Culture Shock

Marlene Ritchie is off to teach in China at age 68. She's just divorced and retired from the auction business she and her husband founded, and is now examining her past and finding the self-confidence to start anew. She'll be embedded in the commune of a Chinese university, attending to her basic needs with little Chinese speaking ability, while making lesson plans and teaching English, uncertain whether the students will be able to understand. The man in charge of her accommodations reluctantly addresses faults in her apartment, challenging her patience and finesse. As she ventures about to understand what life is like for her students, colleagues, business and farming acquaintances, she often gets into predicaments which are amusing. Her understanding is enriched by trips to historic sites. China is in flux. It's a crash course covering language, history, and sociology with exotic dinners thrown in. Marlene wasn't going to miss out, and neither are you as you live her experiences through the pages of this heart-warming narrative....