The students, the international faculty families, and the US staff all lived in the center. The Chinese and international students were paired up as roommates (the only place in China where that was allowed). There was a really nice sense of community there. The staff did a wonderful job of helping us settle in and making life in a strange, new place comfortable.
I taught pretty much the same classes I teach at BYU: Principles of Economics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, International Trade Theory & International Monetary Theory. The students there were the best students I have ever taught. The competition for the 50 slots was fierce and only the cream of the crop were admitted. While I was teaching the principles class the first semester, I mentioned as an aside that the explanation would be easier if I could use calculus. Several of the students noted that they knew calculus and asked if I could teach using math. When I surveyed the class I found that all but two of the students had taken calculus. So I said, "Sorry, it's not fair to these two to use tools they don't understand." To which they replied, "It's OK, we'll learn calculus." And they did. They checked out math books from the library and crammed to learn the principles of calculus along with the economics. It is the first and only time I have taught principles of economics using calculus.
We were there for the 2000 election in the US, when the voting in Florida was such a mess and no one knew who the next president would be for several weeks. That was quite a treat for the Chinese students taking the class on American government.
We were there when the US reconaissance plane collided with the Chinese jet off Hainan Island and had to make an emergency landing there. Things seemed a bit tense if you watched CNN and maybe it was up in Beijing. I was out riding my bicycle with Alan during the time the US airmen were being held in Hainan. The tire went flat on the bike, so I pulled over to one of the many roadside bike repairmen. He found the valve stem was not tightened properly, fixed it, and reinflated the tire. In the meantime, a small crowd had gathered around. I guess I was in a part of town where foreigners rarely travel, or perhaps they had never seen such a chubby guy on a bike before. Anyway, when I asked how much the repair cost, the repairman waved me off with a smile and said, "guoji guanxi". In effect, "It's free for the sake of international relations." If that was his real intent, it worked. That is one of my best memories from that year.
Our whole family had a great experience. We lived in what for us seemed like cramped quarters, but the closeness was good in many ways. The lack of 50+ English language TV stations was also a blessing in disguise.
We attended church with a small group of LDS people in Nanjing. Five of them were affiliated with BYU's China Teacher's Program, and one was a BYU graduate studying Chinese at Nanjing Normal University. With six people in our family, we were half the group. We met in the apartments of the two retired couples. With such a small group you got to give a talk or teach a lesson almost every week.
I kept a journal of sorts of the year. You can find it here on our family's website.
I would really like to go back and do another year in the future. With kids going to high school in a year or two, though, I don't know when we will be able to go.
Anyway here are a few photos from that year.
At the Yangtze River Bridge
Taking the Kids to Preschool
Lunch with Center Students
Our Church Group
Saying Goodbye after Graduation in June
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