Letters

Here you can read about our experiences presented in letters.

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Update Letter 19, May 2009 May 23, 2009 Dear friends! Only one month remains of our three-year China adventure, and it feels quite strange that we will soon be leaving. Our southern tropical weather often surprises us with changes from ...

English Center Activity March 19, 2009 Hi! I wrote recently, but I just had to share our great afternoon experience with you! As we have mentioned before, we are helping our students improve the pre-existing English Center at our s...

Update Letter 18, March 2009 March 13, 2009 Greetings! Spring has now arrived to southern China, bringing fresh local bananas and a wave of hot weather (35-36 C) and high humidity, and now emerging into milder temperatures, occasional storms, ...

10 Days in Tibet January 22, 2009 Traveling to Tibet from ”mainland China,” as locals call it, illustrates that China is indeed a land of great contrasts. Tibet surprises the senses in more ways than one; when Tomas and I first disem...

Update Letter 17, December 2008 December 30, 2008 Dear friends, We hope you have had a nice Christmas! Since we only have two days vacation for Christmas, and since our school surprised us with a big, colorful Christmas tree, we decided to stay...

Fun Stamp Night! December 3, 2008 Hi! Happy Advent! We will write a new letter very soon, but I just wanted to write to tell you about our evening. We had our first "Stamp Night" tonight. Tomas told half of his students d...

Update Letter 16, October 2008 October 15, 2008 Dear friends, This past month has been a busy time of everything from getting settled in our new school and area, to a flood, to interesting travels. While most of our family and friends from th...

Flood! September 27, 2008 Hi! Well, now we are unfortunately at an Internet cafe, because of the flood that has hit our city of Longzhou, and especially our college! (for the first time since the 80's!) It has rained f...

Update Letter 15, September 2008 September 1, 2008 Dear friends, We’re back! The last time we wrote, we were still trying to figure out our situation after the devastating Sichuan earthquake that also affected our school and forced our premature...

Update Letter 14, May 2008 May 25, 2008 Hello! Was it a lifetime ago that we wrote last? So much has happened! A month ago we were busy with all kinds of things in Chengxian, including with the Book Nook, which hit our 1000-book dream go...

On the TV and radio May 15, 2008 Hello, Last night in the middle of everything, an American newspaper and a TV station called to interview me. Here are the links: KSFY ...

Earthquake May 14, 2008 Hello everyone, We have now been evacuated to Tianshui. I just want to quickly write a word and let you know what is going on. Our school was hit badly by the earthquake. we were inside our a...

Haircuts and good luck? March 10, 2008 Hi! Yesterday was the 2nd of February, according to the Chinese calendar, and Tomas heard from some students that according to traditional Chinese beliefs (superstitions), people should get haircu...

Update Letter 13, February 2008 February 24, 2008 Hello! Happy (Chinese) New Year! First of all, we want to let you know that we have decided to extend our time in China by another year. We both feel very happy to be here and we feel that we have ...

Update Letter 12, December 2007 December 17, 2007 The Christmas season is upon us, at least in our apartment, in the Book Nook, and in our hearts. In the rest of China, however, at least in the rural areas, there are no signs of Christmas. Some com...

Give and it will be given to you October 17, 2007 "Give and it will be given to you." (Luke 6:38) Today these words took on new meaning for us. Tomas and I visited a tiny noodle restaurant that we often frequent. As we sat down to wait for...

Update Letter 11, October 2007 October 11, 2007 Travel Journal: Xinjiang Province Thanks to Chairman Mao ushering the People’s Republic of China into a new era, on October 1, 1949, and thereby creating a public holiday, Tomas and I enjoy...

Update Letter 10, September 2007 September 18, 2007 Greetings once again! Sorry for the long silence, but we have been traveling all over for a great—but busy—summer vacation. Since we wrote last, we have literally been around the world: first we...

Update Letter 9, July 2007 July 14, 2007 Hello! The sounds and rocking motion of the train inspired me to write one more greeting for this school year. As I write this, we are en route from Tianshui to Shanghai by train (about 20 ho...

Update letter 8, June 2007 June 4, 2007 Hello! Summer has arrived here in Chengxian! Nearly every day we enjoy bright, sunny weather, around 30 °C. The countryside is green and lush, thanks to occasional nighttime rains and some...

Update letter 7, April 2007 April 14, 2007 Happy Easter! Spring semester is now in full swing. Since our last letter, we have had a busy but productive month, and we have also (finally!) had some really nice weather. Spring is now h...

Update letter 6, March 2007 March 6, 2007 Happy Chinese New Year of the Pig! We’re “home” again! It feels nice to be home after several weeks living out of a suitcase. In the middle of January we finished the first semester and g...

Travel Update, hiking, and pics February 23, 2007 Hi! We are now reaching the end of our 6-week trip. It has been great! We now have about a week to make it home again to Chengxian before we start teaching again. Since it is often very difficul...

Greetings and travel update February 14, 2007 Hi! Just thought it was time to send another travel update. We are now back in China, traveling around the southern province of Yunnan. Thailand was a great couple of weeks where we t...

Hi! elephant, rat?, snorkeling, etc… January 24, 2007 HI, Sorry for the impersonal mail here but that is what happens when we go to Internet cafes… I hate Internet cafes! I just wrote this once and it all disappeared. Lesson learned, write in Wor...

Christmas trip and pics December 27, 2006 Hi! Just a quick post-Christmas update with some pics. Tomas and I spent this Christmas, together with our friends and Amity colleagues, Gunnel and Per-Martin Hjort, on Hainan Island, in sou...

Update Letter 5, December 2006 December 17, 2006 Advent Greetings! Today is the 3rd Sunday in Advent and we attended our freezing cold church once again. The church was decorated with some tinsel and some Santa banners. Because the church...

Update Letter 4, November 2006 November 25, 2006 Greetings friends! Now the end of November is already upon us and with it, cloudier days and colder weather, although we have yet to see any frost. Since we wrote last we have been busy with our ...

Hiking trip November 8, 2006 Hi! Hope all is well! This past weekend Tomas and I went with our Chinese friend, Ren laoshi, and Thad and Michelle from the Peace Corps, plus some students that seemed to have prepared ahead ...

Update Letter 3, October 2006 October 20, 2006 Greetings friends! Time has flown by since we last wrote, and we are slowly becoming accustomed to life here. We have been healthy except for a stubborn cold/sinus infection that I had for about ...

Update Letter 2, September 2006 September 6, 2006 Nimen hao! (Hello!) Greetings friends! Since we wrote last, we have been in Huzhou and then Nanjing, attending a conference, and getting to know the Amity Foundation and our Amity teaching coll...

We are in Cheng Xian! August 29, 2006 Hello! How are you? I just want to send a little note to say that now we are finally in Cheng Xian, Gansu Province!!! Today we also got broadband in our apartment so once again we feel like we ar...

Very interesting visit to printing press August 21, 2006 HI! We have now arrived in our next-to-final destination, Nanjing, and we will be here through Thursday, when we FINALLY fly to Cheng Xian, our final destination and new home! I just had to wr...

Buddhist temple August 12, 2006 Hi! How are you? I thought I would write briefly about what we did today. This morning Tomas; our Chinese tutor, Robin (his English name), and a nice guy in our class, Kyle, and I went by taxi ...

We are in Huzhou July 30, 2006 Hey! We just thought that we would write a quick note to say that we have now arrived in our second city, Huzhou, where we will be for the next 3 weeks. The flight from Hong KOng went well (a litt...

A few images from our walk July 24, 2006 HI! How are you? All is well with us in China. Since we wrote last we have mostly been busy with our TEFL class, and when we are not busy, we go outside and wander around, eat at restaurants, go ...

Weekend in Macau July 16, 2006 Hi! Hope you are well! Tomas and I have just returned home from spending the weekend in Macau. Even though we took it easy there, we are tired now from being tourists all weekend, so we are jus...

Downtown Zhuhai July 11, 2006 HI! We went to downtown Zhuhai tonight again, and we tried to take some pictures to show a bit of what it looks like around here. I will try to send those. Just a few thoughts as we are headi...