Friday, January 25, 2013

Still holding strong.....

Hello Fabulous Beijing-ers,

I have finally deposited your checks for the flight deposit, so I figured I would give you an update with the checks that I have received:

A. Benavidez
A. Kieu
D. Voku
M. Lolling
C. Lin
A. Chow
E. Coronodo
J. Martinez
C. Ramirez (coming to PO Box)
M. Chavez (coming to PO Box)
R. Olagues (Visa paid, flight deposit pending)

There are still a couple of people who are deciding about going on the trip. If you are one of those people, in my best Nike commercial voice - JUST DO IT!  Oh wait, y'all might be too young to understand that reference. 

Moving on.......  My goal is for another couple of people to join our team, so if you know of anyone who is interested, please send them my way. 

In the meantime, I'm still trying to decide on a few things:
1). Spring meetings - as you know, there will be two mandatory meetings in the Spring.  I need to nail down some dates, but I'm waiting until we have a confirmed list of people before I schedule those meetings.  It may come down to me scheduling them first, just so the current list of folks knows when those will be.

2). Canvas - I am coordinating with the IT Dept. to open up a Canvas space so that we can chat about Beijing, and so that I can host some documents for everyone.  I will update with more information as I know more.

While these things are pending, please continue to read the books that are noted on the syllabus.  In case you need it, here are the two required books for the trip:




 


There are also 4 articles that you should read.  If we don't get a Canvas space opened up soon, I'll go ahead and email those out.  But don't worry, you still have plenty of time to read the books and articles before I test you on them.

In the meantime, I have sent you all my phone number, and some have been texting me questions.  Please feel free to text or call me if questions come up.  Now that we are in the thick of the semester, I will be  available much more for student questions through email, text and phone calls.

As an aside:  My husband will most likely be traveling with us, however, he will not be involved with the class.  He will come on some of the excursions, and will likely serve as our IT guy in case any issues come up.  He's also great with his sense of direction, so we will likely never get lost with him being on the trip with us.  As soon as this is confirmed I will post a picture of him so y'all are familiar with who he is before the trip.

:)
Carol

Friday, January 4, 2013

I promised a post......

A couple of days ago I promised that I would update this blog.  Then, as life tends to do, I was sidetracked.  However, here is an update about Beijing:

Are you ready?

Nothing has changed.

I am still on course to recruit a few more people for the trip.  As it stands right now we have 10 people confirmed.  The deposits for the flight were just sent to me, so I'll contact each of you individually once I have a chance to sit down and look at all of the checks.

Please spread the word about Beijing.  While the trip can move forward with 10 people, that is the minimum number it can move forward with, and I'd like to have a little wiggle room.  In addition to that factor, a class of 10 people is great.  But to really make the trip an enriching experience, a few more would really enhance our daily discussions and adventures.

If you haven't already, please purchase the books from Amazon or another online seller.  During the Spring semester you will be tested on the readings.

In a previous email I sent you my personal phone number. If you need it again, please email and let me know.  I'm always available to you by text (preferably), by phone and of course through email.

On a bit of a personal note, in my almost 10 years of teaching college classes, I've finally taken some time off.  Each time Winter break rolls around I find myself prepping for the coming semester, or burying myself in 'work' projects.  This year was a bit different.  I actually took a couple of  weeks off.  No emails, no work, just relaxing.  Well, sort of relaxing...........I started a side business.  I won't disclose what that business is on the blog, but we can certainly talk about it during our requisite Spring meetings.  The only hint I'll give you is that it has absolutely nothing to do with academia. 

Until next time....

Carol

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

New post coming soon.....

Hello Folks,

I am not back in full swing, and I'll update my blog a bit later today.  Stay tuned....

:)
Carol