As the holidays creep up on us, the semester is also approaching it's close. This means that students are starting to freak out about the papers they have to turn in and finals they need to study for. Shuwen has been kept busy meeting up with a number of students to discuss their class papers, help them work through their data issues and resolve various confusions. This has generally been pretty fun as she learns more about the diverse research interests people have and gains some substantive knowledge of those areas from her conversations with them.

We finally caved in and bought a new laptop for Shuwen (hers died a year ago) since we will be traveling a far amount at the end of this year and in Spring semester. Now she no longer has an excuse to not get work done while on the road. It arrived today and we are in the midst of getting it all set up so that she will be good to go for our trip to Chicago for Thanksgiving (heading out on Tuesday!) UNICEF's HR department is still working on the contract for Shuwen (she will be doing some analyses on child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa), but hopefully she will be able to get cracking on the project soon. Meanwhile, Marc is waiting to hear more about travel plans for the Nile Project he is on. It has been a little frustrating, not being able to plan for Spring semester because our schedule will be based on Marc's trip to Ethiopia.

We had some of the CAC runners over for a Japanese themed dinner on Tuesday and only just finished all the left-overs from that. It was fun to see Joan & Dave and their 3 girls (Sarah-Jane, Rosie & Lizzie), as well as Jason, Trish & Lucas. Joan was fascinated by our orange tree and the kids seemed to get along well. It is always nice to be able to learn more about people around you who you only associated with under certain circumstances in a different setting -- We learn new ways of seeing people and have a better understanding of who they really are.

We managed to get some culture this week as well. On Wednesday we caught a guitar performance by the Romeros Quartet -- a family of very gifted classical guitar players. They did some amazing things with their hands on their guitars, like play with only one hand, and cross the hands so that the right was strumming and the left was playing the chords. They made it looked so easy and were having so much fun in the process as well! On Thursday, we attended a Japanese Taiko drum performance at UNC's Global Education Center. The auditorium was packed -- many had to sit along the stairs, and there were a good number of children in attendance as well. We were both quite mesmerized by the rhythms of the taiko, and despite all the banging and clanging, we were both starting to drift off to sleep! At the end of the show, folks were welcomed to give the drums a try -- the kids were definitely having a blast. We learned a few things like, that the drums are made from the trunk of a tree which is hallowed out (versus made up of several pievces of wood) before cow hide is stretched over it.

It will be a busy weekend. Tomorrow we (and our checkbook) will go to our Church's annual Alternative Christmas Market, and hope to cover some X'mas gifts there. Every year our church organizes this event that provides something different for Holiday shoppers. The market will offer a wide range of handicrafts, services and food items that benefit local, national and global objectives, including human rights-related causes, disaster relief, development, micro-credit opportunities, and promotion of local arts. It is always wonderful to be involved in something that will benefit those who are far less fortunate than us both locally and globally.

On Sunday, Shuwen and some friends will run in the UNC Turkey trot -- a 4mile run in some trails, and we will catch the UNC-Iona basketball game at the Dean Dome. Marc is thinking about some races he will partake in this Winter and in Spring. We've decided to run in a low-key race in Winston -Salem called the Mistletoe run on Dec 1st. Marc will do the 1/2 marathon and Shuwen will run in the 5K. Then in Spring, Marc will probably do another 1/2 marathon in Houston and a full marathon (still deciding among Austin, London & Boston).