Shanxi Normal University (山西师范大学)

Buildings 10, 11 and 12


Buildings 10 and 11


Buildings 11 and 12


Building 4


Building 4


Building 4 and 8




Departmental basketball tournament.


English Singing competition. I'm a judge.

Shida Campus 2 (师大二校区)

Building B where I taught 4 classes a week Spring semester.




Studying …


The classroom where all my Campus 2 classes were taught.



This is Shanxi Normal Universities 2nd Campus, its about a 20 minute bus ride (or 20 minute bike ride as well, which was my preferred mode of transportation) away from the main campus.. The facilities over there are not as nice and the students scored lower on their entrance exams so they have to pay higher tuition. I taught there twice a week during the spring semester, two back back classes each day.

PS I wasn't able to post for a while because I was doing a lot of traveling around. I'm now back in the US indefinitely and will be floating around for a few weeks, but I'll try to keep posting when I can. Thanks for looking.

Graduate Students (研究生)

This was my last class with my graduate students, only four showed up plus this random undergrad boy who stated sitting in on our class. This class was always pretty low on attendance because it was a last minute elective that was added to their last semester of classes, but this week 10 or so of my students had to be in Taiyuan to grade tests. For those that did show up we just got to hang out and mess around, and after class took a few pictures.

Rest In Peace Jeffrey Martin Keefe

"沉痛悼念杰夫凯夫先生" - Deepest condolences for Mr. jeffrey Keefe (roughly)



















I am sad to say a colleague of mine here at Shanxi Normal University, and fellow American, passed away unexpectedly May 19th (It would have still been the 18th in America) at the age of 52. A local funeral service was held this morning in the wake of this unfortunate event. Jeff and I were not particularly close; I came here with the intention of spending more time with the locals rather than other foreigners, but it was clear he was a very kind man and he loved his work. When I first arrived in Linfen, Jeff greeted me warmly. I distinctly remember one time early on sitting in his apartment and drinking a beer with him as he rambled on about all the foods he had managed to find here, the computer-TV combo thing he had going on, his crazy red couch and other various things.

What I know of Jeff's past isn't much. He was a veteran of the US Army; married but divorced. His last four years were spent teaching English, one here and three in Korea. This summer he was planning to visit America for the first time since he left four years ago. I'm not sure what he did before that, or what else he may have left behind, but I know that those who knew him here will miss him dearly. This is evident by the busloads of students who attended the service this morning and those still that had to be turned away due to a lack of space. In a city of over 700,000 people, I can't help but feel the streets are a little empty without Jeff ridding by on his electric scooter; may he rest in peace.

Another Foreigner!

Professional mountain biker Alan Eger passed through Linfen recently. He's working as research and design director at Triace Bikes, the brand sold by the bike shop I always hang around, and is visiting a bunch of the 90 stores they have across China. These are just a few images from a talk he gave at Shanxi Normal University. Some better ones to come from our biking excursion.