Back to work Wednesday/Thursday

I left early for my 2 hour trip back to Neili on Wednesday morning. I first stopped to pay for my ticket to Beijing, a trip planned for the first week in May. I am still waiting to hear from my tour guide in Beijing...one highly recommended by the Ks and my travel agent.

On the train ride home, a Taiwanese couple from LA talked to me about my experiences. They have lived in the US for 43 years. He has a Ph.D from Michigan state, and is the current President of the Taiwanese Lion's Club. She teaches at a 7th Day Adventist school, and knows Renee Peterson, Di's daughter, and one of my former students at the Singapore American School. They come home each year during the Tomb Sweeping holiday to visit relatives and show their respects to the deceased. They collect hand puppets and pottery. They visited a wholesale puppet supplier 3 stops from Neili. He is going to provide me the name, and I hope to visit and finally get my hand puppets! They got off at Yingge this time in order to purchase pottery for their collection. His wife said "you are very brave to travel alone" as they left. Hmmmm....travel alone or stay home alone? No option there!

A young lady who had been listening to our conversation moved across the aisle to talk with me when they got off the train. She is Philipino and married to a Taiwanese electronics engineer. His local employer regularly sends him to Saudi for 2 months stretches, and she is left to care for 2 children while he is gone. She worked in the factory when she met and married him, and only goes home every 2 years. She clearly was very lonely, but I was glad she shared her story with me. The conversations made for a very, very interesting ride home.

Thursday was seminar day. I really have enjoyed teaching that class....and I am finally on schedule to complete my required 6 classes this month. I had been getting e-mails all spring break week-end from a US PhD student who said he had no access to the powerpoints and learning packets I had the lead professor put up on the portal website over a month ago. Despite a half dozen e-mails concerning the issue, the only English speaking secretary assured me, the lead professor, and the concerned student that all materials were on the portal. I sent them to the student personally because he disagreed with their assertions. A HUGE TM occurred when more than half the class told me during the class break they were unable to get the materials for the class. Imagine trying to teach 55 unprepared students....ARGHHHHHH...all of us were frustrated. 3 students were still not on the official class list. I told them to talk to the lead professor to make sure they were getting credit for the seminar. We finally decided that there were actually FOUR portal websites for this class, and only one site had the material. I have NO idea whether the office was able to solve this problem or not. I have since sent 2 weeks of material to the 4 students who contacted me this week-end asking for them...ARGHHHH again! TMs are falling from the sky! Remember, I am only a guest lecturer and have absolutely no access to the website despite being required to give mid-term grades....ARGHHH again!
ADDENDUM: Who knew? The mystery is finally solved. There are TWO lead professors for this class, unbeknowst to me until now. The second professor received my e-mails, and has posted the final seminar power points and leader packets...a TM with a happy ending for the students and for me!