David's Big Adventure in China

I haven’t posted an update since the end of the end of the summer vacation because I’ve been working really hard this semester and because some of the things I’d like to write about I’ve had to self-censor to keep from causing any trouble for myself or my wife. The Big Panda is watching everyone very closely these days and I don’t want to chance wearing out my welcome here. My teaching load this semester was the heaviest it’s ever been. I had 22 periods per week which is technically in excess of the maximum according to my contract. I accepted it without too much complaining since overall the school has been pretty good to me. My teaching load for the spring semester is supposed to be back to normal.

I finished this semester a few days ago and am now enjoying 7 weeks off before the spring semester begins. This past semester included 3 Reading classes, 3 Speaking classes for non-English majors, a Writing class for juniors with no textbook and 65 students, and a Listening/Speaking class for a group of freshmen Engineering students that are part of a Sino-American program. The Engineering students are supposed to study here for 3 years then go to Central Michigan University for 1 year after which they will get a BS degree from both schools. This class was the worst group of students I’ve had in my time here in Nanning. They were quite different from all the other freshmen classes I’ve had here in that they were lazy and often late for class. Some of them could barely speak a simple sentence. I can’t imagine them being successful at a US university. The Writing class was also a big challenge because there was no textbook to follow and with so many students there were so many papers to grade each week.

We recently decided to sell Bonnie’s new apartment on campus back to the school. There are many problems with the buildings and the school did a poor job designing them and having them built. We don’t need the apartment as long as I’m teaching here since the school provides an apartment to me for free as part of my contract. They are in the process of increasing the retirement age here to 65 and I will want Bonnie to retire several years before that. I am concerned that if she retires early then the school will require her to return the apartment to the school. The apartments on campus are always owned by the school and you only buy the right to use them as long as you’re employed here or retired from the school. To use the apartment we would have to spend $25,000 to $40,000 to finish the decorating of the apartment including buying cabinets, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, appliances, flooring, heating and air conditioning, furniture, etc. If we sold the apartment back to the school later, they would not reimburse us for those costs. Thus, the decision to return the apartment.

We are leaving soon to go to New Zealand for a 19 day tour with a tour company called Grand Pacific Tours. We will be seeing both of the main islands and most of the transportation will be by bus but also some of it by train or boat. Until next time….

We’re back in Nanning after enjoying our summer travels in the states and ready to start the new school year tomorrow. We started our US visit in Jupiter, Florida with the 24th annual reunion of my former Coca-Cola colleagues. From there we went to Texas for a week and visited Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin. It was Bonnie’s first trip to Texas and my first trip to Austin. During each trip to the states I make sure Bonnie gets to see parts of the US that she hasn’t seen before. We enjoyed seeing the sites in Texas, listening to live music in Austin and having dinner with two of my high school classmates who are married to each other (Phil and Leeann Hieger). After Texas we went to Indiana for some family time and attended my high school reunion which was a lot of fun.

We borrowed Dad’s car and drove to Rhode Island to start a New England tour. We spent time in Newport seeing the “cottages” of the gilded era and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. We drove out to Provincetown on Cape Cod, spent a few days in the Boston area including walking much of the Freedom Trail and hiking around Walden Pond, visited Salem and Rockport, and then headed up into Maine. We stopped in Portland, Maine on our way and visited with a former colleague from Dreyer’s (Michael Donahoe). We then headed on up towards Bar Harbor with a stop at Red’s Eats for their famous lobster rolls. They were good but not worth the almost 1 hour wait in line to get them. While in New England we enjoyed lobster bisque, lobster croissant, lobster rolls, and whole lobsters to ensure we got our fill of lobster. Of course, we enjoyed other seafood as well. While in Bar Harbor we spent time in Acadia National Park and did some great hikes there as well as enjoying the views of the coastline. One of the trails we hiked was called Precipice Trail and it was quite challenging with some metal ladders hammered into the sides of the mountain.

From Bar Harbor, we drove to Franconia, NH and did a hike at Franconia Notch before heading on to Plattsburgh, NY which is just south of the Canadian border. We then drove to Montreal where we stayed a few days with a former teacher/colleague of Bonnie’s. We took a tour bus to Quebec City and spent a couple days there enjoying the sites and food. It was my first time in Quebec and it felt more like being in France than being in Canada since French was the dominant language. After our time in Canada, we headed to New York City to watch the US Open tennis tournament. We spent all day the first two days of the tournament and half day of the third day watching many matches and seeing almost all of the top players. After we had our fill of tennis, we headed back to Indiana to spend a few more days before heading back home to China. All in all, we had a great trip that went according to plan and we enjoyed good weather almost the entire time.

It’s always good seeing friends and family, especially my parents and siblings. We got to visit again with my 100 year old grandmother and my 91 year old great uncle; fortunately they both still have sharp minds and can mostly take care of themselves. My great uncle still drives. We never know if our visit with them will be the last time we see them. Well that’s all for now, until next time……….

The spring semester is over and I’ve been in China for over 7 years now. I signed a new contract so I’ll be teaching for at least one more year. We finally got the key at the end ... [Continue reading this entry]

We’re now approaching the half-way mark of this semester. I’m teaching 4 classes of Oral English, Business English, 2 classes of Reading and a class called Communicative English to Vietnamese majors. These are all classes I’ve taught before ... [Continue reading this entry]

We’re more than halfway through the semester now and I’ve got a pretty easy workload. I started off with a pretty light load this semester and some classes end early. After next week I’ll be down ... [Continue reading this entry]

We’ve now completed all our Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) travels and started back to work on March 4. We went to the states for about 16 days in late January and early February. We arrived in Jacksonville, ... [Continue reading this entry]

It’s been quite a while since my last update mostly because I don’t have very much news to share. I had my last classes for the semester this past week so I’m now on semester break until early March ... [Continue reading this entry]

We arrived back in Nanning on August 30th and I had my first class a few days after that. The first couple weeks we didn’t have a full schedule of classes so it was good to get back to ... [Continue reading this entry]

We had a great time on our road trip throughout the Midwest. After spending about 5 days with friends and family in Richmond, Indiana we went to Indianapolis and enjoyed the Parkers’ hospitality before heading on to St. Louis. ... [Continue reading this entry]

I’m currently enjoying a pretty relaxing life as I’m not working much. It appears my life as a Chinese pig farmer is about over and I’ll be transitioning back to teaching. In September I’ll be back teaching at ... [Continue reading this entry]