We're sure you would like to see the pics of our Hong Kong trip, so without further ado, we have two new albums available entitled: "Birthday and Downtown City Center" "1st Trip to Hong Kong" Again, they can be found in our China Collection at our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24507962@N07/collections/72157622115423480/ Today was another good day teaching for me. It was also one of my longer days, teaching 4 classes. Tomorrow I have off, so I will try to do some catching up with emails to people and study Chinese since we have class tomorrow. I'll possibly do some lesson planning as well for next week. The weather continues to be fairly hot and humid, but there has been a lot more thunder/lightning/rain mixed in throughout the days. Several students have come to me... read more

Celebrating holidays and celebrations overseas was something Staci and I knew would be hard, especially away from family and friends. Today, I celebrated my 26th birthday. As much as I missed being with loved ones, the day actually was quite special. I woke up with the most beautiful little face next to my side--Staci. (Alright, alright, I wont make this into some sap story full of nerdy, mushy cuteness). As we walked to our office, I started hearing students call my name, running towards me. "Happy Birthday teacher", "Happy Birthday Teacher Martin!" It put a smile on my face, one that didn't go away the entire day. In our office, several more students shyly popped their heads in, asking if they could come in. Surely, the answer I gave them was yes, and they quickly marched ... read more

Alright, it's time again! There are two more albums of pictures posted. The titles of the newer albums are: Bball, Teacher Day, and more! and Banquet and Shekou ... read more

Any Chinese person: "How you like weather in China?" Staci & Martin: Oh, it is very hot. Very different for us. We are used to rain and colder temperatures. Any Chinese person today: "How you like weather in China? It rain a lot today!" Staci & Martin: Yes, it is VERY rainy. We are used to rain, but not like this. Yes, folks, our first tropical storm is upon us. And it's crazy. At this point, I must copy a paragraph written by a fellow travelblogger (I went to find blogs in the Seattle area, and stumbled upon this stranger's blog, who summed up Seattle's weather problems quite well): However, this is not a normal month for Seattle. But then again, nothing in Seattle ever seems to be normal. When I first came here I was ... read more

We were not officially told about what went on for Teacher's Day until, well, almost the day itself. We were told that if we were scheduled to teach a class on Thursday during 8th period, then it would be moved to 1st period on the following Monday. This affected both staci and me, so it was good to know not to show up to teach during that time. Instead, we got to party Chinese style. Whooowhooooo! I was formally invited to attend two classroom party's, Senior 2 class 0 and 5. As soon as I walked down to class 0, several other classes got me to promise to attend their classroom festivities. It would be difficult, but I managed to make a presence in more classrooms than I thought I could have originally. My entrance to ... read more