August 31, 2008 by Dianne.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the next several postings will be in honor of Teachers’ Day.  You will notice that there are several different opinions expressed about learning and teaching, including some that may seem contradictory, but teaching is a complex profession.  Therefore, it is not surprising that people’s ideas on the topic should sometimes differ.

I hope you enjoy reading them.

The people who influence you are people who believe in you.

Henry Drummond

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August 28, 2008 by Dianne.

I returned home late in the evening of August 20 from my trip to Arizona.  I had a wonderful three weeks and took dozens of photos that I will share with you as time permits me to prepare them for posting. I saw many famous places such as the Grand Canyon but also spent a lot of the time after the first week visiting with my sister, taking walks, enjoying the environment and also helping her get a few tasks done that required two people.

The weather was sunny almost the entire first week, but then they entered their monsoon season, which often caused a thunderstorm and sometimes more prolonged rainstorms. However, the climate is so dry that a short time after the storm ends it is hard to tell that there even was a storm.  Some of the water sinks into the soil, of course, but much of it evaporates. The same thing happens in the winter when it snows.

Arizona is one of only two or three states that do not have Daylight Saving time, so it gets dark earlier than I am used to.  However, because of its location,the sun sets later than it does in Shanghai.

I will tell you more about what I saw in Arizona in future postings.  However, since Teacher’s Day is approaching and many of you are now teachers, I will put out some quotations with that theme during the next few days.

By the way, does Teacher’s Day always fall on a certain day or does it change from one year to the next?  I never could figure that out.  If someone has the answer, I would appreciate your leaving a remark with the information.  Thanks.

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August 27, 2008 by Dianne.

How quickly the 29th Olympics seemed to go by.  It was great to turn on TV for many hours each day and be able to see such amazing feats of physical ability and strength as well as incredible endurance and courage.  It was very touching to see the joy of those whose biggest dream had come true, but also very sad to see those like Liu Xiang whose dreams were shattered by factors beyond their control. I cannot even begin to imagine the pressure that all those young people were under.

Someone made a comment about the picture of  me on an earlier blog posting wearing a Beijing 2008 T-shirt with the fingers of both of my hands in the “V” position.  She said she was sure  that one hand was for China and the other was for the U.S.  Although I liked that interpretation, actually both V’s were for the success of the games. The Chinese people had worked very hard for so many years first to obtain the games and then to prepare for them that I wanted everything to go smoothly and for the rest of the world to get to know and love China as I do.

Both China and the U.S. did  very well in their medal count, but I will admit that I get a lot of pleasure when some tiny country that has never won a medal actually does so. I believe that represents the true purpose of the Olympics - the coming together of the youth of the world in peaceful competitions that the most talented man or woman can win regardless of where they come from.  I think it would be the end of the true spirit of the Games if that ever completely dies out. When I was growing up, there was also counting of medals won by each country, but it was not emphasized nearly as much as it is now.  Today so many things have become politicized.  One of my favorite memories from each closing ceremony is  the shots of the athletes from the different nations mingling together happily, and I always wonder what the world might be like if that spirit endured.

In 1996 I was fortunate to be able to attend the games in Atlanta with my twin sister and a mutual friend.   I think we had tickets to about 7 - 8 events including badminton, women’s volleyball and basketball (including both the U.S. and Chinese teams), and baseball. We were also able to attend  a concert by the Atlanta symphony orchestra and a  famous opera singer and see a wonderful exhibit of the history of women in the games.  There were some female athletes well into their 80’s that had come to the exhibit and signed their names and the dates when they had taken part.  Since it was in Atlanta, we also had a chance to visit the church where Martin Luther King had preached as a young minister as well as an exhibition hall  set up to honor his accomplishments.

It was a wonderful experience, but the best part was simply being with people from many different countries that so enjoyed being with each other.  Of course they rooted for their home countries in the competitions, but the being together with others from all over the world seemed to make people the happiest - at least that was the case with me. I hope one day that some of you will  have that unforgettable opportunity.

China did an excellent job, and all its citizens should be proud of their hard work.

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August 26, 2008 by Dianne.

Dorris and I stayed overnight in a motel in Detroit on July 1st.  Then, before driving to Pittsburgh, where Dorris would visit me for about a week, she and I drove on July 2 to East Lansing, Michigan to quickly visit one of my former students (Lan Zhang), who graduated in 2006. Her English name is Misty.

She did not come to an American university to get her master’s degree, however.  Rather, she went to graduate school in Beijing.  However, last year the university began supplying teachers for the Confucius  Institute, which promotes the study of Chinese around the world.  She was teaching at Michigan State University in their online learning program all last year.  She thought she would be doing the same thing for a second year, but they suddenly cut back on the funding.

Therefore, she is now studying to get a teaching certificate so that she can stay for another year.  She will then teach in different high schools during the coming year.

It was a rather brief visitbecause she had to get to class, but we got to see where she lives and also go out to lunch together.  She invited a friend of hers to go along as he knew how to get to the restaurant.  Her friend’s name is Ting. It was a very nice ending to what was a wonderful five day trip.

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August 23, 2008 by Dianne.

OK - now I have a little quiz for you.  What is this?

(1)

Confused?  Well, how about this?

(2)

Think for a minute and then you can read the answers below.

Give up? Here are the answers.

-1)  This group of rather strange little things is part of a game called croquet.  It is a very old-fashioned game, but one that is still played sometimes.  From 2 to 8 players can play.  Each has a uniquely colored ball and a wooden mallet that is used to propel the ball through the course.  There are several “wickets” that are laid out in a designated pattern on the course. Players take turns trying to use their mallet to propel the ball along the ground from one end of the course to the other being sure to pass through all of the wickets. Normally, wickets are just pieces of plain metal shaped like the letter “U”that have their ends pushed into the ground so they will stand up. The reason I took this photo is because the wickets are so unique.  I think they must have come from a very old croquet set.

What you are looking at is one end of the course, which has two wickets and a post.  The ball must be hit through both wickets, and you must also hit the post.  Then you start back to the other end of the court.  The winner is the first one to get back to the starting point.

-2) You are looking at a large piece of cheese that is in one of the intermediate stages of processing.  First, there is a very large vat in which the ingredients are mixed.  After some time the liquid will be poured into ceramic jars like the ones you see in the photo. They will be stored for another specific length of time.

At some point that large piece will be cut into three sections horizontally to form three wheels of cheese.

The cheese must be aged for quite awhile in order to firm up.  Most of you are probably only familiar with the “cheese” that is put on top of hamburgers.  However, this is mostly a mixture of oils and other ingredients and not cheese in its true form.

What made this kind of cheese special was that it had won an award last year as the best cheese of this particular type (there are MANY different kinds of cheese) in the United States. It was rather expensive, but very good, so I bought three pieces to bring home . I bought a piece for Mason, too, as well as two bottles of wine.  His birthday is at the end of July, and I thought he might enjoy them.  However, I know nothing about wine (it all tastes unpleasant to me), so I had to rely on my friends to pick out ones he might like.

As you have observed, we saw and did a lot during the two days we were at the farm.  It was extremely kind of Jane to share her gift with the rest of us, and we had a lot of fun together. The weather was perfect, too.  The weather forecast had predicted heavy rain every day, but it only rained for about half an hour on the way up north from Detroit. The weather gods were very thoughtful.

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August 21, 2008 by Dianne.

The farm covers a very large area.  Some parts of it we did not see until we took a walk on the outskirts of the property. Notice how peaceful the trail is.

As we were walking we came across one of the most beautiful patches of pine trees and pine cones that I have seen in a long time. It was laid out like a carpet by the side of the trail.

At one point we saw some of the largest seed clusters I have ever seen.  It resembled a dandelion, but the flower was almost 12 centimeters in width.  It was so delicate and lovely.

Everyplace we looked around the farm we saw things of interest or beauty.

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August 21, 2008 by Dianne.

Hi all,

A friend sent me this youtube site. Apparently, the man shown in the photos traveled around the world, and in each city he visited, he performed a very simple dance - always the same dance - to illustrate that he had been there.  I don’t know how long he was on the road, but he must have had a wonderful trip. There is one photo near the end that really took my breath away. I would never have dared to do anything like that.  I don’t know this person’s name, but his youtube video is unforgetable.

C opy and paste the address below into the address bar if you can not click it directly. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4&feature=user

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August 19, 2008 by Dianne.

As I mentioned earlier, Blackstar Farm is a functioning business.  One of the products it produces is a variety of wines, and it grows its own grapes.  Below are three pictures that give you an idea of what the vineyards are like.

The first picture shows a small section of the vineyard.  Note that it is on a hill.  Vineyards are often planted on hillsides to get the maximum amount of exposure to the sunshine for all of the plants.  This is not a very steep hill, but I saw vineyards in Germany that were on such steep terrain that it must have been extremely difficult for the workers to tend to the vines and harvest the grapes without falling.

In the picture you can see the hill in the background.

In the next picture I stood by the vines so that you could get an idea of high they are.

Finally, you can see the grapes are just beginning to take shape.  They are the clumps of little round things you see near the bottom.  It will still require several weeks before they are ready to be picked.

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August 19, 2008 by Dianne.

I bet if we had all seen these health tips when we were growing up that we would have paid a lot more attention to what the adults were trying to tell us. Copy the youtube address below into the address bar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyx7z39K3QE

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August 17, 2008 by Dianne.

I mentioned in the first posting about Blackstar Farms that it was a functioning farm. They board horses for some people who live in nearby communities.  They also have several farm animals - pigs, a lamb, chickens, and others.  Although the inn does use the eggs the chickens lay, none of the other animals are slaughtered for their meat.  Instead, they are kept so that visitors - adults and children alike - can enjoy looking at them.

This little lamb was neglected by its mother at another farm, so Blackstar bought it and brought it to their place to live out its life in peace.

There are many roosters and chickens, so even without an alarm clock you can be awoken by the crowing of the roosters.

Take a close look at the final two pictures.  It may appear at first that you are looking at one picture of a full-grown horse, and another of two less mature ones.  However, the large horse in the second one is actually a full grown horse but of a breed that never gets very large.  The little one near her is her baby.

An easy comparison is to see that the horse in the previous photo is as tall as the highest rung of the fence.  The mother in the other one barely comes up to the third railing and in smaller in every way.

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