Hope this note finds you and your family healthy and enjoying the holiday season.

After spending the last two Christmas in China, it is good to be back home in Canada.  The year has gone by so fast; it does not feel like I have been home since January 2007.  China was a wonderful experience and I would do it again, except the next time with Ron.   

Ron and I have been kept busy working in public practice and with Ron’s involvement with junior girls’ softball, we spent most of the summer weekends traveling to games and tournaments throughout BC, AB and SK.  We did manage to get away for 2.5 weeks in August to go out to Ontario, NS, NB and PEI to enjoy some lobster and seafood.  We returned in time for Ron to start University ball.  His University of Alberta’s team won the championship again this year (during Thanksgiving weekend) for the third year in a row.

In the fall, we took a short trip out to Vancouver to see my brother, Bailey for a few days.

My Dad turned 87 this year and still going strong.  Every morning Mom, age 76, and Dad head off at 6:30 to go swimming.  With their senior bus passes they are traveling all over the city visiting friends and having coffee or just shopping.  We are all glad they are so independent and mobile. 

I want to say thank you to all my friends in China who are still sending me emails and notes about your life at SWUFE and after.  I think of you all often, and miss the time we share together.  I know we will meet again soon.

Make the most of each day and make time for friends and family around you.

Wishing you and your family the best in the coming year.

From www.ivey.com.cn website:

On Sunday, November 12th, 6 finalist teams competed in the Championships of the 2006 Ivey/CocaCola China Case Competition at the Bank of China building in Pudong, Shanghai.

After spending over 10 hours the day before reading and analyzing the case, Eat2Eat.com, the teams each gave a 20 minute presentation to the audience and withstood a 15 min Question and Answer period from the panel of 4 expert judges.

The presentations were all of the highest caliber and the contest was extremely tight, but in the end Team Eureka from Southwest University of Finance & Economics was crowned champion by judges Professor Kathleen Slaughter, Associate Dean of Ivey Asia, and Mr. Kevin Ma, Brand Marketing Director of Coca-Cola China.

Other teams took home prizes as well, including Team Cxyz from Fudan University who took the prize for best Question & Answer performance, sponsored by HP Financial Calculators and presented by Austin Yu, Marketing Director of GE Plastics Greater China; and Team Protégé from East China Normal University who won the prize for best Powerpoint presentation, presented by Mr. WeiWenHan, Manager at Bain & Company (China).

The other finalist teams were: 6 Sigma of Shanghai Jiaotong University; Monk of Xiamen University; and Nova of Peking University.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in this year's competition and made it such a big success. Particular thanks go to the students who worked so hard in both the First Round and Championships to win the Grand Prize trip to Hong Kong and the internship at Coca-Cola China. Also, thanks to our sponsors for supporting this academic event from the very beginning, our judges for donating their time and knowledge to make the tough decisions, and to all the Ivey Alumni volunteers who have worked together for over a year to bring everything together

Since I arrived to teach at SWUFE in September 2005, my life has revolved around the students that I teach­, so whatever they are doing, I am doing with them.  I have enjoyed it tremendously.  We get to share in each others personal lives as well as the ups and downs of their schooling, from business case competitions, to a heavy study load, to TOEFL, IELTS, resume writing and attending job interviews.

This past October, the Richard Ivey School of Business (www.ivey.com.cn), the University of Western Ontario, and Coca Cola hosted an on-line business case competition.  SWUFE had 94 teams out of a total of 540 teams from across China entered into the competition.  From the 540 teams making on-line presentations, six finalists were to be chosen.  The six finalist teams would each win an all expenses paid trip to attend a final round of competitions in Shanghai.  While in Shanghai they will compete by presenting a solution to another business case over a 10 hour period.  The grand prize winners will receive a trip to Hong Kong and a three month internship with Coca Cola as well as bragging rights. 

 From the 94 SWUFE teams that entered the competition in October, I agreed to act as faculty advisor to about 20 teams.  The students ranged in year from sophomores to seniors and they had to put a case solution together with a Power Point presentation.  I assisted them and provided guidelines on case writing to them without actually doing the case for them.  There were many long days spent meeting with groups of students and giving them advice, talking with them on the phone and corresponding with them by email.  We managed to meet the submissions deadline and then we waited.

 On October 23, 2006 I received a phone call from one of my students who was ecstatic and crying.  Her team was one of the six teams selected to compete in the final round. The remaining five teams of finalists are all from large, prestigious and reputable schools based in Eastern China, whereas our school is relatively small and not as well known.  However, we still managed to secure a spot in the final round. The final six teams are allowed to bring their faculty advisor to Shanghai with them, so this Friday (November 10) I am off to Shanghai with the team.

For the past two weeks, we have been extremely busy and the team of students has been preparing and practicing with other Ivey cases, so I think we are ready.  While we know that we have already tasted success, we will return on Monday afternoon, hopefully with the winning trophy.

Friday, November 10

Team Registration / Check-in 11:00 – 14:00 City View Hotel, Lobby

Bus leaves for Coca-Cola 14:00 From Hotel Lobby

Shen-Mei bottler tour 14:30 – 15:15 Shen-Mei factory

Dinner 18:00 – 19:30 Tai Sheng Yuan

Saturday, November 11

Competition Kick-off & Instructions

7:30 Hotel Lobby Restaurant

Case Analysis Ends / Presentations submitted

18:00 Ivey Room (to be announced)

Bus leaves for Restaurant 18:30 From Hotel Lobby

Dinner & Activities 19:00 – 21:00 To be announced

Sunday, November 12

Bus Leaves for Championships 12:00 Hotel Lobby

Arrival at Bank of China 12:15 Bank of China Building, Pudong

Team Presentation order decided (random selection) 12:20 4/F Presentation Hall

Championships Begin 12:30 4/F Presentation Hall

Team Presentations & Q&A’s 13:00 – 17:00 4/F Presentation Hall Students ONLY

Judges Deliberations 17:00 – 17:30 Judge’s Chambers

Winner Announcements 17:30 – 18:00 4/F Presentation Hall

Championship Dinner 18:30 – 20:30 To be announced

As my first year in Chengdu came to a close in June 2006, I found myself very busy.  For ten days from June 9 to June 18, I was in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou delivering lectures on auditing to CGA junior classes at three different universities. (Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Jini University respectively). Upon returning back to Chengdu, I started to prepare for administering my final exams at SWUFE.  During the last week of June, several of my friends wanted to have good-bye dinners with me because I was going back home to Canada for the summer months.  I appreciate the friendships I have made here.

 After being away from Edmonton for ten and a half months, it was good to see my parents, family, friends, and especially Ron again.  My mother was thankful to see that I did not gain or lose any weight since she last saw me and my father was full of questions about China.  My 14 year old nephew Jonathan and I were the same height last year before I left and now he is a good six inches taller than I am.  It seemed that all of my nieces sprouted upwards as well.

 When I arrived in Edmonton it was a wonderful reunion at the airport with Ron.  We had not seen each other in five months and we had a lot of catching up to do.  We spent the first few days at home just relaxing and visiting with family and friends.  In early July, Ron and I drove to Vancouver to see my brother and his two girls, while my parents flew to Vancouver that same week.  We enjoyed the Canada Cup International Women’s Softball tournament, went to Vancouver Chinatown, visited some old friends, did some shopping, drove up to Whistler the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, did some camping and walked the beach and ate seafood at Whiterock.  It was nice to have all the tastes of my familiar North American food again.  It was also nice to just kick back and relax for a while too.

 When we got back to Edmonton in mid July, we spent some time doing house renovations and both Ron and I had to go back to work for a couple of weeks.  In late July, Ron and I drove to Drumheller and to Rosebud where we attended a live theatre and dinner with Ron’s brother and sister-in-law, Alvin and Joanne. After Ron’s fastball team finished their provincial play downs at the end of the month, we attended the Taste of Edmonton and the Fringe.  After Edmonton Heritage Days. in August, we drove to Canmore where we stayed for four days hiking the Rocky Mountains and doing some horse back riding in Kannanaskis.  It was back to work for a couple of weeks and before we knew it, September 1, was here and I had to head back to Chengdu. 

 The thing I missed the most being in China was the opportunity to drive my car again so I really appreciated the freedom of hopping into a vehicle whenever I wanted to go anywhere.  This summer I also received my first photo radar speeding ticket, which we only found out about after I got back to Chengdu.  I also missed having a toasted bagel with cream cheese, which I had for breakfast the first day I was back.  I even tried bringing some cream cheese back to China with me; however it did not make it past customs.  It was my mistake, because I had it in my carry-on luggage, forgetting to pack it in my stowed suitcase.

 I left Edmonton on September 1 and arrived back in Chengdu 40 hours later, compared to the 24 hours that it would normally take. There was an extra five hour stop-over in Vancouver and an overnight stay in Beijing that was unscheduled due to flight delays and missed connections.

 Classes began on September 4, and I am back into a new routine again. This year I am commuting between the old and new campus three days a week while teaching a total of 8 hours.

 After teaching class one evening in late September, the senior students threw me a surprise birthday party, complete with a present, cake and all the goodies.

 It is the relationships I have developed with everyone at SWUFE that makes being here so enjoyable.

For the second half of our trip, we flew to Beijing, the capital of China, where we stayed for three days. We visited the famous shopping district, Wangfujing, where we bought huge roasted chestnuts for 10 RMB/500g ($1.50 Cdn) and spent a day at the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  We took a bus to climb the Great Wall at Mutianyu, 90km north-east of Beijing.  This part of the wall was not as crowded as at Badaling, and therefore at times, we had what seemed like the whole wall to ourselves.  The climb was quite steep up and down and we managed to go about 3 km out and then back again. After the wonderful day of hiking, we returned to Beijing.  Our driver had an old van that didn’t seem to be able to get up any speed and maxed out at about 35 km/hr.  Ron was telling him in English to put the pedal to the metal but he obviously knew no English at all as he didn’t respond.  There were all kinds of vehicles including big trucks passing us and it took about two and a half hours to get back to Beijing.  When we finally arrived we decided to go to a restaurant just off of Tiananman Square, and enjoyed a traditional Peking duck meal served in stages; first came the boneless meat and crispy skin with a side dish of shallots, plum sauce and crepes, followed by duck soup made of bones and all the other parts except the quack.  It was very enjoyable and a really good value.  Including one side dish of Chinese mushroom and vegetable with rice, it cost us 156 RMB ($24 Cdn).  Beijing had more to offer in the way of shopping because of the variety and prices.  I picked up a couple of CD’s there and some traditional everyday spices for cooking that I cannot find in Chengdu (since it is not really a tourist city).  Prices on camera equipment are the same as in Edmonton and of course, you can bargain on everything – not that bargaining is something Ron or I enjoy.   China is still the place to buy things, (compared to HK and Japan) and Chengdu is not really so bad (except for the limited selections).  Unfortunately, like everything else, the better quality stuff is for export purposes.  

 From Beijing, we took a cab back to the airport (for $200RMB or $30 Cdn) and this time we had the driver from the Indy 500.  When we arrived three days earlier, it was over an hour from the airport to our hotel.  This driver made in back to the airport in about 15 minutes.  He was going over 140 km/hr and when there was no lane to go in, we would just drive into the oncoming traffic, in the ditch or just squeeze between two of the existing lanes with inches of clearance on either side of the cab.  Luckily we arrived alive at the airport and we flew to Tokyo where we took a high speed train and subway to Nagoya, (270 km away) to visit a friend from Edmonton, (Jian’s husband Yangsheng) who is presently teaching in Japan.  The cost of train travel is extremely expensive with the round trip tickets from Narita to Nagoya for the two of us being well in excess of $500 Cdn.  After a few days with Yangsheng, we spent a day in Tokyo sightseeing and enjoyed a cup of coffee and cake on the Ginza.  Our trip came to an end on February 2 at Narita, Japan where Ron headed back to Edmonton, and I to Chengdu.  Ron and I both agree that we could have skipped Japan all together because it was so expensive.  It cost us more for six days in Japan than the previous 24 days in Hong Kong and China put together. 

 As much as I enjoyed Ron’s company and visit to China, I am only now beginning to appreciate his care package from home.  Included in his box for me was a pair of Levis blue jeans, 4 mystery novels, a package of 8.5” x 11” loose leaf paper, a bag of Cheezies, canned sockeye salmon, various spices for cooking, and best of all a couple of Kit Kat chocolate bars.