Its been officially confirmed by an unnamed "British academic" that my legal name, James, is on the top five lists of being lucky (5th place), attractive (2nd place), and successful (1st place). I feel really sorry for the one Ian that I know (he's a baby) since he's on the bottom of successful names. John (poor Wu!) ranks with the most unluckiest name; however, kudos to Rachel as she ranks with the most attractive. But then again, I'm not British, so I guess none of this is accurate. See the entire story by clicking here.

Beginning three days ago, Siping was hit with snow. For about a period of a day and a half, it snowed off and on. I'd never seen it like this before. However, two days ago, on my way to class, I took pictures of some of the awesome views around campus. Check out the album "March Snow".

Two weeks ago for Freshman Oral class, I taught a lesson about injury and illness which featured the story of the Good Samaritan. I told them that the story actually came from the Bible and was told by Jesus Christ. So last week, I had a small quiz which featured four questions; the fourth of which was the following: "Who was the person who told the story?" In honor of giving Jesus free press, here's the answers (verbatim): Jerus, Jeses, Jeajous, Jeser, Yesul (close to the Chinese), Jussue, Jesse, Jesers, Jezzers, Chris, Chris J and (my personal favorite) Jerry Christ.

Now you may be thinking, "Why all the 'r's' in the spelling?" Well, Chinese pronunciation usually puts an 'r' sound after the vowels 'e' and 'a', so that's why the 'r' appears after the vowels. Nonetheless, when I graded the quizzes this morning, I laughed all morning. Each of the answers above *did* deserve a correct answer status. :-) I hope God got a laugh, too.

First problem is that I've had a sucky Internet connection for like a whole week. I had an active connection in my room yesterday, but then it's gone today. So, I've not been able to update consistently. Here I am now.

Over the past week, I've had several meals with students. Since I always rotate my classes for meals each term, I've started with Sophomores and I've been working down to Freshmen. It's always a joy to get to know them on a personal level. On game that we played involved numbers. Most restaurants have tables that are circular, so this game is played in a circle around the table. The first person says, "1", the next person says, "2", and so on. When a multiple of 7 appears in the game (7, 14, 21, and so on) or a number with the number 7 in it (17, 27, 37, and so on), then you hit the table. We played this game in Chinese, so it was harder for me to process the appearance of "7" in the number that came to me. Needless to say, after like 10 rounds of this game, I didn't hit the table on 3 different occasions. If you don't hit the table, you had to sing a song or drink a glass of beer - I'm sure you know which I choose.

One of the new ideas I've implemented this term is Sophomore movie nights. Every other Friday, I show a movie that is themed around one of the lessons we've covered. "Enchanted" by Walt Disney was the first movie we watch. It matched our lesson about stereotypes. I take new words and phrases from the movie, put them on a worksheet, so students can learn some "movie English". It went well for the first night; there were like 100 students there. I had a good time and so did they.

With Easter weekend having arrived, we've had guests from a school in Changchun. Fellow teachers will join us tomorrow for a big meal and time of fellowship. I'm cooking up a batch of mashed potatoes and angeled eggs. I'm getting up around 5 in the morning to make it all.

With classes in full swing, I've had a lot of planning to do. For Sophomore Oral classes, we've (Kat, Michelle, Seth & I) have begun to formulate the lessons plans for this term. The Fall term featured understanding cultures terms; now we're centering on cultural issues. This week we began talking about stereotypes. It's been busy in Sophomore Writing as well, figuring out with a group of 7 of us the direction. But we've got a solid heading now as of our last meeting.

On a team note, Jude began Chinese school. He goes from 8:30 to 11:30 AM. Even though Jennifer says that he often cries every morning outside the school doors, it is good for him to get this experience. Just yesterday, he came back from class with Chinese characters he was learning. Lo and behold, it was 中, which was one we've learned last term. It is a joy to watch him grow in his Chinese!

Speaking of growing, Samantha is now walking. She gets up on the table and will grab any and everything. I keep saying she'll be a computer geek because anytime there's a computer in the room she guns for it. When she's playing at Jude and Will's, if Jude is on the computer, she'll actually kind of push him away to get at it. Whenever the team has times of singing and sharing, she heads straight for the PowerPoint. It is hilarious!

One of my latest digital addictions is "Survivor: China". Kat, Rach, Jonny, Daren, Jennifer, Jude, Will (yes, Will watches intensely) and I  have watched up to 7 episodes. I am thinking of showing it to my students because it features everyday common English: such as arguments, concessions, and forgiveness phrases. Furthermore, it shows culture in terms of group dynamics, alliances, and trust issues. I think they'd get a kick out of it because it also shows them interacting with the Chinese culture, people and language.

Beijing opens $3.6 billion air terminal (March 1, 2008, Xinhua)
Beijing opened a huge new $3.6 billion, Norman Foster designed airport terminal on Friday ahead of the expected influx of millions more visitors coming to this summer's Olympic Games. The impressive new terminal's nearly 3-km (2-mile) long concourse, which is divided into three sections and connected by a shuttle train, will boost capacity at the airport to 76 million compared with the 52 million who used the airport last year. Six airlines will use Terminal 3 initially, including Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways , British Airways and El Al Israel Airlines.

China gears up for faithful during the Games (March 5, 2008, Reuters)
Beijing is setting up sites and training local believers to provide religious services for foreigners attending the Olympic Games, religious officials said on Wednesday. Large numbers of religious faithful are expected among the athletes, coaches and tourists crowding into the officially atheist nation for the Olympics, opening on August 8. China is keen to use the international attention on the Beijing Olympics to promote its economic and social successes and growing openness, including in religion. Fu Xianwei, president of the official Three-self Patriotic Movement Committee for Protestant churches, said Christians in Beijing and other parts of the country were also undergoing language training for the Games. The Catholic community had been doing the same and would hold a mass to pray for the success of the Games on the 100-day countdown, said Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. The Beijing organizers of the Games had responded "positively" to his suggestion that Bibles should be placed in Christian Olympic athletes' rooms, Liu said.

China, US agree on military hotline (February 29, 2008, Xinhua)
China and the United States officially signed here on Friday an agreement on setting up a military hotline between the two defense departments, the Chinese Defense Ministry said. The agreement was signed at the conclusion of a working meeting between the two defense departments which began on Thursday. The Ministry said the two sides also signed an agreement on launching military archives cooperation in order to find US military personnel missing in the Korean War, but did not disclose the details of both agreements. The hotline is aimed at providing instant contact between Chinese and US defense and military leaders on major issues of common concern, especially in emergencies, according to officials with the Defense Ministry.

I know some of you think I no longer exist over here, but I do. Basically, the past four weeks has involved me being in Siping. I'm saving money for the Olympics when my brother and I come in August, so, unlike most everyone else on the time, I didn't travel ANYWHERE. I came to Beijing on the January 7th, came to Siping on January 9th, and have been here since then. The break found many enjoying late nights and late mornings, playing PC games, watching movies and TV shows, and general relaxing. It wasn't until the team all returned - last week - that any real life resumed in our building.

As such, classes began yesterday and the term is in full swing. This term I'll be teaching Freshman & Sophomore Oral and Sophomore Writing. I am excited about my 6th term in Siping and look forward to some good times.