There was an earthquake in Chengdu. 7.9. 8500 people killed. Schools collapsing. I wonder if these were some of the schools we were supposed to visit. I wonder if these are friends of Martha. It's horrible. [View Full Entry]

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Martha Morton called & said I owed her some things. It seems I never turned in my Culture III assignment (I did that... DIDN'T I???), and I didn't turn in my signed waiver form (think I just spaced on that & walked out with it), & I have to give her some dissemination plan. Dang, I don't know how I'm going to disseminate information about China right now. Right now I'm not completely sure how I'm going to disseminate Edgar Allan Poe to freshmen. I am really grateful for this opportunity, but DADGUM does anyone realize how much work is involved [View Full Entry]

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I feel so overwhelmed at the thought of trying to have everything done before we leave on June 6th. June 5th is our last day of semester exams, so I won't even have a work day between classes and leaving, much less a day for organizing and packing. I keep thinking of things I need to do, but I'm so scattered. Like: I need to call the credit card company & tell them I'm going to China so pretty please don't cut off my credit. Get some plug adapters There was other stuff I was just thinking about... Now what was [View Full Entry]

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I've been working on getting donations for our gifts to the Chinese schools. So far I've contacted the state house, the Hot Springs Department of Tourism, The Arkansas Heritage Society, a couple of places in D.C., Disney (what could be more American), an my senator. The smaller the place is, the more willing they seem to be to donate. Today I got a sack of pens and arkansas shaped notepads from the Heritage Society (Thanks Mrs. Whitfield!). They look great. Susie got some t-shirts from LRSD today. I am hoping we can get some of those postcards with the picture of [View Full Entry]

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I got a notice on my forum query about Ryokan Rikiya. This was encouraging. [url=http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g298564-i2712-k1892281-l11914997-Ryokan_Rikiya_or_Yuhara_Info_needed_quickly-Kyoto_Kinki.html#11914997] Ryokan Rikiya review [View Full Entry]

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Day two of the workshop started at a much more reasonable time, 9:00 a.m., with some Tai Chi. I don't know if I would like it. Mostly I felt awkward, but everyone else did too. I think I'll stick with Yoga. The nice thing about Yoga is that you can feel when you get it right, and the time in the positions is much longer, allowing for self-adjustments & meditation. But I can see the appeal of Tai Chi. We continued the individual current events presentations. I think we were all ready to be done, though. Too much sitting! We took [View Full Entry]

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We had our first day of the two-day workshop, beginning at the crack of dawn. We had to be at the UALR campus at the obscene time of 7:15 for a 7:30 three mile hike. I was a little trepidatious about this part of the "test." I have lost 22 lbs since January, but honestly I haven't ever gotten into an exercise habit. Still, I'm a tough girl. I didn't know that the leader of this thing was going to be a flippin boot camp instructor (literally) and that he was going to lead us on a sprint-paced all uphill death [View Full Entry]

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I have been trying for a month to find a place for Susie and me to stay while we're in Kyoto, Japan. I really wanted traditional Japanese for our stay. At first I researched & researched for the perfect place, and I finally came up with this place, the Heianbo . Unfortunately, they were booked. Then I tried another place... and another... and another. I was getting desperate. Fortunately, someone at tripadvisor lead me to the itcj, the International Tourism Center of Japan. Both are wonderful sites if you're trying to plan a trip to Japan (tripadvisor, for anywhere) remotely. The [View Full Entry]

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