Our bi-monthly update about what is going on in our lives

our current students: click here (and look for other white boxes)

NOTE: www.krigline.com has not been uploading correctly since I returned to China in Aug 2011; www.krigline.com.cn might be more up to date. Click here for an explanation (and "capital letter fix") and for instructions on how to check for more-current pages at krigline.com.cn. Sorry for the inconvenience!

January update (Jan 13, 2012) 

        We had a wonderful Christmas (see photos, plus more Christmas photos on our new Christmas 2011 page), and now we are looking forward to Chinese New Year (Jan 23 this year). It is a beautiful time of year in China, with lots of colored lanterns and other decorations everywhere! In fact, I first arrived in Xiamen just after Chinese New Year in 1985, and I was amazed at how beautiful the sidewalks were, decked with lots of red lanterns. I was really disappointed when they disappeared a few weeks later! But now I know that, like Christmas trees, these decoration are back every year, and that gives us a seasonal treat to cherish.

The other good thing about Chinese New Year is that we get a break from school. I love teaching, and I put a lot of time and energy into my classes. So, it is nice to have a few weeks off to catch up on email, file some of the many photos we are always taking, watch some movies with my wife, and start planning for the next semester. Every "Spring Festival" we also participate in a conference for foreign professionals who work in China. This year it is in Hong Kong, and I'll be presenting one of the training sessions for teachers. Since Vivian and I have been in China for over a decade, we often have leadership roles at these conferences, and we especially enjoy helping "new people" prepare for the challenges that await them in China.

One of my own challenges is finding time to be a webmaster. Even with the holiday break, I know I won't be able to attend to the many problems at Krigline.com (outdated text, broken links, useless buttons, etc.). But in spite of the problems, there are also lots of good things to see and resources to use at Krigline.com (see the Home page). Thanks for stopping by, and have a...
                                     Happy New Year!

Michael Krigline

(Like always, don't forget to see "What is new?" below.)

This was our last "family photo" (Aug 2011) before Vivian & Michael returned to China (after a year in the US). Click here for more family photos and information.

Among the many holiday activities we enjoyed this year, these students made Christmas cards for their friends at our home. Yes, that is our son Andrew on the far right: after he finished his first semester exams (which come before Christmas in the US), he flew to join us for about three weeks. It was great to be together again!

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PS: If you are new to www.krigline.com, we have been "teaching and learning" in China since 2000, but spent 2010-11 in the US, mainly so that our son Andrew could get used to America before going to college (he grew up in China); we also enjoyed the chance to spend time with friends and relatives, and get to know our first grandchild (in South Carolina)! Michael taught international students in 2011 at the University of Akron (where Andrew now studies), and began teaching at Xiamen University in Sept 2011. His sophomores study International Economics and Trade.

Vivian got a second-hand toaster oven for Christmas, but she put it to use all month making holiday goodies for our students. In the first photo, she is dishing out cake with strawberries on the chocolate icing. In the center photo, Vivian brought fresh strawberries to our showing of "Home Alone" on campus, which happened to fall on the day that Andrew arrived. Though he was jet lagged, he still helped me out to pre-teach one of the important dialogs in the film. You can find other Christmas photos by clicking here. 

By the way, Vivian also has many photo pages posted on her scrapbook website. They are more elaborate than the simple photo pages on krigline.com, so they load slowly in China, but you might enjoy seeing her nice pictures. Click here to start your journey: www.scrapbookflair.com/China_Doll. You can also see some of Andrew's artwork at the Deviant Art website.

We are living at "B" on this map, in a small town (Zhangzhou Development Zone), connected by ferry to the huge island-city of Xiamen ("A" is the old Xiamen University campus, in Xiamen). Click here for more about our location.

Xiamen University, during a 2004 visit

(Click on an underlined word to go to that page)

What is new? (January) I added Christmas 2011 and Xiamen Apartment, and posted my students' grades. I also started splitting my "Xiamen" page into two pages (that is still under construction). In November and December I changed the Movie Guide for A Christmas Carol so you can use it as a play (e.g., in class), and I added a guide to the film The Ghost and Mr Chicken and to Sherlock Holmes (The Blind Banker). I also added info to help current students prepare for exams/quizzes; added our current class photos (and added a "reunion photo" to my KM-students page), updated the Student Connection page, updated the Secondhand Lions movie guide and added a few photos to the University of Akron page; I've also updated or imported these pages to ".cn" from our US-based site: Shanghai Expo, Life in China 2, Family Photos 1, our wedding, and "Advice for Standardized Test takers." I've also spent many hours with time-consuming maintenance since we arrived back in China in August! [In particular, I changed all file-page names to "small letters only" because the Internet has become more "case sensitive" than it used to be [so, if you can't get a page to work, look at the letter case!].

      Some of the EFL movie study guides I've added or updated in recent months include: The Ghost and Mr Chicken, Finding Forrester, Ben Hur, Groundhog Day, Secondhand Lions, Steel Magnolias, Patch Adams, An American Tail and A Christmas Carol.

      Check out this "what is new" space whenever you visit, and click "refresh" if you have visited a page before (so you can see the latest changes).

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Here is how to mail us:

PLEASE write from a computer with anti-virus software!!

And please do not send e-mail greeting cards or attachments without asking first.

If you are new to our website, there's a list of popular features on the home page, as well as popular links on the bottom of every page. Also look at our articles index, site map, and FAQ section (Frequently Asked Questions). There is also a log of old "current updates" on our US-based website (try the "Archive Index" below).

Link to Archive: Index of Past Updates

Thanks for stopping by. We would love to hear from you (see above!).

When we were in China, uploading our website from China (to both our US and China-based hosts) was continually a problem (often resulting in incomplete pages); but even in the US, we have difficulty because I'm using Microsoft Front Page, which is not "supported" anymore. Furthermore, e-mail (at least in China) does not always go out or come in as expected. (If you write and don't hear a response, try sending it again after a few days! And remember: the phone is more reliable than e-mail.) Thanks for your patience & understanding.

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