, Skyler, Sissi, Ciel, Jason, Neil, Nathan, Jessica, Elaine, Annabella, Tina

My soon-to-be-seniors will be moving to the main campus in the fall, so we had a little send-off dinner for them on the third floor of our "canteen"













Nathan, who just earned his English degree (with a minor in Psychology) from the University of North Florida last month, was the center of attention at this table!

Done with Exams!

Friday 8:00-10:00 Internet Reading for English Majors

Freshman English majors... the one group that I will have again in the fall!  I look forward to building on the foundation we've laid this year...

Friday 10:00-12:00 Junior English Majors - Audio/Visual

The Dean of the Foreign Language Department took us out for lunch.

I'm only just getting to know these twenty... we've had one semester together and they are moving on to the main campus for their senior year!













Nathan and Jonathan joined in as we honored Bill and Beth Horner for their three years of service to BIT and celebrated the end of our school year.  Dean Larry ordered quite a banquet for us, everything from Gong Bao shrimp to fried pig ears...

Three More Exams

Thursday 2:00-4:00 Varied Majors (Optical Info Sci, EE, Warfare Technology, etc.)

Thursday 10:00-12:00 (21 Int'l Trade & Econ; 1 Comp Sci; 1 Software Eng)

Thursday 4:00-6:00 Varied Majors (Econ, German, Photoelectric Info Engineering, etc.)

Six down, two to go!

These three classes had their final exams today, while Grace and our guests registered at the police department and toured Tian'an Men Square and the Forbidden City.








These have been terrific classes, and none of these students will be in my classes next fall, because I only teach one sophomore course and it is exclusively for English majors, so we said our goodbyes and they all pledged to visit their former teacher during office hours!











Tomorrow morning at 8:00, I have Freshman English Net Reading and at 10:10 Junior Audio-Visual.  After that it's a lot of grading, averaging and posting... looking forward to having all that done!

They're Here!

Jonathan, Nathan and Grace on subway line 10, the second leg of our 3-hour trip home from the airport

With the time change and extended lay-over in San Francisco it was a 48-hour hop-skip-and-jump, and they were still smiling upon arrival!

We have so been looking forward to having Jonathan and Nathan with us to explore the beautiful country that has been our home for the past ten months!