Small World

19 years ago we hired a terrific Israeli Science teacher for our school in Managua, Nicaragua... he's been back in Jerusalem for 16 years now, but since modern technology (social networking) makes it possible to stay in touch across time zones, here we are getting to know his cousin, sister-in-law, niece and nephew over a fabulous Mediterranean lunch in their villa three hours away from us (but still in Beijing)!!

Dinner for 6

These sweet junior English majors insisted on fixing us a meal...

Grace and the three pictured at right set out at 9:30 to buy the groceries; by 1:30 they had the fish and chicken marinading, so they took a short break; at 4:00 they began cooking, and since we only have a two burner stove, it was 6:25 when it all hit the table, but as you can see from the second picture... it was quite a spread.

These four were freshmen our first year at BIT... they will all be on the main campus next year, and we will be on the other side of the planet... Not ready to say our "Goodbyes" quite yet! 

May Coffee House

A photo of the "Clean-Up Crew" for the last Coffee House of this school year... 7 foreign teachers and 25 terrific kids!

Tim's 24!

After nine days in Taiwan, the man is celebrating his birthday in Seoul, as part of his studies in Appropriate Technology at Appalachian State University.

This picture was actually taken before he left North Carolina... His biological mom may be in Heaven, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have an incredible team of mom's looking out for him... this celebration was at Ginny Pierson's lake place and the young lady in the photo is his girlfriend's mom, Ruth Ann Somerville!

His step-mom and I plan to spend the entire month of June celebrating with him here in Beijing!  And then there are his two grandmas, former teachers...

Tim's in Taiwan

This is the photo he shared on FB upon arrival Wednesday... he'll be at Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology through next Thursday, then in Seoul through the end of the month (in some sort of internship through Appalachian State University), to Beijing to see us June 1st, on the high-speed rail to see his cousin graduate from high school in Shanghai (June 11th), and finally back to Beijing to help us close out our time in China!!

...oh, and then back to NC to see his girlfriend, who has spent the entire semester traveling around Europe (as part of her college education.)  Kids these days... aren't they great?!!

Team From Texas

We rarely have visitors, but have a team of seven from SAGU (Texas)... a couple of TESOL profs and five of their students; they have visited classes, shadowed our teachers, and hosted an evening event open to anyone available Monday night... this is the group that showed up!

At the end of our event I set the 10-second timer on my little camera and snapped this photo (can you find the foreigners?)