The students, ages 19-22, arrived in Minneapolis on July 2, just in time to meet American culture at a Fourth of July picnic on Nicollet Island, complete with hot dogs, potato salad, and fireworks. The students are enrolled in an Augsburg summer session course and are participating in a program on Minnesota history and culture. Before returning home on August 7, they will complete a project about Minnesota and Augsburg that they will present in China.

None of them has had time to think about home, however, with a busy schedule of field trips, visits, and events. They’ve enjoyed a variety of museums in the Twin Cities—art and history museums, the State Capitol, Ft. Snelling—and also noted how many more historical sites they have in China than here.

Two weeks ago, the UIC students joined with Augsburg first-year TRiO and Pan-Asian students for a canoe trip and picnic on the St. Croix River, paddling down river from Taylors Falls.

While some students from UIC have visited Augsburg previously, the goal of this visit is to launch student exchanges between the two colleges. Additional UIC students will come to Augsburg during spring semester next year, and Augsburg students will plan to study there.

Faculty, also, share in this partnership. This year during fall semester, philosophy professor Bruce Reichenbach will teach at UIC. His assignment follows that of recently-retired Joyce Pfaff, professor emerita of health and physical education, who spent last year at UIC teaching physical education and starting fitness classes.

United International College is a four-year college jointly founded by Beijing Normal University and Hong Kong Baptist University in 2005. Its mission is to build a new model for liberal education in China and to nurture graduates with international perspectives. The college has 3,300 students who study in classes all taught in English.

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Teaching at UIC — Nov. 19

I am about half way through my teaching experience at UIC and thought this might be a good time to tell everyone a little bit about teaching Chinese college students. For the most part I find my students at UIC very similar to my students at Augsburg. It took longer for us to get to know each other but the students in my 2 fitness classes are finally beginning to open up a bit and all of us are enjoying the classes more. Some are even beginning to understand my humor and much to my surprise and excitement some are even asking what they can do outside of class to help improve their individual fitness and overall health. One gal asked me if I would have a special session for students who may have questions about nutrition. They are going to write down questions in advance and we are going to discuss them. Although I am very interested in nutrition, I am not sure I have a clue about the ingredients of most Chinese meals…but I’m willing to give it a try. It should be fun.

I am running my classes pretty much the same as I did at Augsburg but at a slower pace. Most of my students are female and my 2 classes are 22 and 24 students so they are a nice size. UIC has purchased a lot of fitness equipment so I am hoping my Chinese Teaching Assistant, Jack will be able to teach this class after I leave. For the most part I am finding the students less fit than the students in the US (if you can imagine that). Most of them are not overweight, but they have never had any instruction in what it means to be a physically fit person. Most of their physical education experience has been playing a particular sport or game.

Our time here has been going by very quickly and we continue to enjoy the experience. Doug has been coordinating the Faculty/Staff Fitness program and has 125 members who are exercising on a regular basis and seem to enjoy doing it.

We are going on a hiking adventure to the Tiger Leaping Gorge over Thanksgiving so expect to see a report on this experience in the next blog.

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