Gap Guys' Farewell Dinner

It is the last week for the Gap Guys at Southwest Jiaotong University so we got together for a final dinner. At first, it was going to be on Thursday, May 21, but then it was changed to Wednesday. I had my teacher's class on Wednesday so we started the dinner at 5:30 with a promise that I could teach my class even if I may be a bit late.

Unfortunately, someone did not make it clear to Tom that the dinner had been changed from Thursday to Wednesday and he was no where to be found. Later, I found out that he was doing his normal Wednesday afternoon thing at the gym. We all felt bad that we could not find Tom.

This is the restaurant we held the Gap Guys Final Dinner. The ladies our front were friendly but a bit shy. Of course, I spoke to them in English as if they all understood every word I said. Got a feeling they all wanted to do a smack down on me so I immediately greeted them in Chinese. Smack downs hurt!

As we made our way up the stairs to our feasting room we saw two lion's heads stuck on the wall. These were the real things from those lion dances we see all the time. Obviously for good luck and good profit.

Our feasting room was cozy but what caught our eyes were the beautiful yellow and blue dragon place settings. I had seen some similar to these in the tea district in Chengdu and lusted after them. They were very stunning against the black of the table top. The table was a huge round "hot pot" style table with the outer area able to revolve around the stationary hot pot in the middle.

On the way to the restaurant, we asked Zoe about the type of food we were going to have. When she said "hot pot" we all showed the same kind of disappointment. None of us really liked hot pot that much.

During the course of Zoe's ordering, we found out the style would not really be the Sichuan hot pot we had come to . . . well, not like so much. The broth would be light with chicken and the most mushrooms anyone in the room had ever seen.

With the ordering done, Zoe clued us in on exactly what we would be eating and it did sound pretty good. No Sichuan hot pot this evening.

Along with the basic clear (sort of) soup came an interesting array of snacks or appetizers. On the far right just in the picture are some hot spicy peanuts. Next was some strange popcorn kinda things (more like cracked corn). Then we got some thinly sliced and very nice beef . Going around the table to the left were the typical Sichuan "kimchi-like" radishes and then a bunch of green onions for the soup. The stuff was very Tom delicious!

John, into his professional photographer mode, takes pictures of everything in sight. When he first arrived to Emei, he barely took a picture. Now he is Mr. Photo.

The chicken and the mushrooms are "dumped" into the heated broth and in a few minutes we start eating all the mushrooms in the world. They were very good and hearty.

Robert and Sophie share some interesting stories about the Gap Guys visit to our university. It was probably pretty rare for Gappers like Dave and John to get to spend time at a university since they were newly minted HS grads and not yet in college. I thought their time here was absolutely off the charts for us, our students and them. They were the same age as most of the students they interacted with so it was much more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Enliven (Eleven) does her normal helpful stuff to insure we all had a great time with plenty to eat. She helps Zoe take care of all us Lao Wai while we are at the university.

Lots of 'shrooms! Lots of food. Lots of fun!

These were some sweet sticky rice cakes that were so good we ordered another dish of them.

Here is our group outside the restaurant after having a great meal. We all got to say good bye to our Gap Guys. There plan was to travel to Xian on Friday via train and then on to Beijing. From Beijing they would fly to Kunming and then travel to Dali, Lijiang and maybe Shangri-la. They would then return to Emei to pick up their suitcases Sunee helped them buy and then it is off to Thailand and eventually England and their colleges. It was a real pleasure having them visit us, help us, party with us these last three months. Wish they could have stayed longer.

Applied Conspiracy Theory

The Plot

Conspiracies abound throughout the world and cover a plethora of events and trends. To assist in the conspiracy against the Gap Guys, I developed what I call the Conspiracy Setup Matrix or CSM. This matrix consists of the following elements:

secrecy
anxiety
manipulation
decoys and smokescreens
suppression
disinformation, lies, revisions and coverups
infiltration

buy-in
“bait and switch”
plots within plots
problem, reaction, solution (thesis, antithesis, synthesis)

By using part or all of these techniques, one can successfully pull off a “sting” or “set up” for fun and/or profit. We apply these techniques to set up our very own Gap Guys - Dave and John.

Because the Gap Guys were scheduled to go to Chengdu last Monday, I had enough time to develop and implement this setup with my Sophomore Class 1 using the upcoming Presentation and Debate on Eastern and Western Medicine. The debate would center on whether or not one could mix Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with Western medicine. We decided to develop a "plot within a plot" where some selected students would argue for and against TCM rather than for and against the mixing of the two. Of course, our plans had to be kept secret.

The Secret

The plans were kept secret and everyone involved swore an oath to this secrecy. This secret plan was devised, developed and then recorded on this special edible paper in case a leak of the plan occurred.

The Victims

Of course, our victims were the Gap Guys and we all figured they would be easy targets for this conspiracy. This would also be payback for their missing class the previous Monday to attend some dumb wedding with Dr. Robert Liu.

Gap Guy #1 Code Name - John

Gap Guy #2 Code Name - Dave

The Manipulation

In order to pull this setup off, we all had to act natural and conduct ourselves as if everything was in order.

Here the students arrive and sit in their normal places, chatting and visiting with each other and greeting our victims and me with their usual friendly insolence. So far, our victims are unaware of their coming demise.

Once more the class presentation begins with Dave introducing the topic and saying a few words about his presentation. He then gets a count of who believes TCM can supplement Western medicine or Western medicine can supplement TCM. The final count showed a class pretty evenly divided between the positive and the negative. Dave continues his portion of the lecture.

John follows and presents his half of the presentation, emphasizing that the debate will be on the ability to mix the two medical philosophies or not.

The conspiracy develops as the students listen intently to the two victims and what they had to say.

The two victims become more animated as it appears the class has become very enthusiastic about what they have to say. They are clueless about the ongoing setup.

Students and teachers interact in what appears to be a dynamic and interesting interactive session with a great presentation. What more would teachers ask for?

The Decoys

All successful conspiracies and set ups have a few well-placed decoys to insure the victims follow along to the trap.

Here, Craig uses his English skills to entice the victims into thinking that they are beyond successful in their presentation about the two philosophies of medicine. It is obvious that both Dave and John have bought into the idea that this class is heavily involved in the lesson. They are becoming more and more excited about how well they must be doing.

Lory, too, continues with the theme of discussing the two sides by asking pertinent questions to string the victims along.

The Crossover To Build Anxiety

Every successful setup has to build anxiety with its intended victims, where the victims are then easily "hooked" and are pretty well sold on the deal. When asked to change sides if they have changed their minds, the students all move to the left side - "against the mixing of the two medicines." In utter disbelief, the two victims watch as their debate dwindles to a probable one-sided affair. Anxious for a successful completion of their class, they are now ready for the hook.

All the students are now sitting on the side against mixing the two medical philosophies. The two victims are now in anxiety mode as what to do next.

The Hook

Mr. Daniel is our "hook." Here he proposes the "buy in" debate of West versus East Medicine instead of the proposed TCM/Western Medicine supplementary arguments. A brilliant and classical "bait and switch" operation where Mr. Daniel proposes that we must first delineate between the two philosophies of medicine before we can go further. He brings up statistics to show that 67% of all Western trained doctors have studied or have a working knowledge of TCM while no TCM doctor has a working knowledge of Western medicine. He further shows that TCM has lost favor in the minds of the educated Chinese who want something more scientific. He then challenges anyone to show him this concept in TCM call "qi."

Mr. Sabrina, red-faced and angry, attacks Mr. Daniel personally and philosophically. How dare he say such things about TCM! It is one of the bedrocks of Chinese culture. How dare he casually put 5000 years of Chinese medicine in the trash and throw it away. Her arguments are tinged with disgust and hatred forcing the Gap Guys to try to calm her down. Their anxiety is now controlling their actions as they are on the verge of losing the class to these internal arguments.

The Buy In

The students, having seen the two victims begin to buy into the internal arguments as genuine, show their smugness at their obvious success.

To finalize the buy-in of the victims, Mr. Winter tries to calm her classmates down and then tries to infiltrate and sympathize with the victims anxiety and let them know it is ok to have this argument.

Mr. Rio, however, pushes the idea of a problem, reaction and solution to ease the storm now gathering between the various factions of the class. His efforts further erode the confidence of the two victims now in full panic mode.

Once more Mr. Daniel is attacked for his outrageous beliefs concerning TCM. Ms. Shirley is adamant and relentless in her attacks on Mr. Daniel and his philosophy.

Mr. Daniel continues to defend himself against the attacks of both Ms. Shirley and Ms. Sabrina. He even begins to call them superstitious and uneducated and ask them why they waste their time in college. Tempers begin to flare.

It is time for some disinformation to further confuse the victims. Here Amelia confounds the universe with her statements of facts about TCM. She uses several ploys to convince the victims that she is sincere in her statements. The victims are duped into believing her stories.

Ms. Lory again, working as a decoy, tries to obviously calm things down to make the victims believe that the students are now involved in this heated discussion.

The two victims buy into the discussion and the events totally. They are both convinced that the argument was East versus West and that an air of hostility now exists among the students over this issue.

Not until the class ended, did I tell them that they had been had by a classical "GOTCHA."

Genetically Modified Students

It's my Journal Reading Class and the Gap Guys got the 'ball." The journal articles were all about genetically modified foods. The two Gap Guys had knowledge of of GM foods so I got them to give the presentation. They had the floor from the very beginning of the class.

The goal of the class was to understand GM foods from different perspectives and come to a decision either pro or con about the GM process. The Gap Guys took a poll before the presentation, after the presentation and then at the end of the discussion/debate period. It worked out very nicely as the students for the most part actively participated.

Sophomore Class 3

Dave and Jon presented an interesting, well-timed and well-thought out lecture on genetically modified organisms as they call them. They covered GMO history and the pros and cons of using GMO in our food chain. Great job, Gap Guys!

We divided the class up into three different categories of students. This was the "I do not understand and I don't care" none committed students.

These students were against the use of GMO in our food chain.

This is the pro-GMO group of students ready to defend their position

The first debater turned out to be Killua, who spends most of her life on the attack anyway. She presented several brilliant concepts on why GMO is perfectly OK to eat.

In response to the Killua Attack, Alisha points out some problems with Killua's line of reasoning.

Here Camir joins the attack and defends the Killua Points. She was emphatic in everything she said. I gave her an A for "attackmanship."

Grace, not to be overshadowed by her classmates makes several dramatic points on why both Camir and Killua were wrong. And the debate proceeds.

A great debate and a great presentation. Here the participates show just how difficult and tiresome such debates can be.

The only problem with this class was the inability to get the Gap Guys Powerpoint presentation downloaded to the computer. We even changed rooms and gave it a try. They ended up "winging" the presentation without the benefits of slides.

In addition, we got into trouble for changing rooms with out permission.

Sophomore Class 2

Class 2 responded very much like Class 3 to the presentation. They participated well and we had a great discussion.

The Gap Guys presentation was even better than the previous days. Smooth would be a good way to describe it. Both took turns telling us about the history and controversies surrounding GMO.

They had their stuff together during this presentation.

The students listened intently to what the Gap Guys had to say. Was it because they were interested in the presentation or was it because they were having trouble with the Gap Guys English accents? Who is to say.

A good overall picture of the students in Class 2.

Here is the anti-GMO students seated in their own section.

The Pro-CMOers also had their own section.

Only Nemo sat alone because she could not make up her mind.

Xanadu starts things off with a convincing argument for GMO..

Xanadu was immediately followed by a blistering attack from Jan on the benefits of GMO.



Here Ann handles all the arguments thrown against her and quietly attacks the proGMOers.

A Sophomore Class 2 Group Photo.


Sophomore Class 1

Class 1 was actually the first class the presentation was given to. They participated probably better than the other two classes combined.


Taking polls and choosing sides.


Jon gives a passionate presentation about GMO.


The slides were all colorful and interesting.

The students were interested . . .

The teachers were dynamic . . .

This is the definition of a great teaching and learning experience!

Here Sanda questions the benefits of GMO eating.

Lory also points out the negative benefits of such food.

The debate was heated and interesting with each student gaining insight into the world of Genetically Modified Organisms.