Day with Friends at Long Lake

As a retired professor from the University of Regina (Regina, Canada), there have been many opportunities in recent years to enjoy great friendships with Chinese and other Internationals.  I’ll explain this more fully starting today and in future blogs.

Some student residences, University of Regina.

Some student residences, University of Regina.

Starting even before my retirement, I was matched up as a “friendship partner” with a newly-arrived grad student from Nanjing. In time, he brought over his wife and son. We created a small apartment for them on the lower floor of our personal residence. Later, as I was free of teaching responsibilities, I acquired more housing and expanded this little business to accommodate more students and visiting scholars. As it turned out, my role as “landlord” has been a very positive experience for me.

Since then, I’ve made many good friends with Chinese people and these friendships have resulted in some great travel experiences to China and elsewhere.  

 My friends own a pontoon boat (having two large aluminum tanks underneath).  It is very stable.

My friends own a pontoon boat (having two large aluminum tanks underneath). It is very stable.

Today I will highlight one delightful outing (in 2008) with some of these friends. We visited friends who live next to a lake just an hour or so by car from Regina. Our guests today included a visiting scholar (a medical doctor and his family). Others are grad students who were tenants in one of our houses.

As you view the photo album here, I should clarify that the kind of lifestyle you see here represents that of the more wealthy 10% of our Saskatchewan community. Maybe at one time, my wife and I had some dreams of living at a lake, but in recent years the prices of houses and waterfront property has increased dramatically and it is far beyond our reach.

Click here to view the album:
Day with Friends at Long Lake

First published:  2009/11/19
Latest update: 2017/10/09