Happy New Year to everyone. We celebrated quietly as has been our habit for many years. We rang in the new year with Vladivostok, Russia, which is two hours ahead of Haerbin time. We went to New Years dinner with the younguns and then left them to their own devices while we went home. Earlier in the week we attended an end of the year bash for the foreign 
languages department. Each of the teaching groups were expected prepare some entertainment. A small group of foreign teachers, with only the barest amount of rehearsal sang "It's a Small Small World" a cappella. Walt, turned over in his grave, I'm sure. We checked out the skating rink on a beautiful sunny day last week. Nonie passed on the experience but came down to take this picture. Branson is now claiming Canadian citizenship as he has skated, watched a hockey game and ridden on a Zamboni, or at least the Chinese equivalent. Tom, Nonie and I will be taking that under advisement. He still needs to make a snow angel, curl eight ends and dine on yellow snow.
languages department. Each of the teaching groups were expected prepare some entertainment. A small group of foreign teachers, with only the barest amount of rehearsal sang "It's a Small Small World" a cappella. Walt, turned over in his grave, I'm sure. We checked out the skating rink on a beautiful sunny day last week. Nonie passed on the experience but came down to take this picture. Branson is now claiming Canadian citizenship as he has skated, watched a hockey game and ridden on a Zamboni, or at least the Chinese equivalent. Tom, Nonie and I will be taking that under advisement. He still needs to make a snow angel, curl eight ends and dine on yellow snow.
Nonie has completed all her classes while I have two left . Our last classes have been strictly fun and games with no serious learning going on. It has been a joy teaching the Chinese grad students. Our goal at the beginning of the semester was to increase their confidence in speaking English. Most of our students have been taking some form of English language training for at least ten or more years but had never talked to or heard a flesh and blood native English speaker before. Most started their conversation with "I'm sorry, my English is not good" or just froze up and developed a serious stutter when we called upon them to speak in class. As a final exam, we challenged the students to have a six minute conversation with a partner on any topic they wished. The conversation was to be planned but not scripted. Scripts were the order of the day, of course. I am on the fence whether the Chinese can be spontaneous but they clearly demonstrated their confidence in speaking English. I would hope that indicates that we were successful.
Our travel plans are in place and we will arrive back in Canada on January 12. We will leave the next day for Ottawa and will be back in Kelowna on January 20. We will return to Haerbin on February 19. We are getting excited and looking forward to seeing some of you sometime in the next few weeks.
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