Blogs from Dongbei, China, Asia

Today was our second day of class. We only had one class today, which was Chinese Business. The class was very insightful. There are several aspects to Chinese business that I didn’t really think about before, but I don’t have time to go into much detail at the moment. The class was pretty interesting, many students had questions throughout the lecture. After class we took a trip to visit the Dalian Software Park. It had many companies on premises, including several big name companies. I was surprised just how many different companies were housed within the Dalian Software Park. I only expected the park to be 2-3 buildings, but it was way more than that. The buildings spanned quite a bit of land as well. The park really took me by surprise, and I would like ... read more

Today was our first full day in Dalian. We met with a faculty member from DUFE that would be assisting us during our stay. She took us to an area to meet up with 2 students from English Club to tour us around campus. The campus was a lot larger than I expected, but some of the buildings were older than I expected them to be. Overall though, the campus was very beautiful. The campus even had a garden area with a pond and small waterfall. There were many trees throughout campus, for some reason I did not expect there to be many trees there. After the campus tour, we went to the International Canteen for a welcome lunch. We were given many different dishes to try, but some were not as good as the others. ... read more

ts been a few weeks since my last posting. Lots of fun adventures exploring the Dong Bei region and settling into Changchun City. I enjoy so much planting myself and getting to know people, the place and the history of a place. Tours are what they are... very nice, tidy and well planned. I like um! But there is something about staying put a bit that also pleases my soul with a sense of connection that I love, for better or worse. So here I've planted myself the last few weeks in Changchun, Dongbei, Jilin Province, China... north of North Korea. Last weekend I visited the border and enjoyed an Easter Korean Service and a gorgeous after service Korean bbq. Lots of great fellowship and testimonies. Glad I'm here... honored to hear the stories. Mongolia is ... read more

The Year of the Lamb. I'm honored and thrilled that my once in a lifetime, three month, first ever visit to Middle Kingdom happens with The Lamb. "Sheen Knee-Ann Quai La" i.e. Happy New Year 2015 happened while I was in Beijing: red banners, red cut out posters, fireworks and all sorts of LAMBS! Chinese: 羊 yángLamb/Sheep (goat, or ram) are among the animals that people like most. They are gentle and calm. Since ancient times, people have learned to use fleece to make writing brushes and wool to keep warm. The white cute creature often reminds people of beautiful things. Last week before the street musicians and dancers encounter, I'd spent the morning at Jilin History Museum. The... read more

"Begin at the beginning. Go all the way through to the end and then stop." ~Lewis Carroll~ Maybe the Cheshire Cat's advice to Alice? Who remembers but I feel ya Alice in Wonderland. I've fallen through: beautiful reflections, passions, distractions, inspirations, curiosities, considerations, people, places, history, now, language, smells, deliciousness, spa oh yeah, colors, lights, music and good, good stories. With love from literally the other side of the planet, looking glass and everything, me. xxo ... read more