Thailand Bound!

We've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some of our students outside the classroom setting... like Troy, so many of them are sincerely eager to discover meaning and purpose in this life!


Grace and I will be discovering a new part of this continent... Teachers working all over Asia with our organization have a yearly training conference in Thailand. Grace and I leave tomorrow morning!

Theresa

Grace worked a lot with this young lady during the first semester, because she wanted to pass the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam given in December... she called all excited last week to report that she had passed, in so doing moving one step closer to her goal of post-graduate study in Australia!

Done (yesterday) with all her exams, Theresa spent the day helping us accomplish a few errands, including getting the zipper fixed on Grace's coat, pictures printed, haircuts and ordering lunch at this local "hot pot" restaurant where the bill for the three of us came to ¥54 (just under US$9)

Spanish Program is a Go!

Looks like I'll be teaching at least one new class in the fall... BIT's administrative board has approved the addition of Spanish to its list of undergraduate foreign language majors (currently: English, German and Japanese)!


Grace and I have been avoiding BJ lately due to reports of unusually-heavy smog; I took the picture (below) from the fifth floor of the admin building on our main campus at 11:00 this morning... what do you think?

Enjoying Former Students...

Angela, Alice, Neera, Leonard, Harry, Troy, G&G, Marc, Herman, Andy, Harry, Viola

They aren't officially our students anymore, since classes ended ten days ago... we wanted to see how many would show up when there was "nothing in it for them" besides the chance to practice their English with a couple of native speakers... the answer today was "17" (over the course of the four hours we were there)

Clockwise from 7:00: Cherry, Bianca, Herman, Marc, G&G, Janet, Mey, Eva, Andy, Harry

These nine then joined us for dinner!

A Snowy Sunday Morning

Wu Juan, Liu Hui & Kang Lei (her Chinese name) waiting on the bus

We met "Jane" (far left in the photo) at church this morning... she is a fellow English teacher at BIT who is moving into our apartment complex with her in-laws and six-month-old daughter this month.  Her husband is working on his Doctorate in Global Positioning Systems in Australia.  Hui has been giving us rides to church for the past few months, but prefers to ride the bus when it's snowing!

Sophomore Girls

L2R: Jane, Crystal, Lana, Clara, Cathlin, G&G

One of the ways we celebrated our 19th monthiversary... cookies, juice and a two-hour chat with five of our sophomore English majors... four of whom will be in Grace's A/V English class next term!

Redeeming the Time

Katie is from Guangzhou (near Hong Kong)

Being done with our semester has afforded us the chance to get together with some of our students, most of whom still have exams in other classes.  Grace and I both teach Freshman English majors... a delightful group of young people from all over China!

Six of our seven Freshman English major men.  L2R: Arthur, Jason, Nicholas, G&G, Ian, Bryce, Jeffrey   -   Sleeping off a fever: Silver

Enjoying our Students

Top L2R: Leucine, Julie, Melody, Leonard, Harry; Bottom: Michael, G&G, Troy

Grace joined me for the weekly four hour chat with students... these seven then joined us for dinner at the (much fancier) restaurant level of the south canteen... good times!

Exam Week

My apologies for the lapse in entries...
Grace and I have been busy writing, administering and grading final exams in all of our classes, which ended yesterday!

...meaning that we're all done with the first semester, except for scoring, averaging and grade-entry!  Should be fairly straightforward for season vets like us, right?  Yes, save for the fact that all the report card programs (including the names of our students) are in Chinese characters!

New Year's Day

Grace and Theresa

My sweet wife spent the first morning of the new year tutoring one of her students who has been working day-and-night to prepare for the International English Language test (IELTS), critically-important for those desiring to study or work in English-language environments.