The Slowly Evolving Reading Room

I am ecstatic that some cartons of books for our students have arrived from the U.S. Thank you, good friends! Ruth and I have been working to turn the bedroom of our office suite into a reading room. Yes, we have a bedroom. Most faculty have beds in their offices here; sleeping on the job is not frowned upon. China, at least in this traditional area, operates like a tropical country. The mid-day break is over two hours long, and one is expected to take a good, refreshing nap. The merchants snooze in their shops and market stalls; we have beds in our offices.

Come on in and take the tour.









The main room is decorated with students' artwork.














You can probably guess whose desk is the messy one and who threw her stuff on the sofa. The chairs are folded up so they won't get dusty; it takes only a few minutes for the grime to settle. We hope to induce students to help us clean the cement floors. There are janitors for the hallways, but not for the offices.









Our bedroom had been used to store cast-off items since long before our arrival. We have stacked up most of it and cloaked it with a mosquito net that was part of the collection.

















Now we plan to add some green plants, posters for the walls, and of course a bookcase for the mini-library our generous friends are helping us create.