Busy, Busy, Busy

Hi Everyone,

Things are going well here at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School...better than I think both of us expected. The school is even more beautiful than we expected and the staff is really encouraging. I will post some pictures tomorrow after the wedding so you all can see what we have been up to.

We have been teaching 6 classes a day. Three classes with two different sets of students with class sizes of 26. Most of the students can read some English but the majority have very little listening or speaking ability. That is where we come in. Many doors have been opened in the last few days. We spread the word to a few people that we were going to do a mock wedding for a couple of classes to come watch. It was going to be small with 50 or so students. Word spread and the school gave us the 350 person auditorium for two "performances" tomorrow morning and afternoon with a packed house in each along with accompanying video for the rest of the 1200 students to watch. Yikes!!! Nothing like planning two weddings in two days with a "cast" of 50 sixth graders! Please think of us!!!

We have also been asked to fill some other roles as Katy and I were part of the small team to plan the Christmas party, and I have been asked to co-host the camp's closing ceremonies. It has really turned out to be a good time to get a feel for China (albeit the wealthy portion, though we did get to meet some teachers from the villages and spend the day with them) by getting a few needed phrases down as well as spending some quality time with our dear friend Kelly.

We will be here the next week or so and then on to Wuhan for another week or so. The days all run together but it really is a full time. Yesterday we took all the students to Hangzhou's famous Xi Hue or West Lake, it was totally gorgeous, imagine Central Park with awesome temples and pagodas everywhere, peacocks prancing by and about 2 million people!!! The best part was that as we were walking in this downtown park with our 2 million friends A WILD BOAR CAME FLYING OUT OF THE BUSHES, SCARED THE BATS OUT OF THE STUDENTS (okay, I didn't like it too much either) AND RAN BACK INTO THE BUSHES!

So tomorrow I get to tell 800 people what true love is. Please think about me in this.

I appreciate it and we are grateful for all of you. You are a part of this just as much as we are. We do not doubt for a moment that these are coincidences unwrought by good thoughts.

Jonathan (For Katy)