From Grits to Chopsticks

When we moved into our current apartment 18 months ago, we had a clear view of a vacant lot across the railroad tracks:Spaces in our city don’t remain vacant for long, so they soon began digging and pouring footers: As the steel began rising, we wondered what type of building was under construction: Since we […]

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It’s hard to believe that we are now beginning our tenth year working in China and teaching at this school: So much has changed since we arrived in 2010!    

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We returned early to the States this winter to help our brother move into a new house: In addition to selecting, buying, and moving into the new house, we have been very busy cleaning out his old house and getting it ready for sale.  During the process, our three children flew into town and surprised […]

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During the first week of October, China celebrates it’s National Day holiday.  For us, the week provided an opportunity to meet people each day for meals.  Also, one of our former students drove us around nearby Fuxian Lake:This beautiful lake is over 500 feet deep and has fairly clean water for fishing:During meals with other […]

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As the Fall semester gets into full swing, we’ve been spending time eating lunch with my students: One recent lunch gave us the opportunity to eat “fish noodles” for the first time: Some other interesting foods given to us by students included a whole cooked chicken: some hawthorn snacks in a patriotic Chinese package: and […]

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At the beginning of each year, all new students are required to participate in several weeks of military training.  At the end of the training period, they demonstrate their skills in front of a reviewing stand of university staff members.  This year, I was asked to be a part of the review team.  About 4000 […]

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In addition to my usual business classes at our main campus, I have the opportunity this semester to travel to our remote campus and teach new classes.  The 1+ hour trip starts by boarding this bus at 6:45AM: One of the new classes is “Financial English” with this group of 62 students: Since there is […]

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China is constantly under construction, and sometimes, the projects are right outside your window. During the first half of this year, someone decided to dig up the street next to our apartment and build a sewer (what a fun blog!).  The noise level has been quite intense at times, especially when the train on the adjacent […]

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We have been blessed each summer to travel back to America and spend time with family members.  This year, we quickly drove to Arkansas to visit our new granddaughter and her big brother:Our youngest son and his wife fed us well: And we were able to spend a day relaxing at our daughter-in-law’s parents’ farm: […]

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You might expect that life would slow down at the end of our semester, but things actually pick up quite a bit.  Former students return for visits, so we spend a lot of time at restaurants re-connecting: Our Summer English Camp Teaching team has arrived, and due to some unexpected schedule changes, we added some […]

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