Nadia, a beautiful Russian Baha'i on her birthday.
Nadia is Russian but is mistaken for Chinese by all the Chinese people in Tianjin who are miffed when she can't speak Chinese.

The second picture is Linda, Nadia and Naomi, an American who has adopted China as the country she wants to live in.


I haven't written on the blog for almost a week. I'm afraid I'm going to lose my blog audience because these things are supposed to be daily so people can keep up. Too bad for all of you. We had a very busy weekend last weekend and that just led into a week that has kept me busy as well. Saturday was not busy with doing things but we were away from home from 8:30 in the morning until 9:30 at night except for an hour during which we took a nap. We've found that naps are really helpful during the fast. We spent the morning studying some Baha'i material together with other foreigners. In the afternoon we met with a young lady from Tianjin. We spent 3 hours sitting in Starbucks visisting with this young lady. I can't believe we sat in Starbucks for 3 hours - and it was during the fast!!! One of our group bought everyone a fruit cup but nobody ate them. So we had them left over later. Another of the Baha'is was having a birthday so we got together at a Thai restaurant for dinner. What a great meal. We had a meal as good as any we had at Thai Peppers in Springfield. Then we went to a donut shop because the birthday lady wanted dessert. We hung out there until about 9:00 PM before heading for home. At one point one of the younger people suggested going to a Kariokee(sp?) bar for some fun. I begged off as an old man and having to get up early for breakfast. After bantering back and forth a bit we decided to go to a Kariokee bar on Naw Ruz to celebrate the new year after dinner. In China these are places with lots of smaller rooms that groups rent to entertain themselves not to entertain hundreds (or not entertain). So we're going to rent a room and sing (some more than others I'm sure). I am excited about this opportunity to make a fool of myself. So stay tuned for a Kariokee report. Next Thursday evening is the big night.


As far as school goes, I have an ESL class where the participants are mature very smart adults who haven't studied english for from 5 to 25 years. I am somewhat intimidated by this class - they are much smarter than I am. The only advantage I have is that I speak English. I had a good class with them yesterday and I'm looking forward to seeing them next week. I need some things to do with them to keep them interested. The main issue is that in order to be understood, I have to speak very slowly. That is very hard for me. But when I do they understand me pretty well. The other thing I found out yesterday is that their reading skills are pretty good and their comprehension is ok. This is a speaking and listening class and they are very retiscent to speak out - except for a couple of people. They don't like to speak because they believe their English is not very good and in many cases it is not very good.


When Linda and I were out getting a copy made and going for a walk we actually ran into a student from this class. She seemed excited to meet Linda because I had mentioned my "tall" wife in class. She told Linda I was funny in class and that I made it interesting. Of course, now she's my favorite pupil in that class. Interestingly, I did not know that she likes the class. In class she has been a rather somber person who seems to be not that excited about being there. So I guess I can't make assumptions based solely on class behavior.


My Medical Terminology Class has also had an interesting twist (actually more than one). On Thursday morning I received a call that my students were complaining that I'm going too fast. Well I have this 400 page book that I was trying to cover in one semester. My "assistant" in the English Department, whom I have never met but only communicated with by email, called me to tell me that the book was usually taught in 2 semesters but I could take 3 because of starting in the middle of the year. So could I please redo my syllabus to reflect a slower pace. So I redid my syllabus for this term to reflect covering the book in 3 terms. I got an email this morning telling me that really this is a 2 term course so I should cover the material in 2 terms, not 3. No need to redo my syllabus again for this term, just go a little faster next term to make up for going slower this term. Well I am going to redo the syllabus again - how hard can that be? And what could possibly go wrong?


I'm actually getting a refresher anatomy class while I'm teaching medical terminology. I only hope that I don't actually retain all the bones in the body in my memory (did you get that?).