Class Two Sophomores Celebrate (November 1)

We won second place at the drama competition so sophomore class two got together to make and cook dumplings. We went to a small restaurant not far from the campus where we prepared and cooked our Chinese Dumplings. We all had a great and wonderful time.


As we all walked to the restaurant, the mountains around the university were stunning. Misty clouds covered much of the mountains which gave the feeling of exotic and mysterious. The agriculture, like all places in Sichuan, showed abundant produce, providing us with beautiful green fields which contrasted with the mist covered mountains. The weather was cool and a bit wet but we did not care for we were HUNGRY!


Ms. Cinderella herself showed up to kick off the party.

Hanging Out At The River


The restaurant was located next to a small, fairly fast moving river at the base of the mountains. It was pleasant and provided a place to kind of hang out as the dumpling ingredients were being shipped in via some of the guys in the class. We had time to hang out and take some pictures.


This picture gave the students an idea for the next picture.


This "fat buddha" ended up with a lot of hands. Good thing the "fat buddha" was big enough to cover the bodies connected to the hands.


Three guys


I told Daisy to act sexy so I could take her picture. What does "sexy" mean?


A "sexy" rendition from Daisy. I think she saw this in one of those American movies.


I nice portrait shot of Ms. Piggy with the river in the background. I changed the background to look like an old color print so Ms. Piggy's beauty would stand out. She is a very classy young lady!



Boyfriend, girlfriend? I dare not ask but later found out the answer was no. Just hangin' out and having fun.


Nemo, named after the Disney character is, indeed, very much like a Disney character - a sweetheart!



And then there was Ms. Ladda, a straight shooter with a big heart. Hangin' out with the best of them!




Just hangin' out waiting for the dumpling fixins' to arrive.

Making The Dumplings


Time to make the dumplings so everyone got busy chopping and cutting. Here Sunny does her "great chef" impersonation.









Here they are makin' the dumplings. We spent about an hour or more just getting the dumplings read so we could boil them. Of course, Daisy would say - who is this we that I was referring to?


Lots of of dumplings


Xanadu was good, very good at filling those dumplings with the meat mixture.


Daisy, always busy, probably filled her dumplings with too much meat.


One of the guys did this thing. It is no dumpling but it was edible.


Sweet and cute Ms. Tracy even filled some dumplings. Bet they were really sweet.

Time To Eat The Dumplings


We ate and ate and ate. There must have been over 400 dumplings made.


These were really good but way too many.


At the end, when everyone was full, the students forced their "head teacher" to have just one more.


Relaxing after the great dumpling feed.




The class dumpling party photo to end out a great day of hangin' out, dumpling making and dumpling eating.

Culture Week: English Song Competition (October 30)

The English Culture Week finished up with an English Song Competition. Ten finals sang their English song for the top three prizes. A great competition which saw the Department of English cleaning up, winning everything!


The Masters of Ceremony for the event were "dressed to kill" and equally professional



I was one of the judges along with these who sat on my right.




The are the ten finalist for the evening's contest. Did a beautiful opening number they did!


Contestant Number 8 does a intro to get things started. She also happens to be none other than Grace Sprite from the Department of English's Class 3 Sophomore class.




This is Contestant Number 5 doing a short number as part of the introduction to the evenings contestant. Guess what? She is our own Department of English's Isabella. What? Did you think I would be taking pictures of people I did not know?


Contestant Number 1 is a good friend of mine from Tibet, Kevin. Someone told me he had won the competition the year before and must have gotten the Number One position because of it. He can sing!



I actually loved the beginning of this couples singing. Played a little violin and then began their duet. Unfortunately, they never did get to sing with each other and often grated against each other's melody and words. Beautiful start though.



Grace Sprite surprises everyone with her low, silky and sexy voice. She was very impressive as Ms. Vamp.



Giselle, one of our new freshmen English Translation majors, rocks big time! She is a real pro.



Isabella, another English major, came through with a great performance. She, too, is very good.




Three contestants from other departments in the university.


At the end of the show, the ten contestants gave a final encore.


Pete, standing next to one of the department bosses (Ms. Susan) on the right, received an award for organizational excellence.



Both Grace Sprite and Isabella won second place. We in the Department of Foreign Languages were excited with their win.


Giselle won the top prize. Her hip-hop/rock presentation was over the top in excellence. She is very good!


Group shot of all of us involved in the competition.


A couple of happy performers.


Dean Jiang officially closed the culture week for another year.