Sorry about the delay on the Travel blogs. There were a few problems with the internet mixed with new classes and a strong helping of procrastination. Anyhoo... Towards the end of the summer break, and actually cutting into the new semester a bit, Erin and I had to go to Ireland for her friend's wedding. We flew from Bangkok to England where we were met by Erin's mom, Leslie. This was the first time I had met her and I was a little nervous. She picked us up at Heathrow and after checking in at our hotel we went out for [View Full Entry]

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Erin and I left Xian in hopes of seeing the province of Shaanxi and making a little money as well. We were picked up near our house, with Artemis in tow, by two pretty nice guys, we later named them Elvis and Costello, who spoke absolutely no English. This wouldn't normally be that strange in the region where we live except for the fact that between them they own six or seven English schools. After a three hour drive north filled with uncomfortable silences and each of us feeling out the others' language levels we arrived in Yan an. Yan [View Full Entry]

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It's exam time now at our University and I couldn't be happier. We've been giving our tests for the past two weeks now and we're almost finished. Most of our final grades that we give are based on continual assesment so the test doesn't consist of very much. If the student was in class and participated then they get a good mark. If not, they just barely pass. We're not really allowed to fail anyone which makes it a little annoying to give proper grades. I can't tell you how many students I've given grades to this week that I've [View Full Entry]

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Over the May Holiday Erin and I decided to go on a camping trip. As she is a much better writer than I could ever aspire to be I have put a link to her blog. Enjoy. The Wilds of China [View Full Entry]

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For this weekend trip we were invited by some of my students to join them on a little outing. About an hour south of where we live, Xian, there is a town called Tang Yu (pronounced kind of like Tan ewe). It is most well known for it's hot springs and lake of the same name. It's a really nice town but not used to foreigners. The only tourists who usually visit Tang Yu are Chinese so we got a few stares wandering around. We met up with my students at 8 am on Saturday morning and recieved our "Tour [View Full Entry]

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Sorry about the delay on blogs. While the internet was out the powers that be decided that travelblog.org contained material that was too sensitive to show to the Chinese public. Sometimes they make me wonder. Anyway, It's back up and working now for awhile at least. I'll try and get as many postings and pictures up as possible while it's not considered "culturally sensitive". After our classes let out in mid February Erin and I headed of to Thailand for a few weeks of vacation from the weather here. In the winter it's alot like the midwest. Erin's father has [View Full Entry]

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Sorry about the lack of blogs and pictures lately. About a month ago in Thailand there was a large earthquake that knocked out the internet to most of Asia. We're still having trouble getting emails, posting blogs, and especially uploading pictures. This should get better soon. As soon as it does I will update. Sorry about all this. Katie is here in China with us right now. We're having a good time and getting lots of good pictures. We'll post them when we can. I will write soon. Joe [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Xian! Sorry it’s been so long since the last entry. Not much has been happening and I forgot to put anything new up. Life here is pretty normal, as normal as it can be. School is running smoothly. I still have eight 2 hour classes each week. It’s not too bad. Some of my students really want to learn and that makes it fun. The one’s that don’t usually don’t come but you always have one or two that forgot that they don’t care and end up showing up anyway. It’s all part of it though. We have our [View Full Entry]

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The pictures will be here soon. Sorry about the delay. Erin and I were out having a beer with our friend Joakim on Friday night when we received a call from the movie company asking us to come over as soon as possible. We arrived at their hotel room at about 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning where we proceeded to interview for another role in the movie. They told us that they needed two westerners to play doctors in their movie. The only problem was that the location was about 8 hrs away and we would need to leave the [View Full Entry]

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Since this past week was the National Week in China there was no school for me! It was really nice. We wanted initially to go hiking for a few days in the mountains but due to illness and a few other factors our trip was cut short. We ended up going to the mountains for two days. Erin unfortunately couldn’t go with us. I went with my friend Joakim (The Swede), and his wife Jocelyn (one of the bosses from CCS). It turned out to be a lot of fun. We traveled to a small town by bus. It took us [View Full Entry]

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