Foods of China

As the result of the kindness of many students and their families in China I have had the opportunity to partake in some of the most beautiful and delicious foods I have ever eaten. Here are some photos of the Foods of China.

Travels to Daejeon

My trip to Tokyo, Japan and S. Korea had Hae Jin and I crisscrossing over S. Korea for almost two weeks and then a short trip to Japan meeting with our partners and our students.

On this trip Seulki's parents as well as A Young's and Hae Jin's all made sure I was well taken care of during our travels. Over a period of 12 days Hae Jin and I traveled to six different cities in S. Korea meeting with agencies, students and parents,

Our first stop was in the city of Daejeon, which is south of Seoul. The trip was a two hour car ride through the country-side of S. Korea, where I saw for the first time what I would call "rural" S. Korea. Lots of farms and rice fields and small village with the most modest of houses.

While the purpose of our trip was meeting with students and parents in these various cities a real side benefit was stopping to eat if small traditional Korean restaurants - more like "diners." One of our first meal was something similar to Korean beef barbeque, but uses pork instead. Of course there were a multitude of side dishes, most of which I enjoyed.

Reflections On Our Summer in Asia

I am writing this entry into my blog from the airport in Incheon after almost a month in China and Korea. I miss Dottie, our children and grandchildren tremendously and can’t wait to see them, but at the same time I am not ready to leave Seoul any more than I was ready to leave China two weeks ago. Let me explain.

When I began this journal I thought the "amazing" part of my travels in Asia would be about the eight different cities I would visit, new cultural experiences and historic places; however, I got surprised. The most “amazing” thing about my trip to China and Korea was the warm welcome and generous hospitality families and students extended to me during every moment of my visit. I came away with many friendships with families with whom I visited, which I cherish deeply. More than one family has said, “You and Miss Dottie are a part of our family for always”…and I truly believe they have meant it. Dottie and I feel the same and are humbled by the kindness of students and families. Many of these students have been in our home or our apartment in the dorm, shared meals with us, knocked on our bedroom door at 1:00 a.m., traveled with us to see our grandchildren, celebrated birthdays together, or sat for hours being tutored by Dottie while others have simply gone out of their way to be gracious to Dottie and I throughout the year. In all of this they have become more than students. This bond extends to parents and has lasted through the years even after students have graduated.

I was reminded of this the other night when Dottie, who hadn’t seen Soon Hee (Hae Jin’s mom) for two years, talked to her on Skype and when they saw each other faces they got as excited as two young school girls who were reunited. It certainly brought tears to my eyes as I was reminded once again of how blessed Dottie and I are in having the opportunity to know so many wonderful students and families from around the world. While I visited many historic places, tasted hundreds of different foods and experienced many new cultural customs, students and families were the "amazing adventure" of my trip to Asia. It is they who I will miss and why I wish I could stay longer.

I will return to my home in Dover shortly, but I do know I am leaving a part of my heart in China and Korea where we have life-long friends who we cherish and miss deeply, but who we will see again.

Seoul - History and Karaoke

Went to worship with Hae Jin and her family at their church (Sarang Presbyterian Church) and then met with their pastor. He and I met two years ago and because I was from America he had questions as to whether I was really a true Christian. At the time, he spent 20 minutes peppering me with Bible questions to test my proper understanding of the scriptures. Two years later, things had improved slightly – only 5 minutes of questions. Christianity here in Korea is very strong, vibrant with a heart for missions – America being seen as one of their mission fields.

After worship we ate at a very simple Korean restaurant in the neighborhood where Hae Jin lives. Nothing fancy about this restaurant as Hae Jin said, “its sort of like our Nor’easter.” There are hundreds upon hundreds of these small quaint restaurants where most people eat everyday, if they are not eating at home.

After lunch we spent three hours visiting the Changdeok Palace (1405) which is one of the royal palaces of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). To get in the spirit of things Hae Jin’s sister, Hye Jeong and I got dress up in traditional royal clothing. At the gift shop of the palace Soon Hee bought Dottie a traditional Korean apron that would have been worn during Joseon Dynasty. Soon Hee desperately wants Dottie to come on our next visit. While they talk with each they haven't seen each other in two years and both miss each other greatly.

After dinner at a Korean barbeque restaurant we headed home to relax a bit before heading out for some karaoke style singing. Hae Jin’s family loves to sing and sings when they are cooking, driving in the car or simply walking from place to place. In Seoul (and in the Korean sections of New York and Boston) there are karaoke establishments on every corner. You go in and rent a room that is set up with the most high tech computerized sound machines and you pick from thousands of songs and everyone has a mike and everyone sings. Of course, they wanted to hear me sing some of my favorite songs in English, so I attempted a few – not sure this was such a good idea; however, they all joined in singing with me since most songs have English lyrics along with Korean lyrics. We had a fun time with lots of laughing.

At home we relaxed watching a Korean variety show and Soon Hee feed us lots of fresh fruit. I stayed up til 1:00 a.m. preparing materials for Hae Jin who will continue to do a little follow up work after I leave. Tomorrow I leave to head back to Dover. Before I headed to bed A Young and her dad called to say good-bye and wish me safe travels. I already miss these families for which I have such a deep affection.

Parents and Former Students

Hae Jin I worked together this morning making sure I had everything I needed for the two receptions later today. Hae Jin has another appointment with a student she is tutoring so she will not be able to join me at the first reception. I have asked A Young and Hyuk Woo (Choi) to help me at the first reception, the Student and Parent Reception.

Hae Jin delivered me to the PRAU restaurant at 10:00 a.m. and gave me specific instructions, “do not leave this place and wait here until A Young arrives.” She reminded me that I had not followed similar instructions from Myeonghoe two night ago (and subsequently got lost) and she made it clear her instructions were to be followed, so I complied.

A Young arrived at 10:30 A.M. and she and I went over the guest list and she made name tags for all the guests. When students began to arrive she handed each of the prospective students a polo shirt, luggage tags and a pen. She also made sure we had recorded all the names and email addresses for parents and students in attendance.

Our lunch was made up of traditional Korean side dishes and a variety of Korean soups. Hyuk Woo helped me with the presentation and he did very well. We had 24 parents and perspective students in attendance and with the luncheon lasting almost 3 hours I had plenty of time to talk with parents and students alike. After the meeting parents were busy exchanging emails and phone numbers.

After our luncheon I met with the family of a student who is on academic probation to talk to the parents about next steps. The parents were very supportive of the school and our work with their child. Later in the afternoon I met with a potentially returning student and their mother and sister to discuss the students living situation and the student's fall schedule.

Our former student reception was at 7:00 p.m. and was also held in the PRAU restaurant, although the venue of the meeting was not as fitting as it might have been. Nonetheless, the reception with alumni went very well as students shared with each other their fondest memories of high school and their favorite teacher stories. We had 16 former students in attendance and many made plans to meet at a local wine club following our dinner.

I arrived back at Hae Jin's home around 10:30 p.m. while Hae Jin remained with the other university students who continued to visit at the wine club.

Dinner with Good Friends!

Hae Jin and I left the house around 9:00 a.m. and drove about an hour to our first appointment. The agency is working with a variety of schools including Thornton Academy in Southern Maine. Because of the agency’s location Hae Jin arranged for us to meet in a coffee shop of a popular hotel. Our commute between appointments is limiting us to about 3 appointments per day. We spend our commuting time adjusting our presentation to fit the next client and making phone calls. Today we were busy making arrangements for our reception for parents and students on Saturday at the PRAU restaurant.

Our last appointment of the day was with the President of a company who Hae Jin has become good friends with. During the first twenty minutes of our time together she and Hae Jin just chatted – girl talk I guess. We learned that she was expecting her first child and that the expected child was a girl.
This agency as many of the others has far fewer numbers than in previous years, but because of Hae Jin’s relationship she will try to send a student to us in January.

I had a dinner meeting tonight with three families who I have known for almost 5 years and who have visited in our home in Dover. These are some of the same parents who helped me a great deal when I was here in 2008 and in fact helped organize the student and parent reception which had 66 people in attendance. We enjoyed catching up with each other and ate at the restaurant where I will hold tomorrow’s Student and Parent Reception as well as our Alumni Dinner. We spent a great deal of time sharing about their children whom I still have contact with. We also discussed at length the situation with N. Korea. They all agree that if N. Korea were to sink another one of Korea’s ships there must be a firm response, perhaps even a military response even though it would put Seoul in harms way.

As the evening wore on all 3 women decided I needed some help with tomorrow’s Parent and Student reception as well as the dinner for former students so they talked to the management of the restaurant for me and gave them very specific instruction as what to serve from the menu to guests and what not to serve. All of the women, sensing I could have used some more help in preparing these receptions offered to help plan and organize next year's meeting, but they made me promise to bring Dottie! I am so appreciative of the many good friends Dottie and I have made through the years here in Seoul. We have truly been blessed.

Kangnam Joongang Church

I have had many unique opportunities while in Asia one of them was on Sunday, July 4th when I had the opportunity to preach at the Kangnam Joongang Church in Seoul, South Korea. This is the home church of one of our students A Young Kim and her family. A Young during this past year often ran the PowerPoints for my sermons back in Maine. The Kangnam Joongang church has an active membership of over 5000 people and six services on Sundays with each service having an attendance between 600-800 people. After sharing a little about Foxcroft Academy I preached on God is Able, But if Not. Here is a short video clip from my Facebook page.

Traditional Korean Meal with Dance and Music

Enjoyed a dinner with the family of one of our current students which lasted over 4 hours and involved over 32 side dishes of a wide variety of traditional Korean food. You can view of a video of one of the traditional dances.
Enjoyed talking to Choi's younger sister who is in 8th grade, which is the second year of a Korean middle school. Her English was very good and we talked about everything from her favorite Korean pop music group to her favorite American food, which is chicken.

After dinner Choi's dad had fun dressing me up along with his wife in traditional Korean dress. I had a wonderful time with the Choi family and we made plans to go golfing on my next visit.

Hae Jin and I Visit with Agencies

I arrived at Hae Jin's home last night. Had a wonderful breakfast including my favorite, seaweed soup, which Hae Jin’s mom knows I enjoy. Hae Jin and I spent the first part of the morning organizing our materials and presentations for our meetings today. Hae Jin has worked for our admissions office the past two summers and in fact when Yuna was calling to confirm our appointments earlier in the week everyone wanted to know if Hae Jin would be joining us because they enjoyed her so much. Virtually every consultant with whom we meet sang Hae Jin’s praises for doing such a wonderful job in her role as my translator and scheduler.

We finished our day around 5:00 p.m. after visiting 3 agencies. We continue to hear from agency to agency how currency valuation has hurt the Korean economy significantly having a devastating impact on businesses, employment rate and in our case the number of families who can afford to send their student abroad. One agency which sent 200 students to private boarding students in 2008 will only send a total of 5 students to America in the coming year. This story is being told over and over again.

In the evening I had dinner with the families of one of current students. The meal was a 4.5 hour event of traditional Korean foods as well as traditional Korean music and dance. I arrived home at 10:30 p.m. Hae Jin and her parents had waited up for me and we enjoyed some brownies that Hae Jin had made and then we all talked to Dottie by way of Skype. We headed to bed at 1:00 a.m..

Yuna Leads Our Meetings - Arrive at Hae Jin's Home

A Young came into my room early this morning to see if I was okay from my “journey” on the streets of Seoul and to say she was sorry she couldn’t have been more of a help to me. I explained it was my fault because I didn’t listen to Myeonghoe and stay in the coffee shop. Again, I am learning that the students are able to take very good care of me….but I need to listen to them.

We had breakfast together at 7:00 A.M. and A Young is in her new school uniform and getting ready to leave for an 8 hour school day.

I met Yuna Nam at 9:00 A.M. and we made our way to our first of 5 meetings that would take us to 5:00 P.M. Yuna led the last two meetings with placement agencies and did a great job. She has been a tremendous help with confirming appointments, making new appointments as well as making sure taxi drivers know how to get us from one appointment to the next. Even when taxi drivers got lost (which happens a lot) Yuna knew how to navigate them to our correct address.

I met A Young’s family at 7:00 P.M. for our last dinner together before I moved to Hae Jin’s family. We had dinner outside on the roof of one of the hotels with a large barbeque and buffet dinner including live music. I expressed to A Young and her family how helpful they had been to me during the last 4 days.

Arrived at Hae Jin’s home around 10:00 P.M. Hae Jin lived with Dottie and I while at Foxcroft Academy . Hae Jin's mother, Soon Hee visited us in 2008 and Dottie and Sook Hee have continued to enjoy their relationship. Through the years Hae Jin’s dad and I talk regularly via MSN. When we met in Hae Jin's apartment parking lot so that A Young's family could hand me off to Hae Jin's family everyone gave each other a big hug. I have lived in Hae Jin’s home before and felt as if I was coming home. After two hours of conversation and delicious fruit we headed to bed. I will be staying with Hae Jin for 5 days.

Yuna and Yeon Woo Come to My Rescue

Left A Young’s home at 8:30 A.M. to meet Yuna Nam, a 2010 graduate of SUNY Binghamton with a degree in marketing. A Young had originally planned to help me with all of my meetings while I was staying with her but her "Academy" schedule (summer school) wouldn’t allow it. When Yuna visited Dover-Foxcroft back in May to visit with Smith family Yuna and I had an opportunity to reconnect with her and she offered to help me and in any way she could – so while I was still in China and learning of A Young’s schedule problem I contacted Yuna who graciously said she would help.

A Young’s father picked up Yuna at the subway station and drove us to our first appointment. He gave Yuna enough money to take care of all of taxi needs throughout the day. The first thing I asked Yuna to do as we drove to our first appointment was to call each of each of the appointments for the day to confirm time and place. We learned that two of the consultants had different dates, so she said we would call back to reschedule. After our first meeting Yuna and I found a Tom and Tom’s coffee shop – frequented by university students and set up with free wi-fi. We spent the next 3 hours calling 13 different agencies who I had had contact with and appointments to confirm and reschedule as needed for each of the appointments. I usally do this about a week ahead of time but my schedule in China and my connecting with Yuna late made this difficult.

Yuna had a good sense of what kind of time we would need between each appointment in order to get a taxi and arrive at the next appointment. We left at 2 p.m. for another appointment with a new agency who I didn’t have in my database, but who Yuna discovered as she was making phone calls. After the meeting with the agency we took a taxi to A Young’s father’s business office and he spent time talking to us about his business and vision for his company (credit card processing software). Yuna and I also took time to revisit my schedule for the next four days and in particular our five meetings tomorrow. He then drove us back to subway line 7 at Gangnam-ku where Yuna caught the subway back to her home.

At 5:00 P.M. I met Myeonghoe Son for dinner at PRAU restaurant which is not far from A Young’s home. Myeonghoe lived with Dottie and I and was also very active in our church. We talk to Myeonghoe every few weeks throughout the year and she sometimes calls for help with a particular problem. We had a wonderful time catching up with each other and sharing photos. She wanted to see photos of Samuel, one of our grandchildren who she had particularly grown fond of. After dinner and some coffee at the nearby Starbucks I offered to walk her back to the subway station so she could get home at a reasonable offer (she had a 10 hour school day tomorrow and needed to get home to prepare for it), but she wouldn’t leave me until A Young or her father came to pick me up. Unfortunately neither were near where we were and both were busy with other commitments, so Myeonghoe put me in a coffee shop and told me to stay and wait until they arrived to pick me up, which she had arranged. We said good-bye and Myeonghoe made her way to the subway station. I was curious if I could find my way back to A Young’s home on my own so I left the coffee shop and began walking in the direction I thought her home was. I knew it was close to a Tom and Tom’s coffee shop (great Korean pastries) so I kept stopping and asking people where the Tom and Tom’s was, but no one ever heard of a Tom’s and Tom’s in the area of Seoul that I was in. I was not discouraged so I kept walking in various direction until I was totally lost.

A Young called to see if I was still in the coffee shop where Myeonghoe had put me and I had to confess I was not. She got very worried and called her dad. Through some help of various people I stopped and asked I made my way back to PRAU restaurant where I had begun my journey. A Young’s father had called his niece, Yeon Woo who I had had dinner with and gone to the movies with two nights earlier and she came physically running to the PRAU restaurant. Although only 12 years old Yeon Woo expressed real concern for me and offered to carry my briefcase and when I told her it was too heavy and that I would carry it she told me “no” that she would carry it because she was young and I was too old. We both laughed and I let her carry it – it weighed almost as much as she did. Together we walked back to A Young’s house. During our 20 minute walk she talked about how she really wanted to come to America to study. Her English was pretty good for 12 years old and we carried on a continuing conversation during our whole walk. When we arrived she said that she really enjoyed speaking in English but it was very hard work. I gave her a polo shirt to show my appreciation for her help in getting me “home” safely.

I was exhausted so I went to bed around 11 p.m.

Dinner with You Jin Choi's Family

Woke up at 4:00 A.M. to leave at 5:00 A.M. to play golf with A Young dad's, the pastor of the church and a friend of A Young's dad. The Golf club –Century 21 Club is in mountains outside of Seoul. The course has 5 different 18 hole courses with a Membership of $100,000 US dollars. Needless to say the club was plush...attendants, public baths, spa’s, gardens inside of the lockerrooms, restaurants throughout the course….they were prepared for our arrival every 6 holes with a small meal for us.

Got back to A Young’s house (apartment - no houses in Seoul) around 5:00 P.M. and left immediately to meet You Jin Choi’s parents and sister for dinner. You Jin lived with Dottie and I for two years and the Choi's have visited in our home in Dover and we in theirs in Seoul back in 2008. A Young went with me just to make sure I found them and that we could communicate back and forth. Mr. Choi and his daughter’s English was enough to carry on casual conversations, but having A Young there helped a great deal. (You Jin was in Hong Kong and only joined us by phone) Mr. Choi had us all laughing with his humor and teasing. After dinner we went for coffee.

Mr. Choi’s favorite Korean music group is Wonder Girls and he wants me to come back (with Dottie) and when I come back he and I will go to a Wonder Girl’s concert together - A Young was laughing so hard at his suggestion. The Choi’s wanted me to come to their home and spend a day with them, but A Young explained that my schedule just wouldn’t permit it. They asked me to make more time to visit with them when I return, which I promised I would.

Staying with A Young's Family

I arrived at A Young's home on Saturday afternoon. A Young spent a great deal of time with Dottie and I and in fact when she first arrived in the US Dottie and I had her live with us for a short time because she was so young. Throughout the year she had meals with us, went on trips with us to visit grandchildren and in fact her dad refers to me as A Young's grandfather, a term which expresses the warmth that both we and A Young's family have for each other. So when I began to plan my trip to Seoul A Young's family extended a warm invitation which I was happy to accept. A Young has a very loving and caring family who are treating me with every kindness. I will stay with A Young's family 5 days.

On our first day we did some sightseeing including going to the Seoul Tower which sits on the highest peak in Seoul. Historically this is the place through the centuries which stood as a "watch tower" over Seoul. The smoke signal towers are still in place. We also took part in several ancient Korea battle exercises, but I did not do so well - much harder than it looks. A Young got be to participate in some ancient Korean battle games and then we placed our names together on the Seoul Tower. That evening I had dinner with the Choi family but got home to A Young's home in time to talk to A Young and her dad. A Young's mom got home at midnight from her Academy responsibilities, where she oversees the local "Academy" which provides day and evening instruction for students beyond of the normal school day.

On Sunday morning we left for A Young's church, Kangdam Joongang Church where I had been invited to preach during one to their services. This is a church with an active membership of 6000 people and each Sunday there are 8 services - each with 500 to 800 people. I preached at the 1:30 P.M. service which was geared primarily to college students attending Seoul National University.

Arriving in Seoul - Seulki's Family Provide Needed Rest

I arrived at Seulki Kim's house last night. Seulki attended high school for all 4 years of her high school career and lived during most of that time with Dottie and I in our home. She now is a student at BU in Boston. Over the past 6 years Seulki's family and ours have grown close often exchanging gifts at various points in the year. The picture here is a portrait that Seulki's mother drew of one of our granddaughers (Grace) and I.

When I arrived at the KIM home they could see I was exhausted and made plans to take me to resort on the east ocean on the other side of the Taebaek Mountain range. One of the features of the resort is a very large massage pool. This large pool was about half the size of a football field, but with water massage stations throughout. Every station was meant to massage by water a different part of our body. It was simply incredible if not at times somewhat embarrassing. Of course Seulki I had to take in the water slides too, which to me was more fun.

During our stay we also climbed one of the peaks of the Taebaek Mountains. The Taebaek mountains are located to the east of the peninsula and run along the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Hwangnyong Mountain in North Korea with 1268 metres forms the northern end of the range. Busan lies at the southern end of the mountain range. This makes the mountain range a total length of over 500 kilometres, averaging about 1000 metres in height. Prominent peaks of the range include Mt. Kŭmgang (1,638 m), Mt. Seorak (1,708 m), and Mt. Odae (1,563 m). While near the ocean we went to the fish market to buy fresh squid and octopus and assorted other fish. Seulki’s mom made sushi for us most nights.

Most evening were spent calling A Young, Hae Jin, Yuna Nam, Ji-Yeon Ko and Hoi Young Na trying to set my schedule for next week. I also call A Young’s dad to make sure of my preaching time, which is at 1:30 P.M. on Sunday. I am also having continuing conversations with Larry Li in Beijing,

I appreciated the KIM's good care of me, which provided a little break from the pace we were trying to keep in China.

Saying Good-bye to China

At 5:00 A.M. Pan Yao picked me up at my hotel to catch my flight at the Shenzhen airport which will take me to Shanghai and then onto Seoul, S. Korea. When we got to the Shenzhen airport Pan Yao helped me check in and insisted on paying for my overweight bag.

Saying good-bye to China is difficult, I have made so many good friends and have gotten to see and experience the lives of our students in their homes and various cities. I continue to marvel at the leadership strength and hospitality of our students. In particular I am thankful for, Yuxuan, Diana, Chuqiao, Bolin, Tong, Fa, Adam, Cody, Soki and now Lily, UB, Pan Yao and Weijia Shen who have all helped in significant ways while I have been in China. I am overwhelmed with appreciation for their good care! I will miss the people of China and I have promised to return...with Dottie!

Shenzhen and "Baby"

Lily and her driver picked me up at 8:00 A.M. and we made our way to Shenzhen. We met Pan Yao at the hotel that his family had arranged for me. After checking in we meet Larry Li, who we had also spent time with in Beijing. Larry had a new student he wanted us to interview so we traveled to a restaurant to meet “baby” (Sibei - her real name) and her mother. Lily and Pan Yao took my computer and proceeded with one of the the three presentations we have been using. The student, “baby” is young, but very bright and at the top of her class at the best school in Shenzhen, according to Lily and Pan Yao, who both attended schools in Shenzhen. The mother had no less than 300 questions (it seemed) and Lily and Pan Yao answered all of them.

The mother asked if her daughter, because of her young age could live with my daughter and her family for her first year. I told her that that was a possibility.
We then traveled 2 hours to the Shenzhen Chinaus (China and US) School for a meeting of their owner (President) and administrators. This is a school we have been talking with for over a year via email, so it was good to connect faces to names. The owner overseas 5 such schools in China. This particular school has been built within the last two years and has an elementary, middle and high school. They would like to exchange teachers and students with us, as well as have us help them understand a “western” approach to education. Lastly, they would like to create the ability for Chinaus to award a diploma from a partnering US high school. Because time was short and I had a 5:00 P.M. meeting back in Shenzhen we agreed to continue our very preliminary discussions via email.  Lily traveled with me and took photos as we meet as well as had further conversations with “baby” who came with us as did her mother. Her mother is a personal friends of the President of the 5 schools.

We got back to the hotel in time to meet a new incoming student and her parents. I had left Pan Yao at the hotel while Lily and I traveled to the school, just in case I was late. We were about 20 minutes late and Pan Yao had begun the meeting without me which I had asked him to do. The consultant who was with the new student was very impressed with Pan Yao’s leadership ability in the situation and commented to everyone on his ability.

After our meeting we headed to dinner with Pan Yao’s family and a few other families, including Weijia Shen. Lily and her driver headed back to Guangzhou after a long day. We finished our dinner meeting around 9 pm. Pan Yao wanted to see if I could eat the most spicy food at the restaurant so he kept asking the manager for hotter and hotter dishes. I was a sucker for the challenge because I paid for it that night. Pan Yao also ordered a 4 lb lobster for us - cooked Shenzhen style and it was delicious. I also had octopus and a few other fish dishes which I did not recognize. Got back to my room around 9:30 pm. with enough time to get caught up with a few phone calls and emails.

Students Lead Reception in Guangzhou

Lily and I met at 10:00 am to finalize appointments in Shenzhen before working on our presentation for today’s reception in Guangzhou. Our parent and student reception was held at 11:00 A.M. since today is Sunday. This reception had our largest attendance with 52 students and parents joining us. We had 10 new students and parents as well as 12 returning students and their parents. Lily was joined by Pan Yao and UB who helped lead the meeting. We did a presentation for new parents, one for returning parents and one on 7 steps in applying to American Universities. Once again parents had lots of question of the students which they handled perfectly. After the meeting new parents wanted the cell phone numbers of all the returning students so they could call and see if they could arrange flights for the student to travel with a returning student on their first flight to America. Lily, Pan Yao and UB “worked the crowd” making sure they talked to all new students and parents and answering any questions they may have. We concluded our reception at around 2:30 P.M.

I took the afternoon to get caught up on some work while Lily went to Karaoke with many of the students who attended the reception. She will pick me up at 6 pm to have dinner with her mother and father. In the meantime Pan Yao has made a hotel reservation for me in Shenzhen as well as confirmed two dinner appointments on the 28th.  He had several parents request for additional appointments so Pan Yao and Weijia are working to help me create time. I will leave Shenzhen for Seoul on the morning of the 29th at 6 am, so time left in China is short.

Had dinner tonight with Lily, her parents, sister and brother, her grandparents and her aunt. Many wonderful dishes, of course as usually I had no idea what I was eating most of the time and when I asked for the English name they said that there wasn’t one. We finished dinner at 10:30 p.m. just in time to get back and answer some emails.

I am so proud of all our students who are really doing a great, great job in making my visit to China a memorable one. In particular, Yuxuan, Diana, Chuqiao, Bolin, Adam, Cody, Soki and now Lily, UB and Pan Yao have had a good instinct as to how to best help and how to even protect me from a variety of potential mishaps. Even one of our new students, Weijia Shen has played an important role and I am sure in the years ahead she will be a great help to us.  I am overwhelmed with appreciation for thee students good care of me, although I have to admit that it feels a little funny to have the roles reversed…but I am enjoying it!

Tomorrow the 28th we will be in Shenzhen to visit a school, interview a prospective student, have dinner with three families and meet with a consultant. On the 29th I will leave for Seoul.

Guangzhou - Lily Comes to My Rescue

I had to fly to Guanzhou so we got up at 5:00 am to leave for the airport at 6 am. The night before Diana had arranged for a taxi to pick me up and take me to the airport because Bolin’s driver was taking him for a TOEFL test in Ningbo while Diana had to meet another student at the train station. Diana gave the taxi cab driver specific directions as to what terminal he was to take me and gave me a hug and sensing I was a bit nervous traveling on my own said, “you will be okay dad, you can do this.”

I arrived at the airport one hour later and easily found my way through check-in and then security. The flight was a two hour flight and I arrived in Guanzhou at 10:30 AM. I was picked up by a mother of a new student who had offered to help me. I was going to ask students to help me as I had in other cities but since this mother offered to help back in March I said, “yes”. However, I quickly discovered that having a student help me might work better. I gave a quick call to Lily Wang who immediately said she would be there with her driver. The mother and her daughter continued with us all day along with Lily, but it was Lily who explained to the mother how she could be the best help to me while I was in Guangzhou. Lily will interpret for me tomorrow in our parent and student reception. It is her dad’s restaurant we are eating in so she had already begun to manage the reception piece including making an FA banner. Lily quickly called another student Pan Yao and got him to help out as well. The mother was going to take me to Shenzhen the day after tomorrow by train, but Lily stepped in politely and offered to go with me along with her driver. Tonight Pan Yao and Lily are working on my hotel stay in Shenzhen, which is one of the few nights I will need to stay in a hotel.

Lily has been great all day. She has paid for all our meals and the one time we needed a taxi (she had sent her driver home for the night) she paid for the taxi, even with the parent and new student still with us. Again, students are demonstrating their ability to lead in difficult situations all the while being gracious. The picture is of Lily and her mom and dad and baby sister.

Bus Ride from Wenzhen to Hangzhou

(Wenzhen)
Soki and I got up at 5:30 a.m. and left her home at 6:30 a.m. to get to the bus station in plenty of time to make sure tickets were not sold out! We both got a ticket and boarded the bus at 8 am for a 5 hour bus ride to Hangzhou. We would have arrived on time, but were stopped by the police as they had closed down the highway because a government official and his “party” (no pun intended) were traveling on the road. Soki one more time had to call Mengli (Diana) to let her know we would be further delayed. Diana then called the parents and restaurant and further adjusted my schedule. When we arrived we were picked up by Bolin Zhu’s driver (with Bolin and Diana). Soki and I along with Diana and Bolin traveled from the bus station to the restaurant another 30 minute drive. We finally arrived a little after 2 pm. Bolin’s parents were very gracious and understanding of my many delays and just keep reminding me China has lots of people – which meant it’s hard to ever be on time. Diana had invited 8 students including herself and Bolin and Soki to join us for lunch (Soki could only stay for an hour because she had to catch the train back to Wenzhou.) When she left I walked her out and told her how much I appreciated all her work in getting me back to Hangzhou. Lunch was almost a 2 hour meal that included a few things I hadn’t had including a chicken cooked in mud – the mud acted as an oven of sorts, I think. When they brought the chicken out it was still encased in mud so they gave me the traditional wooden hammer to crack the mud open after which everyone applauded.

Diana had also schedule another meeting with a consultant from Taiwan at 4:00 in the same restaurant, so after lunch and some picture taking Diana marched me to my next appointment but promptly told me I had only 30 minutes because we needed to leave at 4:30 P.M. to make our 5:30 parent and student reception.

We arrived for the parent reception on time. Adam’s mother who had hosted an earlier meeting had also arranged and paid for our entire parent reception. She had her staff set up the room. We had 47 parents and students attend the reception including Bolin and Diana (alumni). Diana had suggested that I allow Adam interpret for me instead of herself since Adam’s mom was hosting the reception. I told Diana she was a so smart for making this suggestion and I wouldn’t know what to do without all her help…she smiled.


After the reception I met with 4 families individually for short periods of time to give them brief updates on their child. Parents again shared their appreciation for our good work in caring for their students. Aki’s parents also requested a meeting in Shenzhen when I am there so we are working on the details.

After all the meetings Diana and Bolin took me shopping (10:00 P.M.) to see if I could find a dress for Dottie. I lasted about 30 minutes and told Bolin and Diana I need to go back to the hotel that I was exhausted from all the meetings and travel during the last three days between Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhen. A lesson learned: Don’t book as many meetings in such a short time span when so much travel is required – give myself at least two days in any one city.

An Unforgettable Train Ride to Ningbo

(Hangzhou to Ningbo to Wenzhen)
I spent the morning getting caught up on emails, communicating with our office back in the US and making additional appointments for my time in Korea, as well as downloading and then uploading photos to my computer and the posting to my Shutterfly Photo Gallery, which is getting harder and harder to find time to do, because of the lack of time. Diana, Bolin Zhu and I left for the train station around 9 am and arrived at 9:30 for me to catch my train to Ningbo, which departed at 10:00 A.M.. (view our Shutteryfly Gallery)

Any explanation of train stations in China will fall short of any adequate description. It is thousands upon thousands of people pushing and shoving with no description in English of where one was to go to catch one of 20 or so trains headed in various directions. Even Diana who had me “by the hand” couldn’t find her way through the maze and had to ask a police officer no less than 4 times for directions and we finally were escorted by an officer to our train which was up a flight of stairs down a corridor and then down another set of stairs and through another corridor – all the time push and shoving merely to move through the crowd. We arrived at my high speed train found my car number and got me on board and within less than a minute pulled away. All I could think was “I hope I am on the right train.” I was sweating, out of breadth and so very thankful Diana “held my hand”. This is the first part of my travel that I will be traveling without Diana and to say I am a bit nervous would be an understatement.

I now sitting on the train trying to understand the various stops we are making and trying to listen for “Ningbo”….hahahaha….I don’t understand a thing they are saying. I will be met at the train station in Ningbo by Amy, an agent from Shinyway. Diana has called her and made all the arrangements so I am confident if I get off at the right station someone will meet me. After my meeting with Shinyway I will have dinner with Cody, Lulu and Soki and their parents. These are 3 students who Dottie and I have gotten to know over the last semester and who have grown very close to our family often going on trips with us. Soki and Cody are Dottie’s students and often visit her in our home for help in physics. Soki will make sure I get on the right train in Wenzhou and will in fact travel back with me to Hangzhou to make sure I don’t get lost. I am overwhelmed at our students and their families and how kind and gracious they have been to me.

On my train ride to Ningbo I had a Korean gentlemen sitting next to me and he could clearly see that I was nervous about missing my stop so he spoke to me in perfect English – what a relief!! By God’s good grace he was getting off at my same stop in Ningbo (Ningbo had two stops and he knew which one I needed). The high speed train arrived at around 12:30 p.m. Once off the train my new Korean friend (Han) guided me outside to where I was to meet Amy from Shinyway. It was pouring rain and he provided an umbrella for me while I looked for Amy. Finally someone from Shinyway’s office found me and the driver was a parent of one of our new students. As I got in the car I learned that we would first have lunch with the new student and his parents at his house. The new student’s grandmother had cooked an elaborate meal. Also at the meal was the student’s English teacher who had fairly good English skills. We spent about 2 hours visiting and then I was driven to Shinyway’s office in Ningbo. I was greeted by Amy and Michael (who I often exchange emails with weekly) who led me to a TOEFL class in their office complex where I spoke to about 21 students from grades 6-10. This was an unexpected meeting as was the earlier lunch with a new student and his parents. These unexpected meeting have typified much of my trip. People knowing I am in China have on their own without checking with Mengli arranged for additional meetings which has made an already tight schedule tighter. Mengli has also refused several meetings in a polite manner explaining to parents or agencies my tight schedule.

Most of these parents I later saw at a parent reception and Mengli made sure I spent a few minutes with each. After my 90 minute meeting with the 21 students another new student and his parents wanted to visit with me. In Ningbo I had Cody NI one of our current students help me, because Mengli had remained in Hangzhou. Cody did all the interpretation with the new parents. Following this meeting, Cody and I met with 8 consultants from Shinyway in a Q & A session which lasted about 45 minutes. Again I did little talking with Cody was able to answer most questions – many having to do with the care and nurture of students at our boarding schools. Parents in China, understandably want to know that their children are being well care for. We left Shinyway’s office at around 5:30 p.m. for a 6 pm dinner meeting with Cody, Soki and Lulu’s parents.

The dinner with these 3 students and their parents was one of the highlights of my trip. I shared many photos of the 3 students as well as a few videos of them at various activities in our apartment as well as in school. While the students were totally embarrassed the parents were much appreciative of our good care of their children and expressed great appreciation. The dinner featured many traditional dishes which I had already had, but some new ones were pigs hand, lily salad (made with lilies…the flower) and chicken feet.

We left dinner and Soki and her parents and I made our way to the train station to catch our train to Wenzhou. We took the bullet train which travels at 158 mph. We left at 9:30 PM and got their around 11:00. However while on the train Soki told me my train ride back to Hangzhou in the morning would leave Wenzhou at 1 pm and get me to Hangzhou at 4 pm. (Originally I was to leave Wenzhou at 8 am, but tickets were sold out when Soki’s parents had gone to buy them) When we called Mengli to let her know she informed me that she had schedule a 12 noon lunch meeting for me with Bolin’s parents and about 8 students. (She thought I would be back in Hangzhou at 10 A.M. and built my schedule based on an earlier arrival time). For the entire time on the train to Wenzhou Soki, her parents and Diana tried to solve the problem of how to get me back for my 12 noon meeting in Hangzhou. Soki and Diana must have exchanged at least 5 phone calls while Soki’s parents were calling the train station in Ningbo. They called friends who might be available to go to train station to buy me a “standing” ticket prior to ticket offices closing. Unfortunately “standing” tickets were sold out precluding any friends or their driver from making their way to the Ningbo station. We finally decided Soki and I would take a bus together which would leave Wenzhou at 8 am and get me into Hangzhou at 1 pm and then Mengli (Diana) would reschedule the lunch for 1 pm.

We got to Soki’s home around 11:00 p.m. I met her sister who upon entering the home immediately went to her electronic organ and played me a number she will be playing in her recital next week. Her sister is 10 years old and as cute as they come. Soki and I stayed up talking and reading and answering emails until 1:00 A.M.

Students Lead Seminar on University Placement

Got up at 5:30 am and had breakfast with Mengli’s mother and grandmother (we are still in Diana’s city Chanxing). Have no idea what I was eating since neither speak English (Mengli was still sleeping), but it was good. Spent the morning catching up on emails and updating my photo gallery and trying to reach Dottie on Skype.

We leave at 8 am for Hangzhou to meet with an agency at 10:30 A.M. and then lunch with Adam’s mother and maybe a few other students. We will meet with another agency at 4 pm and then do a presentation on How to Gain Entrance into America’s Top Universities at 7:30 P.M. for a group of parents the agency has brought together. Mengli has arranged and organized everything. She will also be my interpreter in all the meeting and the presentation tonight.

We have had a full day. After a 2 hour car ride to Hangzhou, which Diana’s (Mengli) parents provided for us from Changxing to Hongzhou we went directly to meet with Shinyway one of China’s largest agency and a partner with us in recruiting students. The agency has over 400 agents in Beijing, Shanghai, Hongzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and several other Chinese cities. On this day the results had just come out of the college entrance exam taken by all Chinese seniors in their final year of high school. The agency was filled with parents and students who did not score well enough to get into top Chinese universities and wanted to explore study abroad option so that they could get into top American universities. In China GPA, difficulty of classes, much less extra curricular activities or teacher recommendations have zero influence into gaining entrance into a top university. Everything is based on the result of this one test. As a result, if a student does not score well they either need to look at joining the work force or attending what Chinese would consider sub par universities or coming to America – many choose to come to America. It is clear that many parents see the hand writing on the wall even in a student’s 9th or 10th grade year and choose an American boarding school. This is certainly true for 30% of our Chinese students.

We had lunch with a student and his parents and then were joined by two other students. In getting to all these meeting in Hangzhou Bolin Zhu’s mother had arranged for a private driver for Mengli and I – of course it was helpful that Bolin is dating Mengli. After our lunch which was at a famous restaurant reported to be Chairman Mao’s favorite restaurant on the West Lake in Hangzhou, we headed to another agency owed by Adam’s mother. After our meeting we all went to dinner. After dinner the agency had arranged for me to give a presentation, “How to Gain Entrance into America’s Top Universities”, with a group of over 60 parents and students who were considering studying abroad options at an American private school. We started the seminar at 7:00 p.m. and finished at 10:00 pm and got back to hotel at 11:30 p.m. Mengli and I led the seminar for about an hour and Mengli did and excellent job answering parent and student questions. The agency had arranged an interpreter for me but I insisted on using Mengli, who politely said she didn’t mind taking a break if the agent wanted to interpret, but I insisted. Mengli is exhausted and I feel bad for her, but I have the greatest confidence in her so I politely asked Mengli to interpret which she did willingly. She was great and the agency applauded her as did all the parents and students. During the last hour of our seminar she was joined by some of our other students Bolin Zhu and Adam who with the Chinese agency answered questions on private schools in America. Again our students “stole the show”. I pointed out to the agency that this was important lesson for all of us to learn – that while we are professionals it was our students that the parents and their children wanted to hear from and not so much for us.

Wuzhen - Ancient Chinese Village

Diana's grandmother had gotten up early to make me dumplings and eggs. The night before she had allowed me to help her – she showed me how – to make dumplings.

The day was spent mostly in Wuzhen (www.wuzhen.com.cn), an ancient Chinese village about two hours from Diana’s home. We were joined by Alan and his parents and Diana’s aunt (mom’s brother’s wife). We spent about 4 hours touring the village including a boat ride down the “river” (canal) which wove its way through the village. The village was built around 1600 during Qing Dynasty. While some of it was destroyed during the People’s Revolution of the 1960’s it has been restored by the government and today has people living in the village an operating old shops, much like you might see in Williamsburg, VA. See my Kodak Photo Gallery for photos of Wuzhen
We went to lunch and then went to all get a massage, which was just fun. Each of us had an attendant and I had a young girl maybe 18 years of age who was totally embarrassed that she had me, because I was the first American to visit their place. The massage consisted of an arm and shoulder massage, then an elaborate foot massage and then a back and leg massage. The whole process took about an hour and half. To say I was uncomfortable would be an understatement. The only comforting factor was that Mengli, Alan and their mom’s and Mengli’s aunt were all in the same room with me. The massage required you to lay down on a bed, but I couldn’t relax enough to lay down so I sat up almost the entire time which Mengli’s mom and Alan’s mom found funny as did the girls who were giving the massage.

We went to dinner about 6 pm with Diana and Alan and their parents and Diana’s aunt, her husband and daughter. They had brought their daughter to talk to me about attending a private school in America. For dinner, which again was about 14-16 side dishes and included such delicacies as duck tongue, pig’s face and jellyfish. I tried everything although I stuck primarily to the salmon and squid which were my “safe bets”.

After dinner Alan and Diana’s parents and I went to a coffee shop to discuss Alan’s college application process. Both Alan and Diana joined us for the discussion which Diana translated. Both sets of parents expressed their extreme pleasure in our taking care of their children. The repeated themselves more than once expressing their appreciation often making reference to the years that Diana spent in our home and Alan’s frequent visit in our home. I gave Alan and his parents a list of 6 things Alan needed to work on this summer to prepare for the college application process. We headed home around 10:00 pm. Diana and I are now sitting on her living room couch getting caught up on emails and phone calls. Diana during the day and in the midst of all our site seeing had arranged for our transportation to Hangzhou tomorrow morning, confirmed all of our appointments, confirmed our place to stay for 3 days (although I will be in Ningbo and Wenzhou for 2 days), made an appointment with Adam’s parents and invited 3 other current students to have lunch with us tomorrow. She also will take me to the train station for my trip to Ningbo and then meet me at the train station when I return from Wenzhou with Soki. Mengli has arranged transportation from the train station back to the hotel and then to our 5 pm dinner. She has also arranged transportation to the Hangzhou airport for my flight to Guangzhou the following morning. To say that Diana is taking good care of me is an understatement. She has been my guardian angel on this trip.

Mengli and I stayed up to 1 am working on the next day. I also was able to have a Skype conversation with Nam Yeon LEE who is working at the Korean consulate office in Vietnam. While in the US Nam Yeon and Dottie shared a weekly bible study together, Nam will try to contact some potential Vietnamese students for me.

Flight to Hangzhou and then to Changxing

We all got up early as we prepared to catch early morning flights. Mingli and I were headed to Hangzhou but on different flights and Yuxuan and Vivien to a city near Hangzhou where Vivien’s biological parents live.

As I reflect on my stay with Yuxuan’s family I only with I had more time with them. They are one of the most gracious, kind and warm families I have ever met in my travels. There is nothing they would not have done for me. I will miss watching the World Cup game with them, rising early to eat Yuxuan’s mother’s bread and her “instant” coffee of the many historic sites Mr. Wang (Ivan) took the girls and I and in general the helpfulness he always provided. They understood my need to spend time with other families and they helped along with Mengli to arrange those times and the transportation. We made plans to visit again soon. They want Dottie to join me on the next trip. They also plan to all attend Yuxuan’s graduation. This was a family that after 4 short days together I felt as if I had become an extended member. I will miss them greatly and look forward to our next meeting.

After an hour a half flight delay I arrived in Hangzhou from Beijing. Mengli’s parents meet me there (Mengli had arrived about 30 minutes earlier on a separate flight from Beijing.) We traveled to Mengli’s home town of Changxing which was about a two hour drive. Her town has a population of about 460,000 people, but it is still very rural with lots of open land, mountains and farms. We stopped on our way home for lunch and ate at a small restaurant but in a private dinning room which they had reserved. In the afternoon Mengli’s uncle took us to one of China’s oldest Tea farms which had its origins back around 730 AD and produces tea called Zixun tea on the Guzhu Mountain in Changxing. This was the tea farm which produced tea for the royal family in Beijing. That evening we had dinner with Mengli’s parents, Alan’s parents, Mengli’s former English teacher and her husband and Mengli’s aunt and her husband along with the uncle who took us to the tea farm. We began dinner around 7 pm and did not leave until after 10 p.m. Mengli’s former English teacher dominated the conversation, which people recognized and commented on afterwards, but everyone loves her because of her kind spirit. See my Diana’s home and the Zinun tea farm.

We worked on emails and phone calls till about midnight and went to bed. I was abruptly woken because the security system around Diana’s house kept going off. In the morning Diana shared that her mother was worried about me and kept testing the security system to make sure it worked.

The Forbidden City

Left for the Forbidden City at 9:00 AM. (See Shutterfly Photo Gallery pictures). The Forbidden City is named as such because only the royal family – emperor, his family and those serving the emperor could live in the royal city. The city is comprised of as many as 100 palaces which stretch for a mile or so. The royal city was built in the early 1400’s during the Ming dynasty and existed through the Qing dynasty and until the Boxer Rebellion in 1911. The vastness of the city with its attention to ornate details which all carried special significance was more than one could comprehend in even several visits, Mr. Wang who has been to the city several times since he was a little boy was still learning details he was not aware of….in part because the history of the city spans almost 600 years. After our tour of the Forbidden City, with another 100,000 people or so we had lunch at a very modest but traditional Chinese Restaurant. After lunch we all went home for a rest before taking off for the Royal family’s Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was built in the 1600’s during the Quig Dynasty by the mother of the emperor who wanted a cooler place for her son during the hot summer months. She created a hand dug lake that must be a mile wide by two miles long and around which the palace is built. The different buildings in the Summer Palace are connect by the longest outdoor corridor in the world measuring about a half mile in length.

After time at Yuxuan’s home to shower and get cleaned up we went out for a 7 pm dinner. This was again a elaborate dinner in a private dinning area. After dinner we began a discussion of Yuxuan’s future plans which the parents had made. Yuxuan had no opinion what she should do after high school so the parents had determined she would study art and design. They wanted to know what courses she needed to take over the next two years to get into a good art and design school. Both Mengli and Vivien helped me try to explain to the parents that it was important that Yuxuan participate in the decision of what her future goals should be. They expressed appreciation for my role as a "grandfather" in Yuxuan’s life and asked if I would continue guide her studies.

We got home around 11:00 p.m. and all watched some World Cup Soccer as we waited for Mengli and Yuxuan to return home which they did around 12 midnight. Vivien and I also looked at the Program of Studies for an art school which Yuxuan would like to attend in NYC. In the midst of the conversation we somehow got talking about how clear the skies were in Dover and how you could see thousands of starts and Vivien commented, “I haven't seen a star since I was a little girl.” The reason is that the amount of pollution that surrounds Beijing and so many Chinese cities.

Beijing Parent Reception and Great Wall

We left for the Great Wall of China this morning at around 9:00 A.M.. As we drove I was amazed at the mountain ranges surrounding Beijing and on/in which the Great Wall is built. I am not sure their elevation is equal to the height of mountain ranges in the western mountains of the US, but they certainly had the height and maybe more so of any of the mountains in the east. When we arrived there were thousands upon thousands of people arriving to a site that was very tourist orientated. We paid an admission price and had vendors along our climb up to the wall trying to sell all types of items from hats to maps. Places to eat also marked the entry way, perhaps similar to any of our national parks. Once on the wall you could see the wall winding its way through the mountain range as far as your eye could see. I understand from Mengli that the wall is over 4000 miles in length. The wall itself was packed with people and moving along the wall was slow. The steep inclination of the wall at various points made climbing difficult and had me stopping to catch my breath….although Yuxuan and Mengli were often behind me asking me to slow down. We spent about an hour on the wall itself walking maybe a mile or so before beginning our descent. In my Shutterfly Photo Gallery I have included a number of pictures of our time on the wall. I can not describe the sense of awe that you feel while walking on the wall knowing that the wall represents one of the most historic landmarks in all of human history.

We got back to Beijing just in time for our 1:00 P.M. parent meeting, although with no time to shower or change. Our lunch was scheduled in an ancient Chinese garden that had many separate building throughout the various gardens with each building set up as a separate small “houses” of sorts, much like you might see in a Japanese Garden. Each small house was beautifully adorned with everything from outside ponds and water falls to the insides with many historic and color full appointments including the most beautiful woodwork, paintings and ceilings and walls painted with bright colors highlighted by gold. I felt I had stepped back into China as it might have been 600 or even a 1000 years ago. I have included pictures of these “houses” and gardens in my Shutterfly Photo Gallery marked China – Beijing. The meal that was served was a 19 course meal and included such items as Petals of Chrysanthemum with Rose Carnations and Onions (it was the most delicious salad I have every eaten), Donkey meat with Garlic Sauce, Goose liver Aspic, Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish, Kung Pao Shrimps with walnuts, Pan Fried Deer Filets with Onions, Shark’s Fin with fish Maw Chicken Soup BaiFu Style and Fried Australian Beef. Needless to say I am not going hungry in China. Our meeting with the parents and their student took us to 3 pm. Again, the work of Mengli in helping to translate was critical since neither parent spoke any English. We quickly made our way back to Yuxuan’s home (30 minute drive) to get showered and changed for our 4 pm Parent Reception.

I arrived at the parent reception a few minutes late (traffic is just indescribable) and with the help of Yuxuan’s older sister Vivian who just finished her master’s work at a Chinese University in English studies. As we arrived parents and students warmly greeted us in he lobby of the hotel Vivian took charge (Mengli and Yuxuan were still back at the house getting showered and changed) of making sure the room had been set up correctly and securing for me an LCD projector and screen which the hotel had forgotten to provide. The hospitality of the Chinese people is most amazing. I have rarely felt so welcome. We had 42 parents and students with us from 4 pm until 7:30 p.m. Mengli, Vivian and a current student Chuqiao Ren helped with my two presentations: Life at a US Boarding School (pictures and videos) and How to Gain Entrance into Top American Universities. During the later presentation parents and students all had notebook paper out and were busy taking notes. Mengli who is now enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute helped me handle the many questions on the American university entrance process. She much like Yuxuan the day before took charge of the meeting and I merely became a casual observer.

A consultant who attended our meeting with her two students and their parents commented following the dinner, “I am so amazed at the leadership abilities of all of your Chinese students they are so confident of themselves unlike many Chinese students here in China. You have done a good job in developing future Chinese leaders and the parents who are with me tonight can tell the difference and are now confident they have chosen the right school for their children.”

What in part led to this comment was that many of current Beijing students who attended this reception took the initiative to go and introduce themselves to new students and their parents and to sit at their tables answering any question the parents and students had to ask. I was once again so proud of our students. I am quickly learning much like I did in Korea two years ago that my most effective role is merely as a facilitator - that the students are capable of leading many of these meetings and in fact parents while enjoying hearing from me on some subjects really enjoy talking to students and find these conversations the most helpful. I left the meeting beaming inside with pride at our students - they are the best in the world…slightly bias, but nonetheless true.

We returned home to Yuxuan’s home where after getting caught up on emails Yuxuan’s family and I took in the World Cup Soccer match between Ghana and Australia. As we watched the game Yuxuan’s mother served us assorted fruit. We all headed to bed shortly after midnight.

Arriving in Beijing

I am here in Beijing at Yuxuan Wang's home for the next few days. My plane landed at 11:45 pm on the 17th (left at 11 am on the 16th), but we didn't get to Yuxuan’s home until 2:00 A.M. because Beijing's airport has 3 separate terminals each about 25 minutes from the other. Yuxuan and her family went to terminal 3 (for international flights), but I landed at terminal 2 for some unknown reason. Yuxuan and I spent over an hour talking to each other on the phone (glad my iphone works here in China) trying to find each other and telling each other where we were in the airport until we realized we were at two separate terminals of the same airport. I finally had to give my phone to a Chinese policeman who talked to Yuxuan's dad and together they discovered we were at different terminals. All is well that ends well, I guess. We stayed up until almost 4 am talking and sharing pictures and eating lots of fruit.

After a short sleep we got up early (June 18th 6:30 am) had tea eggs and rice cakes, which Yuxuan cooked. We will leave shortly to begin meetings with parents and consultants. Diana who lived with Dottie and I for three years is here also with Yuxuan - they became good friends this year and Diana is coordinating all my meetings.

Footnote: My flight which left Seattle went by way of Alaska and then into the Russian fly zone along the North Korean border and then down to Beijing. Glad the pilot knew where he was going!

June 18, 2010 (cont.)What a wonderful day! It was a full day which began around 8:00 A.M. and didn’t get us home (Yuxuan’s home) until after 1:00 A.M. It included everything from a 13 course meal to a breathtaking walk to Tiananmen Square.

After an early breakfast, which Yuxuan prepared Mengli (Diana) was busy on the phone confirming meetings for the day and getting last minute driving instructions. While I was a little worried about how I would get from meeting to meeting in a city of 20 million people and 5 million cars I did not need to worry. Mengli and Yuxuan had arranged for our transportation to all of our meetings throughout the day. We left the house at 9:30 A.M. for our first meeting with a parent and their student which was scheduled for 11 am. In my mind I had thought this would likely be a meeting with maybe some tea and Chinese snacks of some kind. I couldn’t have been further from the truth. What I discovered was that the parents had arranged was a meal at one of Chinese most famous restaurants in our own private dinning room. For almost two hours we partook in an elaborate meal with our own two chefs and no less than 4 attendants who served and explained the 13 separate courses which included, in the following in order:
Crispy Mushroom in Tomato
Sliced Canadian Geoduck Clam with Sichuan Pepper
Icy Asparagus with Assorted Sauce
Pickled Beef Tripe Slices
Argugula Salad with Parmesan Cheese
Traditional Beijing Snack
Boston Lobster Noodle with Traditional Beijing Bean Paste
Steamed Alaskan King Crab with eggs with Shaoxing Wine
Scorched Bolete
Muberry Sherbet
Grilled Beef Steak Chinese Style
DaDong Roast Duck
Tiramisu with Sugar Coated Fruit

Each dish was a work of art that initially you just wanted to look at and take in their beauty.

We left our first meeting a little after 1:00 pm and made our way to a placement agency’s office about 30 minutes away. The agency has 4 current students with us and would like to place two more for our fall semester. We spent a little less than 2 hours providing a short presentation on private schools in New England, updates on their four students as well as learning about the two new students they would like to place. About half an hour prior to the end of our meeting I saw Mengli on her phone making sure our next ride was waiting for us outside. It was at this point I began to truly relax realizing that these two girls had my whole day fully under their control. Our next meeting which was about a 45 minute drive was also with a placement; however, to my surprise they had arranged for a student and mother to meet with us who were considering attending one of the private schools in New England.

We spent over an hour talking to the daughter and mother. Yuxuan surprised me by taking the lead in much of the conversation explaining to both the mother and daughter the educational system in America. Yuxuan had the meeting so well in hand I began to think I could go out for some coffee, which I desperately needed; however Diana had already anticipated that and sent for some coffee. We ran out of time so the head of the agency and I made arrangements to meet again at the train station in Shenzhen later next week. Mengli had us off again for a dinner meeting at 6:00 P.M. with another family in one of Beijing’s oldest traditional restaurants. What made this dinner so unique is that after our dinner with so many courses we moved to another room of the restaurant that provided us with a theater performance of traditional Chinese opera, dance and kung fu.

At about 10 pm Yuxuan’s dad picked us up from the restaurant and suggested we take a walk to Tiananmen Square which was only a 30 minutes from where we were. The girls talked pretty openly about their feeling about the “incident” in 1989 at Tiananmen Square, after which they commented, “We love our country, but that doesn’t mean we love the Party.”

After Tiananmen Square Yuxuan’s father suggested we go to a night club/pub/sports bar area of Beijing. The streets, which did not permit cars, was filled with university students and young people crowding the streets. Street vendors lined the streets and the sound of music just filled the air as we walked past each of the establishments. The restaurant/bar that Yuxuan’s dad took us to featured a live band that sang Chinese pop songs which everyone joined in on singing. We left the bar at 12:30 am and got back to Yuxuan’s home at around 1:15 am. I should mention that at this point in the evening the girls were exhausted and Diana actually fell asleep with her head on the table.

I too was feeling a bit tired but when I got back to Yuxuan’s home I opened my email to discover about 26 emails that needed at least a brief response. While the girls headed to bed Yuxuan’s mother was kind enough to stay up with me while I finished my work, including writing this entry into the blog.

Tomorrow we have our large Beijing parent reception at 4 pm, preceded with another private parent meeting at 1 pm, but we will begin the morning early by going to the Great Wall of China. I have been told to make sure I have my hiking shoes on. Its time for a good night’s rest-even if it’s short.

Sleepy in Seattle

My flight out of Bangor left this morning and took me to Detroit where I had about 25 mintues to catch my connecting flight. I was glad I had my tennis shoes on as I took off from gate C-40 and found my way to gate A-70. I am so thankful for luggge with wheels!! I was the last person to board after which they immediately closed the door! Now sitting in Seattle with a 3 hour wait for my flight to Beijing. Observation: airports need to put in more electrical wall outlets so those fyling can recharge their electric devices. I did find one but had to put a garbage can up against the plug to hold the plug in the socket. Looking forward to Beijing...but not the flight. Picture from 2008 trip.

Technology and Travel in Asia

For the last 3 weeks I have been reading every article and blog on "tips" for traveling in Asia, particularly how I can use the latest gadgets and apps to do everything from staying in touch with people back home to checking flight status to accessing maps of subways while on the go to what cell phone service to use. Here are some quick tips:

• Your iphone will work in China, but you need to contact AT&T for worldwide traveler service, but be prepared to pay $2.99 a minute...and be sure to turn off your data feed.


• You also can have your iphone unlocked which allows you to use a Chinese SIM card...I am still working on this one....on hold with AT&T even as I write.


• Use your Skype account to make calls on your computer which allows you to make free calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world and if you use Skype to dial home its just a few cents per minute (vs. AT&T). The downside is that depending on your internet connection your conversation can sometimes be broken up. Skype also has video ability which can be used as you talk from one Skype user to another. Last night we loaded Dottie's computer with the Skype application which is free and downloadable from the internet....now to teach her how to use it.


• You can purchase Boingo Mobile service which will allow your iphone access to the internet just about anywhere in the world including hotels, McDonald's, Starbucks etc. The downside is the review on this iphone application are mixed.


• About a month ago I downloaded to my iphone an app called Tripit (which I can also access on my computer) which keeps track of all of my itineraries. You simple email your travel plans that you received from your travel agent or the website on which you purchased your ticket and Tripit automatically puts it into your itinerary (how it does this is beyond me - but it works) Tripit then sends you updates on all your flights as well as provides maps for all the cities you will visit. It also has the ability to merge all the information into your icalendar.


• Blogspot is probably the easiest way to keep friends informed. Since Facebook is not allowed in China an RSS feed from Blogspot to Facebook will allow your posts to Blogspot to also be posted to your Facebook page (at least that is my hope). An RSS feed on your Blogspot from your Twitter account will also allow your Twitter updates to be posted on your Blogspot page.


• I also am going to use Shutterfly to make updates to my blog and Facebook account for large photo files, but I think you can use other more popular photo sites as well.


• In Korea my iphone may not work so I may rent a phone at the airport, which is what I had to do during my last visit.


• My back up plan is that the six students who will be taking care of me while I travel (Mengli, Yuxuan, Soki, Seulki, A Young and Hae Jin) all have cell phones....and I have all their numbers and given those numbers to people in my office at the Academy.

The more I read the more I realize I should have started this research 4 months ago, but the experience over the next few weeks will be an education in itself.