Bye Bye REW-LUBE

Our friends are gone and the house is empty... I'm sad today. I don't like empty houses! I guess it doesn't help that Phil has one million midterms. Its 11:30am and I already started dinner... is there a rule that you can't start dinner when the clock is still reading AM?

I didn't take photos of yesterdays go-away bbq but Phil took a picture of the Sad Bananas cuddling on the couch depressed..


Bye tootie! Im going to wear all your clothes while you are gone... to bad we dont have the same shoe size...dang!

I forget to download the Asian man pictures from Ruby's camera. Hopefully she'll blog about it, its the most blog worthy thing that has happened in months! Short recap.

siting by the door of Downward Dog patiently waiting for the delivery of $5 mac n cheese special, Jenna sees an American man shuffling in a handful of Chinese men. "Hey you look busy," Jenna says at the stressed out man.
"Yes, hello, I've got seven Chinese visitors for 2weeks and tonight is their last night," the man replied.
"You look really busy and in charge," Jenna laughed.
While Ruby, Sara and Jenna patiently waited for their order the Chinese interpreter came over to offer us a drink. We thankfully declined as we had already order our food and drinks. The interpreter insisted as it was their last night in Corvallis and they really enjoy the American culture and would be insulted if we declined....so we accepted the drinks and walked over to welcome them to the good ole U-S-of-A. They taught us a bunch of fun Chinese customs. There was a lot of laughing, a lot and I felt at home with my Asian people or should i say peep-oh. This is a long story with lots of great details. I'll spare you but seriously guys, so so funny and if you know how much Phil and I love Asians..... But as I was telling Denny the story he said that he thought he read about them in the GT.... well he was right!!!! These are my friends! we may have got the number of actual presidents confused but here they are.

Copied from the GT:

Chinese college presidents tour LBCC
By Alex Paul
Gazette-Times reporter

ALBANY — The walls of the new 20,000-square-foot science building at Linn-Benton Community College were being hoisted into place Monday to honor presidents of four Chinese vocational/technical colleges, LBCC President Rita Cavin jokingly told the visiting dignitaries during a welcoming ceremony Monday morning at the college’s board room.

The visiting college presidents are at the start of a two-week visit to the mid-valley. They plan to study LBCC programs, governance, faculty development, curriculum development and connections to business and the community.

LBCC is one of only eight community colleges nationwide selected for the cooperative program sponsored by the Vocational Education Leadership Training Program, the American Association of Community Colleges and the China Education Association for International Exchange.

Wearing a red Asian-style blouse, Cavin explained to her guests that the expansion of the science building will double its size when construction is completed. The deadline is December. The expansion is funded by both public and private money.

The Chinese college presidents are Jianmin Chen, who is president of Beijing Polytechnic College; Wanmin Wu, president of Guangzhou Civil Aviation College; Fangming Zhang, president of Lanzhou Petrochemical College of Vocational Technology; Xinguang Feng, president of Rizhao Polytechnic and Jianjun Gu, interpreter and program officer for the China Education Association for International Education. Their colleges are vocational schools in both rural and urban settings and specialties. (I sat next to Chen and Wu)

Cavin said that in the United States, community colleges have an open-door policy and welcome students of all ages and social levels. LBCC includes high school students earning college credit, students who are fresh out of high school and adults of all ages. They are either retraining due to job displacement, or seeking a degree they may have always wanted but were sidetracked along the way, Cavin said.

“The mixture of age groups is good for learning in our classrooms,” Cavin said.

President Chen said vocational/technical colleges did not start in China until 1999. Today, there are 1,200 schools in the nation of more than 1.3 billion people. That’s about the same number of community colleges in the U.S., which has a population of about 308 million.

Chinese students must pass a national college admissions test and can select from a number of courses of study, but once they begin their program, they cannot change majors. Most students range in age from 18 to 22. Their tuition covers about one-third the total cost of their education, about the same as in the U.S. The Chinese government picks up the other two-thirds, Chen said.

Chen said that about 95 percent of graduates enter the workplace after three to five years of study. There is a high demand for trained employees due to an expanding economy. The other five percent continue their studies at universities.

Cavin talked about the value of college partnerships within area communities and the role of the LBCC Foundation, which was instrumental in securing donations for the science building. There are no foundations supporting the Chinese schools, she was told. It is the responsibility of the college president and comptroller of finance to develop training partnerships with private industries.

Some of the schools have partnerships with U.S. corporations including Boeing, Cessna, Northwest Airlines and United Airways.

As part of their experience, the group will tour LBCC’s Benton Center Wednesday morning and then visit Good Samaritan Hospital that afternoon as a guest of Larry Mullins, Samaritan Health Services CEO.

Alex Paul can be contacted at alex.paul@lee.net or by calling 758-9526.

OH HEY Phil