What I did on my vacation (July 21 - August 4)

On my vacation, I spoke with various people I met about their experience with Chinese Universities and how they can help me.

Tristan Yuan (english name), Nephew of a friend, just graduated from a university in china, and works for the TV channel #4 (couldn't understand the chinese name) in Beijing. He was hired based on his blog, "sinablog" (search for YuanLenshui, www.onyoyo.com) where he posted his novel. The TV station liked his style of writing and called him up. He said that is a very typical way of getting a job in China - create a blog or website and post your vita. He is going to school next year in Japan to get a master's in Mass Communication. His friend Sarah (english name) is going also to work at a Chinese startup located in Tokyo. She is a programmer in ARM. I told Tristan about my interest in doing research in China and he said he would help and we would keep in touch.

Dr. Peter Yang, Ed.D., is a board member of the Taichung YMCA and the Director, Continuing Education Center, and Associate Professor, School of Recreational Sport Management at the National Taiwan College of Physical Education in Taichung, Taiwan. He hosted 2 of our young campers. His kids in middle school have attended school in the US while he got his Ed.D in Southern California. He was at Stanford recently and they wanted to send one of their students as an intern to his school. That student is there now. I asked him if he could assist me with my research and he said he would be happy to help. He may come over next year to host some students from Taiwan in Palo Alto. If so, I will have a chance to play host to him and his family and also to discuss my research more.

Before I left, I had a great training session with Marcy Bowen, Librarian, Virtual Reference Assistant, Fielding Graduate University. She trained me on exactly how to search for articles, how to see if they are available in the discounted University of Michigan library (Michigan Information Transfer Source). She sent me an email with instructions and showed me the FAQ page which is the most helpful - has a step by step set of instructions for finding articles. It was very helpful and I now feel I can find all the articles and books I need.

That's it! Too tired to read much on the trip. Kids are a lot of work so I tried to sleep on the plane. Also finished listening to Harry Potter #7. Very well done.