My last project for the classes that I had the last two weeks was turned in yesterday. It was by far the most cryptic project I'd ever done because its format was completely foreign to me and the expectations were odd. I'm just glad it's over. I honestly don't care about the grade, and I totally never connected with the teacher. He was obviously well-known in his field of work and had plenty of experience, but he doesn't know what our group of teachers actually do, so I felt he never fully connected with most of us. Just my opinion.

Today is Sunday and so ends my dad's birthday in America - January 26. We always joke that we don't know his real birth date, so he could be 64 or maybe 62 or possible 66...who knows? So Happy Birthday, Dad! I sent him a text to my sister which stated that I drank a Strawberry Smoothie in his honor.

The next few days should be more relaxing as I have nothing specifically to do. The conference time doesn't begin until the 30th of this month, so for the next few days it'll be just relaxation with a lot of naps. The classes I finished are also the last classes I should be taking in Thailand for my MA, so that's another reason why I feel more relaxed.

Not much is new. Besides Thailand being awesome, I've still been sequestered to the YMCA with classes and homework. Sometimes, I am soooo tired after class, I take like 2 hour naps. My sleep is all off. I have enjoyed watching movies on the two movie channels that we have at the Y. At least, those are moments of escapism for me.

The entire Siping team is now in Chiang Mai. Seth, Sarah, the Wus, Kat and I have been here since classes started. The Clements arrived yesterday, as did Mark and Michelle. I also had my first trip to Burger King today with the Clements. Quite delicious! I forget how funny Jude and Will are.

I've also had some bouts of intestinal discomfort. (Like the Internet world really wants to hear this.) For the past two days, it's been a little rough. I had a small fever last night and I really thought I'd be skipping out on class today. But I recovered by morning after some prayer, plenty of water, and extra sleep.

The past two days has involved a lot of travel. Seth and I headed out from Xiamen on Saturday to Bangkok, spent the night there, then left this morning and arrived in Chiang Mai. The trip went quite smoothly with hardly any major delays or problems.

Unfortunately, I got a "wicked" case of diarrhea. Without going into all of the most intimately gory details, within a span of about 30 hours, I had gone to bathroom around 16 times (give or take a few). As I'm typing this, I feel much better. Since I felt that way all day yesterday, I wasn't hungry until yesterday evening; last night's supper was my first meal then. But today I feel like normal and I'm enjoying the life in Chiang Mai.

I'm here again at Buddy Internet, the coolest place for computer & Internet junkies. I'm also staying at the local YMCA as I have done the past two years. Since the next two weeks I'll be having classes, I have homework to do - and it's a priority. I do have one paper to write tonight and only 40 pages of reading. For now, I'm looking forward to having fun with all my other buddies who also teach in Asia...as well as having some *really* good food in Chiang Mai.

Today I begin my trek to Thailand. It's been great hanging out here...relaxing and doing homework. The temperature has been great, though it feels like Oklahoma with the humidity. I actually am staying on a island, which is where Xiamen is located. The city is setup quite nicely.

A couple of days ago, Seth and I went to visit our student's high school where he teaches. He graduated (from the school where I presently teach) last year (July 2007) and has lived and taught in Tongan, a district northwest of Xiamen, for almost one full term. We went to view his classes and watch him teach. I especially enjoyed the last class we visited, as they were very outgoing, "naughty" by Chinese teachers' standards, and fun to hang around. One student in the class asked me if I would like to sit beside him during the lesson time. I thought that was very cool. He was forward in his request which was very impressive to me, as many Chinese are not so with foreigners (i.e., Chinese who can speak English). You can see the album "Tongan School" for pics on this day.

We walked around this small town through it's alleys to arrive at a restaurant that featured a local delicacy called "feng rou". It is pork, cooked with the attached skin, in a "crock pot" kind of way. I didn't want to try the skin but the meat was good. After our meal, Seth & I headed back by bus to our hotel - a good hour and a half ride.

The next day found us doing homework most of the day. Seth and I have spent much time in our hotel room just working away on our books, research, reports and papers. This trip has been a perfect mixture of sightseeing, relaxation, and study.

It was last night that we had our last meal with our student friend and his girlfriend. On the spur of the month, we chose a Brazilian BBQ which was quite good. They would bring a slab of meat to the table and then you request what and how much of each kind of meat you want. We used to have one like this in Siping, but it closed down my first year. (How sad...)

As I write this entry, it's Saturday morning and I'm packing up. I'm sad to leave Xiamen and our student, but the trip was worthwhile. I was greatly honored by the hospitality shown to us in our time here and look forward to coming back if possible. In the meantime, I've still got to write an 11-page paper. Yikes!

Seth and I left this past Sunday night and traveled by train then plane to Xiamen. Xiamen is located in southeast China in the province of Fujian. The first thing I enjoyed was the change in temp: from freezing cold in Siping (and a chilly Beijing for that matter) to a balmy and breezy Xiamen.

Our first encounter with problems occurred before we left...in that Seth had *lost* his plane tickets. So after he tore apart his room and sifted through all his stuff, no tickets were to be found. Upon arriving in Beijing, we head over to Ocean Travel, where most all of us book our tickets through, got the information we needed to replace his tickets, then headed to Beijing Capital Airport enroute to Xiamen.

Upon arriving in Xiamen, Seth had to file a police report saying he lost them then had to go to the local Thai Air office for replacements. In the meantime, I hung out at the airport since I didn't want to carry luggage all around a city I've never been to. After about a two days turn-around, his new tickets were in hand.

The reason why we can to Xiamen is to visit a former student of ours. He is teaching in a middle school in one of the districts outside of Xiamen. His girlfriend teaches English in a high school that specializes in tourism: all the students will be involved in some sort of tourist service (e.g., cooks, waitresses, butlers) and will all be using English in communication. Tomorrow, we're going to check out his school and spend the day watching him teach. However, today we went to the tourism school and talked to 2 all-girl classes. All of them will be airline stewardesses, which means that all have to be somewhat attractive for this job.

After this morning adventure, the three of us (Seth, me and our student), traveled to a local well known island called Gulangyu. About 16,000 Xiamen locals live on this island. There are no cars, only electric vehicles can be used. At one point in history, when Richard Nixon first came to China in 1973, he stayed in a hotel located on this island. From this island you can actually see Taiwan, though the dense fog made this impossible.

In the album entitled "Gulangyu Island", you can see pics of some of the handwriting on the rocks (very Chinese), pictures of two of the churches originally built on the island, and other stuff. The coolest part was standing close to the highest point on the island, but, since I'm afraid of heights, I didn't quite accomplish this feat. There was also a piano museum which contained around 100+ different pianos from around the world; and I was bored out of my gourd! I did enjoy the small alleys throughout the village island. It would be a nice place to live.

To top off the night, Seth & I ate at Havana, a local Cuban restaurant. Muy bien!

As I write this entry, I'm only 3 hours away from getting on a train and heading out to Xiamen (southeast China) then Thailand. Today is the 6th day of this wretched sickness that I've felt in my body, but it's also the first day I've gone outside and actually felt more normal. I'm thankful that I got ill while I didn't have any classes and while I hadn't started my vacation travel time. So I'm officially checked out of Siping. See ya next term, my kiddos!

After the New Year's Eve/Jason's B'day shindig, I felt a little tired with a scratchy throat. Little did I realize that this was the beginning of a four-day trek of sickness. My sleep is all out of whack, my head aches like nothing else, I sweat one minute then I'm freezing the next. It's been insane. I have no idea of it's origin, but I think that perhaps today I'm on the way up. I move around like a snail because any quick movements are making me dizzy. I've basically quarantined myself in my room - avoiding all other contact - for fear that I'll give it to someone else. I leave for Thailand in two days, so I got a slew of stuff to do before then - I just hope I can get all of it done.

Last night, I held a little shindig at my place for celebrating Jason's 25th birthday & New Year's Eve. We "threw down" some food: ranch dip, homemade caramel bars, chocolate brownies, chili con queso dip & chips, toffee bars, raspberry chocolate cookies, and drinks galore. The evening started with a ten-question "How Well Do You Know Jason?" quiz. Wu was the winner with 9 correct answers. The top pic shows the trophy presentation. Jason also made his own birthday cheesecake. As you can see, he was really stoked about this!

After this, we played Charades then Pictionary. It was pretty fun; I definitely enjoyed the Charades more. Playing a game like this really let's you see someone's personality - like Michelle's inability to keep quiet (i.e., not say "I'm sorry" or "umm") while playing Charades - at one point she gave me "the look". Sarah got all "wound up" so much that she was shaking (just like she does when we play "Shout About"). Then there was Mark whose pantomimes are ruled by logic. Below is a video of him in action.