Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have written and things have been quite busy here starting the new school year. I have gone from having 2 students to start the school year last year, to having 17 this year on my enrollment (only 13 have arrived to China thus far) Still, it is the first time to have so many students and I am learning new things (about teaching to bigger numbers) once again. Of course I am lucky because in the states I could have up to thirty in one class. Here the class size caps at 18. I have students from 7 or 8 different countries and almost all of them speak two or three languages. I have seven students that speak almost no english. The english they do know is simply survival english, "Where is the bathroom?" type things. They leave my room for large portions of the school day to go to the english language center and practice language skills there. Anyway, I think teaching to a large group is much easier than teaching to a small group as the students help and coach and occupy eachother and much of the entertainment work and discipline work is taken out of my hands.

Tonight I had my first large back-to school night parents event, where I review procedures and schedules with the parents as a whole group. It is basically a lecture type event. To liven things up a bit I had the parents try a really difficult science experiement/puzzle that the second grade students will be doing in class tomorrow. It was quite fun and quite a success as the parents were really stumped at some points trying to figure out how to balance a pencil on the end of a popsicle stick. I took photos of all the parents and will show the students tomorrow! The parents loved it and I think the event was a hit.

Outside of school, it is great to be back in Dalian. There are many new western people living here in Jinshitan at the school for me to meet and socialize with and I have a small group of other friends, Chinese and western that I developed last year that is helping this place feel a little more like home. I can understand and speak enough mandarin to move freely about and get my needs met independently and I have explored enough places around Jinshitan, KaiFaQu and Dalian to be plenty occupied in my free time. Truly, it feels so much more settled and relaxed than tumultuous last year, which was an adventure, but very exhausting. I have many travel plans for the upcoming year, and am continuing my mandarin and my chinese painting classes, so I am feeling pretty well connected to things. In summation, all is quite well!

OK, I must go to sleep. Much love, and I will talk to you soon!
Becky