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:

Fallows, J. (2009). Postcards from tomorrow square: Reports from China. New York:Vintage. ISBN: 0307456242

Hessler, P. (2010). Country driving: A Chinese road trip. New York: Harper Perennial.ISBN: 006180410X

 

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