Jane Austen's nephew Henry wrote of his aunt,  that "her complexion [was] of the finest texture, it might with truth be said that her eloquent blood spoke through her modest cheek.”  He is referencing a poem by the Elizabethan poet John Donne: 

The Powers That Be in China have decided to enforce the regulation that they will not grant a work visa to persons over 60 years of age. So it appears -- unless there is some province where the authorities are still bending the rules a bit -- that my China adventure will come to an end in about six weeks. My current work visa will expire and I won't be able to get a new one because I turned 60 last November. I hope that there are still some exceptions to this rule --  I hope to find some university in the hinterlands that is willing and able to take a chance on hiring a decrepit old foreigner. 

Around the campus here, I see dozens of janitorial and landscaping staff, hard at work all day, who appear to be older than 60. And I see hundreds of seniors working on other public landscaping projects around town. Mandatory retirement appears to apply only to government and white collar workers, who also enjoy better pension benefits. For Chinese nationals, the current retirement age is 60 years for men, and 55 for women...​

What a bland blog post title. I really wanted to title it, "What rising tensions in Asia mean for foreigners, specifically, me" but so far, the rising tensions haven't affected me at all. But for the first time, yesterday, I was standing at a bus stop with Ross and thinking, IF relations between Donald Trump and China's president Xi Jinping get any worse, than Ross and I might want to sew a some big, fat, Canadian flag decals on all of our clothing. Was it my imagination, but were some of the people at the bus stop looking at us in an unfriendly way?

In case you haven't heard, President Trump recently threw out the, uh... observation, shall we call it, that if China didn't do something about North Korea, then the US would act alone in solving the problem of that aggressive hermit nightmare regime.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn [eyeroll] that President Trump knows nothing about the history of North and South Korea, or the "six party" talks. All of the nations living within nuclear-bomb striking distance of Pyongyang have a stake in the outcome of diplomatic talks with North Korea and that they should be a party to the talks. South Korea's capital city, Seoul, is the city that would be incinerated if the North Korean regime ever made good on its threats. So this "go it alone" talk is not helpful or respectful.
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​Not that I have any ideas or solutions, nor can I predict what will happen. Perhaps the Kim regime can only be toppled by force. Perhaps Kim Jong-Un's own generals, alarmed by his Caligula-like behavior, will deal with him themselves. But I'm old enough to remember when his father, Kim Jong-Il, came to power, and back then, the experts were asking if the regime could possibly survive. The misery continues, year after year. Some more random thoughts:

"You are like a piece of chocolate -- you will always be at the bottom of my heart."  -- farewell note from a student.

So for now, the adventure is over. I will miss my new 'home town' Zibo, so much, especially just looking at the bustling world go by through the windows of a rickety bus, or exploring a new street on our bicycles, and (sigh) the food. Ah, the food. And the friendly people. And my students. And my new friends. It  wasn't fun telling everybody 'good-bye.'

I'll be living on Vancouver Island for the time being. The blog will remain in place, and..... we'll see what the future brings.