Welcome! (The Journey Begins!)

Notice: This is just an intro. Please scroll down for my latest blogs or visit the archives to the right. Thanks for visiting!!!

INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to my Blog! I hope you enjoy the pictures and that through this site you regularly think of all the people and places you see. Feel free to visit the different archives set up to the right. Many of these posts are designed to create virtual walks through the city as you think about what is going on. Some basic introductory walks can be found in the August '07 archive, for example and include "City Tours 1, 2, and 3", "The Apricot Farm Adventure I and II", "Kids of the City I and II", "Traffic Adventures", and more. These are great starting places, but most posts should offer ways to remember the city. Thank you for continually thinking of me, too. I hope my Father blesses you and that your visit here may be an uplifting respite as you traverse Life's Exciting Journey!


Here we go!...

(Cleared for takeoff...Carb. heat off, trim neutral, mixture rich, flaps up, radios and GPS/VORs set, all gages goooooood.......FULL THROTTLE!!!!)

I arrived overseas July 7, 30 hours after I said "bye" to my parents. These pictures were taken at the capital of my country overseas.

Note: Some posts have big black boxes in them. These are videos and you can click the play arrow at the bottom right to watch them. You can also enlarge most pictures by clicking on them.

Capital City 2, At the Wall

I realized that I don't have any pictures in my camera of my parents from when they came in May. We did use their cameras more but I still feel bad that there are two pictures of me here but none of them. We had a blast, though, and after a couple days in the capital we went to my city for more adventures seeing new places, meeting friends, and trying new food. It was fun!

Capital City 1

My parents came to visit in late May and we had some fun adventures. The first pictures listed here are at T. Square, in front of the Forbidden city (entrance seen in the first picture). I apologise for the blurry pictures. I was trying to take pictures over people's heads to get some images of the guards lowering the National Flag that evening. The last pictures are of the Summer palace. I also didn't get very many pictures there because it was so hot and crowded that day. These are good for pr. reminders, though, as we consider this country's past and present.

Summer Palace

A few more scenes from campus

A few more campus pictures here (with the beautiful mountains nearby) plus pictures of some groups that won prizes in the school dance competition. Some
very cool costumes.

My first real winter

In addition to this being my first full winter, locally it was one of the coldest winters they have had in a while, but I unually enjoyed it, besides the fact that 2 out of the school's 3 furnaces broke midwinter leaving my apartment colder than it should have been. Overall a great adventure, though, and you'll see pictures around campus, Christmas trees and a snowman at different restaurants, a music staff drawn into the snow, and some pictures of the Olympic areas under construction when I passed through last January.

The characters to the right are the Olympic mascots, and are named Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. If you take the first part of each name it says, "Beijing huanying Ni" (Beijing Welcomes You).

School Days 1

These pictures show various clubs, classes, and sights from campus life. They were taken last fall. Please remember the students, teachers, administrators, and workers on campus, as well as all the people who will be influenced by them.

Roller-blade club.

Sword dance PE class and guys' high jump class.

School Club Open House

Students in one of my classes (in an older building). A couple classes clapped for me the first day I walked in (which happens sometimes for foreign teachers) and some of the students occasionally took a picture of me as I taught. They've gotten more used to me now I think. : )

School Days 2

The first 3 videos were taken from my place and are of the Roller-blade club. A couple of my friends started the club, and one of them is seen showing off in the first 2 videos (I think that he is just about to fall when the second video ends). The last 3 are of some P.E. classes where they are doing a traditional sword "dance".