The end of the semester always seems to come with a rush. I had the English News exam last Monday night, and finished marking those papers on Thursday. Tonight (Sunday) is the Western Culture exam, and then marking of course. The Oral English exam will be next Thursday, so in a week it should all be 'done & dusted'.
This post consists of recent photos. I hope to do a separate post (tomorrow, internet gods willing) which will show just contain photos of my classes this semester.
It sure has been an eventful time:
Cruise ship Eastern Star capsized on the Yangtze River with the loss of 442 lives.
Likeable rogue, Alan Bond, passed away. What a charlatan he turned out to be.
The Golden State Warriors won the NBA championships, first in 40 years.
The Brumbies were beaten in the semi-finals of Rugby Super 15 by the Hurricanes.
NSW beat Queensland in the second game of the State of Origin series. One all now.
The traumatic Rudd / Gillard relationship was revealed in The Killing Season.
Here are some photos of our recent comings and goings:
 |
| Hot pot dinner with friends. From left: Raymond; Michael; Amy; Steven; Paul; Vera |
 |
| Tow of Vera's private students show her how they can touch their belly-buttons from behind! |
 |
| Sixteen teams representing different Colleges participated in the University's annual choir contest. Chemical Engineering was the winner, and Arts came second. |
 |
| Another of the College teams competing in the annual choir contest. About 100 in each team, so almost half of the entire teaching staff participated. Everyone dressed up - they took it very seriously, Most impressive. |
 |
| Lunch with Fu Xiao. She was my first 'liaison teacher', in Dongying. and we have kept in touch. Baby due in December. |
 |
| A view of the huge new "Mix-C" mall next to the Shangrila Hotel in Qingdao City. |
 |
| Inside the new mall. Modern and vast. |
 |
| The Food Hall on the 5th floor of the new mall. It was busy, but the shops were quiet. |
 |
| "Grandma's Kitchen" the most popular restaurant in the new mall - minimum wait for a table is 1.5 hours. |
 |
| The mall has a large ice skating rink on the 4th floor - look down from the Food Hall while eating. Busier at night and on weekends. |
 |
| Farewell lunch with two of our friends: Paul (left) has been a fellow teacher for 3 years and will now return to the USA at the end of this semester. Oliver is a graduating English major student. He will spend the summer in the US on a 'work & travel' program. When he returns in September Oliver will start a Master's course at the Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. |
 |
| The weather has been warming up (maximum temperatures have been pleasant around 26 - 30C), which means visits to Golden Beach about 40 minutes by bus from our campus. It is a lovely beach, almost 2 km long. The central area get very crowded, but it is not too bad further away. |
 |
| Some people were in the water, although it is still on the cool side (about 19C). Next month will be more comfortable for swimming. The beach is safe, shallow and normally with small waves (too small to even body-surf). |
 |
| Vera has had a bike for about a year, and really enjoys riding around the campus and along the esplanade. |
 |
| Last weekend one of our student friends, Charles (Yu Zhi Chao) invited us to visit his grand-uncle's apricot orchard on the outskirts of Qingdao City. Next month Charles will move to Wollongong University near Sydney. |
 |
| We had a delicious lunch with Charles' family in the village restaurant. From left: his aunt (mother's sister), Charles' father (ex-Navy officer, now working for the Qingdao City Government); Charles' grand-uncle (the farmer) and his wife. |
 |
| Summer is the time to eat outside. BBQ dinner in the grounds of the Blue Horizon Hotel. From left: Paul Finkbeiner (PA); Vera; Steven McCune (Texas); Alex; Michael Christensen (Michigan). Barbequed chicken, pork and mutton washed down with draft Tsingtao beer - doesn't get much better than that! |
...
Well, that's it for this post folks.
Best wishes, keep well and keep smiling.
Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Sunday 28 June 2015
