A regular contributor to the Greenville Journal is a man named Barry Ray whose column “Barry’s World” reminds us a lot of the style of Dave Barry. One of his recent columns about back-to-school trauma was hilarious. I searched high and low to find it online somewhere, but to no avail. I wanted to put a link on my blog to the column. Finally I decided to write to the e-mail address for Barry Ray to ask him if I could get a copy of his article somewhere so that I could put it on my blog. Within a couple of hours I got a nice reply that stated, “I am planning on putting some older columns online soon. Right now, the Journal likes being the only source and putting them online would hurt subscriptions, I suppose. I have attached a JPEG of the column for you to use on your blog. Keep reading and thanks!”

And so with Barry’s permission I’m placing the picture he sent me below. What you see below is a picture of a printed page, and so the quality of the print is not the best, but it’s definitely worth the extra effort to read this one!

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A few weeks ago my wife Becka saw a restaurant review in the Greenville News that caught her attention. One of the reasons was that the reviewers all gave the restaurant high marks - a rarity indeed! So our little team who taught in Asia last year went there with our friend Ruth as a farewell before her return to Asia. We all enjoyed our meal very much, proclaiming we’d definitely be eating there again. The food was scrumptious, beautiful and plentiful, and the entrees ranged mainly from only $7 to $10.

Last evening Becka and I returned there for dinner and were dismayed that we were the only customers during our meal. We would hate to see this place close its doors! The restaurant is Vietnamese, and it is as authentic as you can get. It’s a family-run restaurant, and everyone who works there is Vietnamese - unlike some of the local Chinese restaurants with Spanish speakers doing the cooking! With delicious food and a dining area that is clean and pleasant, there’s no reason this place shouldn’t be packing in the people! …except that I don’t think they have much of a notion at all about advertising. As a result, other than the review in the paper, they get customers only by word of mouth or from people happening by and wandering in.

updated 20 Oct. 2007: I’ve learned that the restaurant has closed its doors. Very sad.

Below is their business card. Too bad they didn’t make it. Thanks to all of you locals who tried it out and attempted to give them more business.

quotation…

In reference to teachers … “We are not just data merchants.” - Dr. Dan Olinger

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Rob

If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?

On the cusp of another academic year, I thought I’d share some math that might make more sense than the math we all learn in school….

SHOPPING MATH

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.

A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.

A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.

A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

HAPPINESS MATH

To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.

To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

LONGEVITY MATH

Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.

A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, and she does.

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE

A woman has the last word in any argument.

Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

***
This is Rob, the ivman, again.

One of my favorite forms of math lately is doing Sudoku puzzles. Here’s a recent Pluggers that I found amusing.

Sometime recently I ran across a picture of a gift idea for that Sudoku fan in your life who has everything.

Since this post is about relationships, here are several relational things from this past weekend.

My wife Becka and I just had an extremely enjoyable weekend away from home before the new school year starts up for the faculty and staff this week. One of Becka’s college roommates has been wanting us to get together with her and her husband, and we finally found a weekend that worked for us all. We had such a good time talking and laughing with Cathy and David and were utterly spoiled by their gracious hospitality at their home in the Raleigh, NC area, a place we’d never visited before. We all agreed that we’re not going to let so much time go by before our next reunion, hopefully at our house next time so we can return the favor. Below is a picture of Cathy, David, and Becka.

Another nice part of the weekend was being able to attend the wedding of one of my students who just graduated. Below is a picture of Becka and me with Ethan and Sarah.

quotation…

“Whoever wins the next election is supposed to win. God sets up and pulls down kings and rulers.” - Dr. Drew Conley

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Rob

If the shortest distance between two points is a line, why does waiting in one take so long?

Last evening (Wednesday) we were invited to a special farewell barbeque by Mr. Chen, the man who runs the student canteen where we eat lunch each class day. He moved several tables out on to a balcony, and we enjoyed a relaxing, delicious meal under a beautiful sky. The temperature was quite pleasant thanks to heavy rain earlier in the day. As our evening drew to a close, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Below is a picture of most of the group present and a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Chen, our gracious hosts.

Our final day of classes is tomorrow (Friday), and as I look over the blog, I realize that I have not posted any pictures of our students. Below is one picture from each of our classes….

Here are some of Becka’s students working on a project:

Here are some of my students listening to me drone on:

As we end our teaching time here, we are realizing how much we are going to miss these dear young people. They have welcomed us so warmly, and now they are showering us with gifts, cards, and emails expressing their appreciation for our classes. I must tell you something that we have been laughing about all day, me more so than Becka. One of my students wrote an email to thank me for my teaching, and in his note he made the following comment, “You are a very good person. Your wife is very graceful indeed, despite her great age. You are very humerous . You can make us happy in your class.” (And yes, she knows I’m posting this!)

On a little grocery shopping excursion this afternoon, I captured a few now familiar sights close to our apartment. These are scenes that we will miss.

a woman carrying her wares to the her “shop” on the sidewalk…

a shop where you can buy all sorts of household necessities…

a row of shoe repair shops on the sidewalk…

and another type of taxi available almost anywhere…

In case you’re wondering what her face looks like…

And why on earth these women who “drive” these taxis all dress like this in 100 degree weather I will never understand - but they *do*!

Since today was Bastille Day, our class topic was the French Revolution, Franco-American relations, and the story of the structure built to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution - the Eiffel Tower. We viewed a great video I had brought along that told the story of the building of the tower and many historical facts surrounding the tower since its building.

This afternoon, since Ruth had an errand in the old section of town, we went along to see what it was like. One of the interesting things we saw there was the open air street market. There were sights and smells that were totally resistable!!!

In keeping with the tradition of a picture being worth a thousand words, I’ll post some pictures below with minimal comment.

One street in the market area…

There are many vendors of fresh produce like the one below…

Fresh (?) meat was also available…

Dried meats of all kinds were abundant, like the dried fish below…

When I saw a basket of one of their delicacies, I had to snap a picture.

In case you can’t tell, that’s chicken feet!

Some people prefer to buy live animals and prepare them themselves. We saw live creatures in cages and swimming in containers - chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, rabbits, house cat (seriously!), fish, many varieties of turtle, eel, and even snakes…

… or if you prefer the convenience of dried snakes, all tied up in a pretty pink ribbon…

More updates will follow as situations present themselves to us.