I can't believe it's been almost a month since I lasted posted. We've been so busy this month. Getting 14 classes between the two of us up and running has been a challenge. There are so many things that we had to do on our own, like making our own class lists, inputting names on a grade keeping program, taking pictures of close to 500 individual student photos, downloading those photos, printing them on our own printer, cutting them out with scissors - not a paper cutter, and then gluing them onto student ID cards.
Then, there were lesson plans to get ready, worksheets to copy or have copied on campus, papers to correct, more papers to correct, and more lessons plans to get ready. Add to this, grocery shopping by bus and taxi, buying essentials for an apt., cooking and cleaning, and getting sick for a week. We're having interesting experiences in China, some wonderful, some frightening, and some very frustrating, but we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to explore this fantastic country, meet some amazing people, and experience the Chinese culture. We feel very blessed to have been given this opportunity.
This is one of Truman's classes. Actually, it's one of his smaller classes. He has several that have more than 50 students in them. My classes average 32.
He teaches graduates whose English proficiency is much lower than my student's. They are trying to get accepted by universities outside of China to continue their education. Their English has to be on a certain level, so they are taking English as an elective to boost their skills. His students have majored in other area.
My students are all undergraduates with dual majors, English being one of their majors. My students have much better English skills than his do.
We do have some down time and enjoy just walking to the community square about a 1/3 mile from our apt. We love to watch the people.
It's so common to see men and women riding around on mopeds or electric or gas-powered bicycles with a small truck bed on the back. They pack the bed with all kinds of things that they take to the streets to sell. We've seen the beds piled so high that it's a wonder the tires can hold the weight of it all. 
We had the privilege of being invited to a banquet hosted by the local People's Republic of China's government officials of Shandong Province. We were the invited guests of our waiban (liaison between the university and the gov't).
The banquet was held at a very magnificent hotel, This painting was on the wall in the lobby of the hotel. The waves reminded us of Tobago. The painting was so large and life-like that we could almost hear the roar of the ocean waves.
Well, that's enough for now. I've got lesson plans to get ready. But, soon I will post some pictures of our first sight-seeing trip to Xi'an, home of the Terra Cotta Warriors. I've got to figure out how to enlarge the pictures that I post.
XI'AN, CHINA IS THE HOME OF THE
XI'AN, CHINA IS THE HOME OF THE
We're standing on a side wall of Pit #1. If you have never heard the story behind these clay warriors, look it up on Wikipedia.
There is a cute story behind this picture. The old part of the city of Xi'an is surrounded by a very long and wide brick wall. As we traveled part way around the wall, we looked down into a courtyard and spotted all these "mimes" dressed up like warriors. We hurried down a very long flight of stairs. Truman had me stand in front of this warrior and was gesturing that he should put his arm on my shoulder. After a minute of watching Truman's "song and dance", the soldier looked him in the eyes and said, in English, "You want me hug her?"
