Hello strangers!

Sorry for the absence, but I'm back.  We are wrapping up Tuesday on this side of the globe and now that all our friends in America have sprung forward (I would've forgot if not for all the complaining on Facebook) we are back to being only 12 hours apart.  Speaking of being apart, Mom and Dad Stiens are going to be making their way to China in a couple weeks.  The administrators seem pretty excited to have Mom coming - no offense Dad.  I have gotten several request about what class she would want to teach and if she can have a discussion with all the teachers after the fact.  It appears there is a bit of a translation difference in the definition of vacation between Chinese and English.

To her credit Mom has been a good sport.  The week they (Mom and Dad Stiens) will be here is going to be American week.  I was briefly asked about American buildings and food and cultural items that we could use for the week and then all that dried up and Julie and I know we have to do some kind of show on the Monday of that week.  Perhaps Julie and I aren't the best question askers (dear spell check, perhaps it's not a word but I like) but I've never been somewhere so long and still have such a little clue about what is going.  Especially, what is going on with regards to me.

Julie realized today that she is getting better at this teaching thing.  I thought I was too and then I had class. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. 

Be advised this next section contains what could be called potty humor.  I recently got this new English-Chinese dictionary app.  Not sure if I am using it correctly yet and I think all the cool features are paid add-ons, such is life.  However, while trying to figure out how out to use it I started typing the Pinyin (Chinese words written with the alphabet) for some Chinese words.  One of the first words I typed in was the Chinese for thanks.  This word is actually a character repeated and said, "xie xie" (sh-ay, sh-ay).  Well I typed this in and if you say the same pronunciation with the wrong tone on the second character it means diarrhea.  Now all I can think of when I try to tell people thanks is that I am telling them diarrhea.

Well, I don't think I can top that today.  Have a great day!
-Ryan