The end of the year holiday season is often a time of surprises and celebrations, and over the past week we have experienced our share of both in Jinan. Early in the week, a significant snow fell, in a rapid shift from the mild weather we were having, giving us a white Christmas, and some icy streets and rather cold temperatures. We had an exciting surprise when we washed up the collections from the Da Xin Zhuang site (where we surveyed last weekend), and found a polished fragment from an oracle bone. Since the site dates mostly to the Shang period (c. second millennium BC), this find was not out of place chronologically, but it certainly was unexpected and a first for us.

One of the things that I have had to adjust to over the years in China is that they have a different style of planning than I am used to in the United States. In fact, it sometimes seems to us that there is very little planning here at all. A major surprise this week is that I was told Thursday that I was expected to prepare two additional lectures for my class to be delivered the coming week. This is more of an honor than a hardship for me, but it does reflect a different style of planning from our university system where class schedules and course outlines generally are laid out months in advance.

At first, when we were still in Chicago, representatives of the University and I agreed on a plan in which I would be teaching 4-5 classes per week for two weeks. However, on our arrival in Shandong, we were told that three weeks in Jinan were preferable, and so we adjusted our schedule to do the Rizhao survey analysis here at the university while I began teaching. Last week, I started teaching the day following our arrival in Jinan. But as soon as I had planned out a series of lectures and began teaching, a new wrinkle emerged. The national government declared a four day holiday beginning the first of January, so I was told that my lectures would conclude on December 30, even though we had scheduled to be here that full week. Then on Christmas day, the University announced that it would not be following the national holiday schedule, and would only observe a single day off, the first day of the new year. With the end of the semester rapidly approaching, and a scheduled month off for the Spring Festival (the official description of Chinese New Year) in late January and early February, the University reasoned that students needed more time in class now. So now I will return to the drawing board to devise two more lectures for the end of the coming week.

I am teaching a worldwide survey of early civilizations, and the students, who have had little exposure to regions outside Asia, seem to be enjoying it and are starting to grasp some of the insights gained from a more comparative approach. They especially seem to enjoy the images that I am showing of key sites, plans, and artifacts from other global regions. For that reason, I have included a visual review of each area as well as my spoken presentation. Dr. Fang Hui has been sitting in the class, and he has graciously provided synthetic translations at key junctures, to assist those students whose English is not at an adequate level.

Of course, it is not surprising that the University students come to class with different levels of English comprehension. And expectedly, speaking capabilities tend to lag behind reading and listening comprehension. Yet the English language skills of Chinese students are getting better and better. This trip I have met more fluent (and near fluent) English speakers than ever before, and almost all of them are still young.

We also have had our share of celebrations this holiday season. On Christmas Day, in lieu of my teaching (although most classes on campus still met), we attended a ceremony in which I was inaugurated as the Li-Ching Chair Professor of Shandong University (the first in the social sciences at the university). The Li-Ching Foundation is based in Taiwan and gives funding for educational initiatives on the mainland. The benefactor of the foundation was originally from Shandong, so he has been kind to Shandong University over the years. A representative of the foundation from Taiwan as well as various high university officials attended the ceremony. I was told that cross-straits (mainland China-to-Taiwan) travel is more difficult to arrange than US-China contacts, so the presence of the Taiwan representative was out of the ordinary. As Taiwan is well south of Shandong Province, the guest from Taiwan was rather surprised by the cold and snow. He had not seen snow since his graduate school days in the Boston area three decades ago. The ceremony was followed by a luncheon banquet.

Later that night, we had a more relaxed meal with some of the foreigners who are teaching English for the year at Shandong University. They come from both England and the United States, and are currently living in the same apartment complex where we are based. Most are planning travel vacations by rail and bus across China during the Spring Festival break.

On Saturday, we attended the celebration for the new Archaeology Center at Shandong University. President Zhan Tao of Shandong University, who has been supportive of the Archaeology Program helped christen the center. I was asked to serve as the Director (Chair) of the Committee governing the Center, and after the ceremony and another luncheon banquet, an afternoon meeting was held to set goals and try to devise broad plans for the coming year. Representatives of Beijing University, the Institute of Archaeology in Beijing, and the Shandong Provincial Institute of Archaeology attended this organizational meeting along with my Shandong University colleagues (Professors Luan, Yu, and Fang). Professor Luan will be the Director of the Center and he presided over the meeting. Following that session, a smaller, less frenetic banquet was held for the Committee members.

After all the meals out, we enjoyed being able to prepare a simple breakfast in our own kitchen this morning. We have learned to navigate stores on and near campus, where we can buy essentials like bread, fruit, peanuts, dried fruit, yogurt, and crackers. Since we do know the numbers, paying in yuan (Chinese money) is not a problem. In fact, in one store, we met one of my students, who very kindly offered to help us get what we needed. However, after chatting for a few moments and watching us in action, she pronounced that we had everything under control and went on her way.

The words for the day are "xia xue." "Xue" is the word for 'snow,' while "xia" is a verb that basically means 'moving from a higher place to a lower place.' So, "xia xue" means that 'it is snowing.'