Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary

Mom and Dad's 50th went off wonderfully. A big shout out to so many who helped pull it all together:
Sis-in-law Elizabeth for organizing housing and food and general pulling it all together.
Sister Beth for doing the visual display.
Brother Scott for helping Beth and doing set-up and tear down.
Brother Ted and Sis-in-Law Amanda for making it there with three kids including a brand new baby.
Niece Tess for singing.
Niece Bailey for being my emcee assistant and singing.
Nephew Tyler for kid entertainment.
Nephew Bennett for singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
AND....
Aunt Hazel and Aunt Gloria for being our legs in Ohio while we planned from RI and China and buying much of the food and supplies.
Aunt Hazel for making the delicious cakes.
Patty Lou Levering for helping to serve and organize the kitchen
Linda Robinette for helping to serve
AND...
those of you who came or sent wishes to my parents to honor them for their 50th

It was a great party. We were very glad that so many friends and family attended, and some from great distance. It was very meaningful for my parents. Their actual anniversary date is August 5 - we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will stay together until then, or we will have to rescind the party.



This is almost the whole family. We are missing my nephew Zach who could not attend because he is serving in the USAF.

Summer is here 2011

I love the summertime. This summer I am staying in Newport, Rhode Island and getting to spend time with my family here. Newport is beautiful and a popular vacation spot in the summer, so I am blessed to get to enjoy it for a few weeks. Imagine sailboats, rocky coasts, sandy beaches, and everything New England - that's "Noopawt" (as we say here).




I am trying to pick up some temp work this summer to make a little cash. I have found great success on craigslist. Last week there was an add for a costume character and an escort. Sounded interesting. So, I replied and got the gig. I was the escort for this very famous someone that you might know (as he was called in China: not round trousers ocean bottom fungus):

This week's gig is not as exciting, but still good. I am working as a laundress at a beautiful home on Ocean Drive. Somehow doing someone else's laundry in a gorgeous house over looking the ocean and sailboats is much nicer than doing my own laundry.

One gig I did not get was for a deckhand on one of the tourism sailboats in Newport harbor. I emailed and told them about myself and why I would be a good deckhand. They replied asking for more information about my sailing experience. Sailing experience? Umm, does going down the Mohican River in a canoe last week count? They never called me back. Maybe I should have mentioned that I teach English to young men in China who will be sailors.

Christmas wish 2010 and Happy 2011

Though these wishes come late
There is no debate
That my heart is sincere
in wishing Happy New Year!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thank you for your many kind thoughts and prayers!

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Here are some Thanksgiving text messages I received from students last Thursday:

THANKS GIVING DAY _TAYLOR

Happy Thanks Giving Day! Give my best wishes to you ，my American teacher! Happy to know you! Charles

你好，我是肃肃。Hello,l am Samuel.May you have a happy day,and l thank you heartfully.

Ann,Thanks giving day Frank

Thank you,my dear teacher.thank you for teaching us last year;thank you taught us the truth in life;thank you because you are envoys of friendship between china and united stated.happy thanksgiving day !

Hello!Miss Ann,thanks for your teach!My spoken English have improved a lot because of you,and I will memorie the thing happened yesterday.It's the first time I talk to foreign people.Just cool!I'll remember it forever!Thank you again.Happy Thanksgiving Day!"^_^" ~Duke, Marine Engineering, Class 1004

Hi,Ann!Today is Thanksgiving Day.Thank you for your excellent teaching to us,hope you are happy everyday~Eric

Hello teacher Ann! happy thanksgiving day ! i hope you are happy in china ! daniel

Hey,Dear Ann,happy Thanksgiving Day.Hope you a nice day! (don't be homesick ^_-)

And I did have a real turkey dinner. Mmm mmm good!

Softball club is underway

We even have some girls on the softball club. This helps in our recruiting efforts.

This was club recruiting day on campus. We were one of many clubs recruiting new students to sign-up with us.

Our first club practice.

Two of the club leaders, Gabriel (L) and Devin (R).

This fall when I came back to China, I brought a suitcase full of softball equipment. I think I had 15 gloves, about 12 softballs, and 1 bat. Thanks to the many generous donations from many friends and family back home. Some of you gave up your favorite glove that you've had for years (thanks Bob Miller) :) I can't tell you what a blessing it was to be able to give an abundance of equipment to the students here.

The first club practice was about 4 weeks ago. We had 23 students show up! Guess how many gloves we had? 23! Isn't that awesome. We've been meeting each Saturday afternoon and we run through some drills and then play a scrimmage. Two weeks ago we had our first catch of a fly ball in the outfield. I think the outfielder just closed his eyes and stuck up his glove, but he caught it! Everyone was so amazed and excited. I'm looking for another team that we can have a real game against, but I haven't found one yet. That's ok, because we really need a lot more practice before we are ready to challenge anyone.

The fall has been unusually beautiful - warm and sunny, I've actually seen some blue sky. Today the weather turned colder and fell to about 55 F for a high.

This semester I have about 300 new students - freshmen boys! That means I have about 800 students on this campus all-together including the previous two years. When I meet them on campus, I have difficulty knowing if they are from this year, or last year, or two years ago. Both they and I are surprised when I can recall their names - which is about 10% of the time.

This week my students will be giving speeches about a hobby that they are unfamiliar with. It should be interesting!

Hey, where has Annie been?

My dear friends,
I know some of you may have been asking that question? I can't believe I haven't written for so long. I have other friends serving abroad and they write pretty regularly - about every month or so, and then I feel so guilty because I haven't written to you all. I'm leaving China tomorrow and I decided that I better at least let you know that I'm coming home! I am finishing my fifth year here.
Wow, it's been a whirlwind semester. One of the highlights was teaching softball to my 250 boys. We didn't all play at once, of course, but within one week I took every class out to play ball and that equals 250 in a week - and we only had 3 gloves and one "made in china" bat that dented if we used a real softball. I think it was a success because as a result a small group of students started an official softball club on campus. It is a little slow getting started, but they are enthusiastic. I'll be soliciting for some used equipment when I get home this summer to donate to the softball club.

One of my lessons this semester was about restaurant English - what does the waiter say, what do you say to order your food, etc. I set up 8 mock restaurants in the classroom with 8 waiters and the rest of the students were customers. In this way they could practice their English dialogues. I had white "waiter" hats for those playing waiters. One boy refused to wear the white waiter hat. I tried to coax him to wear it but he still refused. Finally he confessed that wearing a white paper hat meant that someone in your family had died. Oh dear, I felt like I had broken some social traditional code asking them to wear these hats. Needless to say, I didn't force that boy to wear the hat. However, everyone else wore them without hesitation and they all wanted their picture taken with the hats on.

I leave for the airport tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 7:00 so I better get to bed. I will be traveling for a little more than 24 hours. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for safe travel. I'm looking forward to being home and having a krispy kreme donut and real pizza :) Seriously, it has been a great year. I thank God for allowing me this privilege of teaching these students. I thank Him for another year completed.

Blessings, annie

Christmas 2009

Marilyn's cheese ball.

Acting out "Ten Lords a-Leaping"

The singers for "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Santa's Beard contestants.

Santa's Beard contestants.

Santa's Beard demonstration.

Getting ready for Santa's Beard game.

The three teachers welcoming their students.

The boys at the party.

The party-decorating team.


Alfred dressed in his best suit and shiny shoes to help decorate for the party. He said since it was the first time to come to my house, he should dress appropriately.

Going to decorate for the Christmas party.

Marilyn and me with the assistant president of the university and two ladies from foreign affairs dept. They took all the foreign teachers out for a nice Christmas dinner.

We had some ladies over for a small Christmas party. They are also teachers in our department.

Joseph pointing out his lyrics to "Silent Night"

Students love wearing my Santa hats

Students in class

圣诞快乐 shengdànkuàile and 新年快乐 xīnnián kuàilè!

That is to say: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Every year I see and hear more and more familiar signs of Christmas in China. Christmas trees and Santa faces are in many shop windows. Familiar carols play over and over in the shopping malls. During one recent meal at Pizza Hut, we must have heard “Jingle Bells” about 50 times. It’s not unusual for a restaurant to put one song on repeat mode for the whole day or week or season. Western Christmas traditions are present in the commercial venues and churches but certainly not in peoples’ homes.

In class last week I taught my students “Silent Night.” I gave them a copy of the lyrics with random words missing in each line and asked them to guess the missing words while listening to the song. Some of their tries at the lyrics were fun.

“Silent night, only night”

“Sleep in heavenly sleepy.”

“Sleep in heavenly deeping.”

“Christ the savior is all.”

“Christ the savior is home.”

“Holy infant so tender and wild”

Christmas was very busy around here. Marilyn and I did our second annual Freshman Christmas Party for our 500 students – all boys! Yes, we are crazy! We had the party on Dec. 23 in one of the big rooms in the Student Activity Center on campus. We played some games, sang some carols, and watched Charlie Brown Christmas. I was so nervous about it all, wondering how we would fit 500 students in a room for 250, and if they would have fun, and if the movie would work, and if the PowerPoint would work, etc. But everything went well. The students seemed really happy about it all.

On Christmas day the foreign teachers were allowed to cancel classes! Yay! So we cancelled classes and traveled to Xiaogan – about 2 hours away by bus. We spent the holiday there with our teammates and some other friends visiting from the USA. In all there were about 10 of us. We sang carols and exchanged gifts while remembering the birth of our Savior. We even had a cheese ball (thanks Marilyn) and a real fruit cake (thanks Jane) among our many delicious snacks for the day. Even though we were all away from home and family, it felt cozy and happy being together for a “very Xiaogan Christmas.”

So another year comes to an end. They seem to go by faster and faster. The end of this school year will be the completion of my fifth year in China. I can’t believe it. I continue to love teaching in China and feel so blessed to have this opportunity. Why not come and visit and see all the fun I get to have every day!

I’m so thankful for the amazing gift of Jesus Christ coming to earth for us. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 圣诞快乐and 新年快乐.