SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Welcome Class of 2009!!! (They count the year in college by the year you start, not the year you graduate). Traffic around our front gate was extremely bad last week with all the freshmen arriving on campus. Some were driven by their parent's in nice black Audi's or other imported cars and were carrying their cell phones, cameras, MP3s, and computers in tow. Others came carrying their belongings in small rucksacks full of clothes and books, sweaty and tired after a long, lonely, and crowded train ride. The found their major's department, met their 7 other roommates, and got their military fatigues which they'll be wearing for the next 15 days as they complete their mandatory military training. (You can guess what next week's snapshot will most likely be!)

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Here's the team on the Saturday after our first week of teaching. Mr. Wang, our landlord, took us on a trip to Harbin's tiger park (search for it on youtube and you'll get a better idea of what it's like). You're probably wondering, where's the new guy? No, we did not feed him to the tigers. No, his first week of teaching was not that bad, nor was he scared away by the fact that he was on a team with only girls. Actually, he had to leave our team before he started teaching on account of a personal emergency. It was quite a shock to us and to our school. This is the 25th year that my organization has worked with this school. I don't think this unexpected loss has irretrievably damaged the relationship between the English teacher's organization and the school, but it hasn't been the easiest thing for us to negotiate.