Happy Graduation Day, Alex! (A little late...)

First, a big hello to my brother, Alex! Happy Graduation Weekend! I'm sad I missed your big day, but I know the "big days" in your life are just beginning.

I've been not writing the blog because my ex-VPN stopped working and I couldn't access the site. Now, I've dumped that one and am hopefully this one will work even better.

We've been having some pretty great weather the last few days. Still very warm, but not as humid. We've had very low attendance at school over this past weekend, which made me happy because it told me families were out enjoying the weather, even though it messed up some of my lesson plans.

We've had a busy weekend at work. Our boss has added a lot of things back into our system that the previous boss had let go of. Some of the additions are actually pretty great. Yesterday, I had a class meeting with one of my new classes and parents about what my expectations are for them, and what they can expect from me, to welcome the students into a new "grade" level. At EF, a student is promoted to a new "grade" level after about 40 weeks. It felt nice to have a fresh start with both the parents and the students. I also had two "open door" classes were the parents come and watch the class during the second hour and administered three sets of tests. It was a busy weekend. I also woke up with a cold on Friday, which is nothing like the one I had in June, but still not fun. Almost everyone at work has had a cold in the last few weeks. I'm blaming it on the small stars sneezing on me!

I also want to thank my Dad and Joanna for the gift package. I felt like a kid at camp getting a package. Camp China!

Today was a day in mourning for China. China was officially celebrating a day of grieving for the lives of over 1,200 people who died in the mudslides in northwest China a week ago. At ten o'clock this morning the country was asked to take ten minutes of silence to acknowledge the lives of the people lost. I was teaching preschoolers about the letter "N" at that moment, but I was able to talk a little bit about it with the students in one of my advanced classes today. It was awesome hearing five young women speak so compassionately about the people their country had lost.

Captain's Log: 14 Weeks...