... with a bunch of Family Stuff too
Chris has finally recovered from her knee surgery; Marissa is finishing up her sophomore year in Rochester with a double major in Brain Cognitive Science and Psycholinguistics. Kaitlin is earning her Nurses Aide certification, and Claire is switching back to volleyball after a winter as a gymnast. My major goals for the year are [ ]
Dear Friend, I hope this letter finds you well. Chris and I are weathering the transition of our oldest two daughters into college life while spending many a Sunday in gymnasiums watching our high school freshman lunge all over the back of a volleyball court as a Libero. And, after a year off, I am [ ]
Both of my two senior daughters were part of an academic signing ceremony. I applaud their guidance counselors for recognizing smart students (not just gifted athletes) who have earned large scholarships to college. The group of students in the tweet below may seem large, but it could have been larger. The school had to cut [ ]
Dear Friend, I hope this letter finds you well. This spring break, Kaitlin is headed to Costa Rica for an environmental sustainability conference with Jane Goodall and my wife is taking the other two to Pittsburgh where Marissa will have a couple of college visits. Meanwhile I’m saying home for work, the thrill of doing [ ]
I think Maoming wanted us to leave. When the maid made up our hotel room last afternoon, she took our half used soap and did not replace it. We could not wash our hands for a day. At our last breakfast in the hotel, the buffet table had one fork, so I had to share [ ]
As wonderful as the care is of the children in the Maoming orphanage a few of things did disturb us during the visit. It seems at times, in an attempt to save effort or in keeping Chinese tradition of saving face, the director was willing to tell us convenient stories that strayed from the truth. [ ]
Because our tour company doesn t have a guide in this city, Jason from Zhanjiang is our guide for the trip to the Maoming orphanage. He and the driver spent last night in Maoming, but probably not at our hotel. We never had the chance to visit the Social Welface Institute in Maoming when we adopted [ ]
Thursday morning another guide, Melody, picked us up at the White Swan and transported us to the airport. She s Katie s height. We are changing guides very quickly now, because of the logistics of getting many tourists through the city. There appear to be two sets of guides: those with better English speaking skills who take you [ ]
When our overnight train arrived in on Wednesday in Guangzhou, we were met by Jocelyn after a munching on Pringles purchased in Guilin for breakfast. Since we were here last time, motorcycles have been banned from the streets of the city. The city also has a two-lane elevated inner belt that winds between the high [ ]
On Tuesday, Andy took us to the Elephant Trunk Hill Park, another karst in the shape of an animal. There is a legend behind this limestone rock too. An emperor took his sick elephant to recuperate in the city and the locals and elephant got along so well that the emperor had to fight to [ ]