China Journal: CHINA: END OF 3RD YEAR.

Finishing up the school year.

Here Dana is in her English class and teaching her students to "SPEAK ENGLISH!" She is an excellent teacher and her students love her.

Jay's classes did drama (skits) this week using the items he provided to the class. They had a ball and really enjoyed the change from their previous, tedious and tiring engineering classes.

This past week, we had three more Christian students from Ghana come to church in our apartment. We had a nice lunch afterward. They are cool.

This was taken on Chinese outfit day at church. This is kind of a Jinan twig "once-a-year" tradition. The twig group photo is priceless however...

Judges at the speech and debate contest---in English.

We entertained a little too.

We took our classes bowling at the big Sofital Hotel bowling alley here in Jinan. It is the only one we have found. We got a great discount rate and most of our student were able to learn about bowling, play two games and have a group photo taken there. The cost was: 8.5 yuan per game with free shoes, or about $1.20 american. They each paid for their experience. They loved it and learned how to bowl. Almost all, about 99%, had never bowled before, or even seen a bowling alley. However, one of the male students bowled a 161 and took the prize -- five more free game coupons.

We went shopping in Qingdao on our vacation there last week with 9 other english teachers. This was a glass shop with giant glass diamonds for sale... I bought a few.

Dana and the others shopped for pearls. They found a lot of them and bought a lot too.

In Qingdao, at the quad in front of the Catholic church, there were about a dozen brides and grooms doing wedding photographs... This couple was willing to pose for us. They all had the same color and fashion design from a rental shop.

We travelled by fast train. In Qingdao, we all stayed in an Elder Hostel there. They are quite inexpensive and quaint. This one is in an old observatory. They served us breakfast up in the top. They had a pet dog. He was the center of attention and even demanded service from the front desk...