Alright, first things first! We were waiting to figure out if we could give out our mailing address in English or not, as we heard rumblings from the program that people needed to use Chinese characters to address mail. However, our contact teacher told us that mail should get here just fine using only English and has in fact over the past five years that they've had foreign teachers. So...SEND US MAIL!!!! (Upon thinking about it and a good suggestion from another program participant, I decided to remove the address from this blog-- message us on here if you want it and we'll give it to you specifically. :)) Do make sure you spell everything right though...and please, don't make us try to explain in Chinese to the post office why someone might accidentally address mail ... read more

After having some lengthy battles uploading pictures, we are at the airport Starbucks using the free internet that comes with a mocha frappuccino. The upload speed is so much faster, making it a breeze to upload pictures, no matter the size. I have deleted the last post that had a link some pictures of our home here, and created a better album with more pictures. After some helpful advice from my father-in-law Noel, I have almost had a change of heart, haha, about uploading pictures. As I want to do it the same way for all my pictures, I will still be sharing most pictures the same way. If there are any pictures I deem not as "pretty", I will most likely re-size them, making them smaller, thus faster for me to share from our school ... read more

The scene: Martin and Staci, laying in bed, 8:53am on Saturday morning, debating whether we should get up and get the day started or sleep a little more. As we made the decision to sleep more, Martin's phone rings and it's Harry asking us to be at a meeting to be introduced to all the teachers/leaders at the school. What time? 9am? Oh, okay, NO BIG DEAL! We threw on clothes (luckily he told us we didn't have to be formal), rushed down our six flights of stairs, across campus, up four more flights of stairs and into a crowded lecture hall where all the staff was already seated and listening to the headmaster and other leaders talk on the stage. We walked in front of everyone with Harry (out of breath and sweating), sat in ... read more

Our second album of pictures is up. To make things easier for everyone, I will continue to provide the link for you. Please click on it to see the most recent album: If you click on the first photo, it should then take you along to the rest. here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24507962@N07/sets/72157622127571936// Also, I have included in this blog a picture from the above album. I think it is one of my favorites I've taken so far. I edited it slightly with a program on my computer. ... read more

When we were still training in Beijing, one of our days off was an "organized" trip to the Forbidden City which is located right next to Tiananmen Square. We loaded onto two busses by last name, and within an hour we were in the middle of Beijing, ready to see the nearly 1,000 buildings that make up this impressive complex of palaces. On the bus, we were given some quick instructions about what time to meet back up with the large group for lunch at the other end of the complex. Staci and I began exploring near where we entered the complex, taking several pictures, but quickly discovered in order to make it on time to meet the group at the other side, we needed to keep walking straight at a steady pace, not stopping much ... read more