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A video series from the Hutong School http://shanghaiist.com/2014/03/11/hutong-school-chinese-is-easy.php Ep1 - Chinese Tones http://shanghaiist.com/2014/04/25/hutong-school-chinese-is-easy-episode2.php Ep2 - Chinese Grammar

I just noticed I only have a few posts.. I was a member here a few years back. My wife now has her 10 year card. I haven't been active here for a while. I see some of the same people still here helping out. Thanks for your dedication, you know who you are.. It was nice to come here and get things straight.

Yes it was a work visa... She had previously worked in Korea doing factory work. She did this for a few years. She was told shy could do this in America and make better money. She paid a Chinese business a sizeable amount to get the work visa for her. She came here thinking she would work here in a factory for two years. She wanted to pay her house and send her son to private school so he would get a good education. When she arrived here there was no factory job. She was taken to a massage parlor and told the more sexual favors you do for customers the more money you will make. She was devastated. She has survived and made the best of her situation. She is working in a legit business but never was able to renew her card. She would like to stay here and own her own business. I told her I would try to help.. I think she needs to talk to a lawyer, but expensive.. How sad that people are used this way... Thanks again..

Yep Dennis, that constant 78 degree weather is a big draw for many folks. I taught a few classes in LA, Fresno, San Diego, and San Francisco, and stayed in friends homes a few times before flying out to New Zealand and Australia. Nice weather and I liked the flora, and tile roofs....reminded me a bit of Australia. I'm not much of a city person and I really like..... four seasons, especially when all four of them are mild. I guess that is how I got rooted here in Pa. I love the season changes...the green trees in summers, the song birds, squirrels, deer, the awesome beauty of spring and winter. The smells and weather of autumn...yada yada yada. I love all of the seasons and the distinct changes going into them. All of the winter scenes where you can see the boulder and gound on the mountains when the leaves are off, down to the winter wonderland postcard snow falls and how the early morning sun turns the eastern facing mountain ridges pink and red, or orange when the sun comes up and there is snow on the mountains. Everybody has got their own preferences and nothing is right or wrong. It's nice to have found contentment in an area that the real estate is CHEAP. Like you said about other areas....here in Pa our home price wouldn't even make a down payment on a home in high dollar areas. That opens up so many more opportunities...instead of paying a ton of money for a home to live in, we can buy investment property that will pay for itself, the very roof over our head, plus put bucks in the bank for play or a rainy day, etc. All on a retirement income. Why would you want to sell your place and go head with the retirement crowd to some place like Florida? That guy Jon Stewart said one night as he was talking about what was good about different states...."Florida....hmmmm. there are many roads leading out of Florida." Not to cut down Florida, I'm just not into places where the humidity is so high that I start to feel the stupidity of myself for sittin' in the humidity. I got an eye opener and a good laugh once when I was visiting a friend in Murphy, NC. Murphy is up in the Smoky Mountains, on the NC, Georgia, Tennessee lines. My buddy said many folks retire to Florida, find it too hot, too, muggy, too rainy, and too buggy....many of them rebound from Florida and head up into the mountains of NC. I think the term they use is "rebounders". I can't imagine working all of my life in one extreme, and then moving to the opposite extreme and believing that is gonna be better. I can put on enough clothes to keep comfortable in the winter, I can't take off enough clothes to get comfortable in extreme heat. LOL It is good to see peoples homes gaining the value they seek. tsap seui