Update

I just found out this week that I will have two excellent classes to
teach not semester: American Literature and Western Culture. I am
really excited about A.L. class because it gives me a chance to
explore these areas myself when I probably would never have studied
them myself.

Yesterday, we went on a trip to Chiang Kou-Shek's homeplace near
Ningbo (Kuomingtang? leader and became president of Taiwan), a city
not to far from the sea! The highway was closed so we took the
backroads; a bus trip that was to take 2 hours ended up taking 4 1/2
hours because the highway was closed due to fog! FOG? :( The place
was very beautiful though; it was said to have the best fengshui (wind
and water) in all of China. We then came back, having luckily taken
the highway this time, in only 2 hours, how great!

After we got back, we went to a Christmas dinner at our friend
Jorgan's (Your-gan). This is the second time we have been invited and
I can tell you it is a fancy affair. This swede spent all day and
night preparing the feast which included REAL swedish meatballs, raw
and smoked salmon, ribs, anchovies with potatoes and onions (yum!),
and my personal favorites: beer, vodka (substituted for shnaps which
they called snaps for some reason I can't explain), and glug (or
glogg), a swedish drink which was excellent. Glug is warm wine with
cinnamon and cardamom; absolutely de-lish!

After the dinner party, we went to our friend Che-Che's bar to
celebrate our friend Paul's 30th birthday party and our friend Mimi's
birthday as well! It was really nice to see everyone, but not that
close; you could barely move. It was held upstairs in a small room
that could have fit 10 comfortably, but then and there was about 25.
But, it was a lot of fun, and I know they had a great party so that is
what matters.

So, today, I will take it easy after all of yesterday. Just relaxing
and trying to work. I am planning a lesson, planning how to grade
six classes papers and then grading them, and I also have to prepare
two finals this week to hand in to the secretary.

Until Later...