It has been another great week in China. It is a rainy spring Sunday afternoon, and we are enjoying the down time as we sip our warm cups of coffee. After a busy week, it doesn’t get much better than this!We have many reasons why we are thankful this week:
1) Jess and Lily went wedding dress shopping with Shannon on Saturday and found the perfect dress at a great price. It was a great day for the girls!
2) Peter retrieved his bike from Beijing on Saturday, and since he couldn’t take it on a train, he decided to ride from Beijing to Langfang. He completed the almost five hour ride without a problem.
3) I remained in Langfang on Saturday and enjoyed a quiet & productive day. At about 7pm, a student visited me and we had a great conversation about life for about an hour and a half.
4) On Friday afternoon, Jess had lunch with one of her students and was able to share some important life lessons as well. This semester has provided many opportunities to share our lives with students, as our friendships grow deeper.
5) Jess’ parents and younger brother will be here to visit in less then two weeks! They will be here from May 1st to the 10th.
Things to continue thinking about:
1) The national evaluation of our college starts today. This happens once every four years, and all of the college officials have been very nervous about this since last September. We however, have been very excited about the improvements around the campus as they prepare for this week. Our main concern is that the experts’ evaluation could have an effect on our May English Week.
2) We have been asked to run four outdoor English Clubs this week for the evaluation. This is another great opportunity for us to share our lives and talents with many students. Unfortunately, one of these Clubs has already been canceled due to rain. The forecast calls for rain again tomorrow, but then clear skies for the rest of the week.
3) With a week and a half to go before our Spring Break the officials have decided to change the master schedule so that we will have a five-day holiday instead of the original 11 days that we thought we would get. As frustrating as it can be, we have come to expect these kinds of schedule changes. However, this will have other repercussions. First, we are not sure how this will affect our plans with Jess’ family. We are hoping that we can still miss our classes that week since we have already planed to be on holiday and scheduled our classes accordingly. Second, this will mean that the final exam week will come earlier, and it is possible that they will not want us to have our May English Week so close to finals. Finally, we are also not sure if this will affect our departure dates in June.
4) Please continue to think about our May English Week and the team that will be here. They have just completed their training time in the United States.
5) All four of us are planing to return next year, but we are trying to work out the best possible return dates. As you have probably already noticed, scheduling isn’t always easy here. Everything is flexible, which is difficult to work with when weddings, jobs, Olympic games, and plane tickets are involved. We have heard rumblings that classes could be delayed because of the Olympics, but it is possible that we would not know for sure until the end of next August. Jess and I will probably return after Shannon and Peter’s wedding, and then, Peter and Shannon will arrive a couple weeks later.
6) Next year we will be adding a member to our team, Jess Shamblee. Yes, that is correct, we will have two Jessica’s! Officially, it will be just two short of a plethora! Hopefully, she will be here in May with the English Week team, and we can’t wait to meet her for the first time.
Thank you for your thoughts,
Brad & Jess
