Holiday Time in Jinan

December 26 was the pot luck dinner party for SDU foreign teachers.  Mary Wang, left, is the assistant director for overseas faculty.  She lived in SLC for six months in 1985.  Eva, next to Rick, is our life-saver and colleague.  Her daughter, Elena, is visiting from Singapore where she attends school.

Teachers come from around the world.  Rachel Wang, next to Rick, is from Madison Wisconsin.  Her parents emigrated there from Taiwan.  She has also taught English in Japan.  I’ve lost track of the number of languages she speaks.  Another teacher (with his wife and sons) is from Bangladesh. 

Gao Ge manages the Foreign office.  She is wonderful.

Dorothy, from Michigan, Shifong assists the graduate student English teachers.  Mary is so supportive of foreign teachers and every event held for us.

Darrell is a member of our branch.  He received this six-pack in the white elephant gift exchange.  Several were envious while the BYU teachers laughed.  

The Shandong Concert Hall is spectacular.  We received tickets to attend the New Year’s concert there.  (Thank you Gao Ge!)  The program was classical music performed by SDU students and faculty.

This is the concert hall before everyone arrived.  Beautiful!!