I'm now on my second month in Hangzhou, China with the Amherst China Initiative (www.amherstchina.com if you're interested) and it's going swimmingly. There are 6 Amherst students here now, and I think 11 more are en-route and about to start the July session. Hangzhou is about a 3 hour bus ride from Shanghai, in Zhejiang province. It's rather hot and humid here-85 degrees F feels refreshing after days of intense heat.
This past month, I taught English at a private English school. My class had five kids who were about 10-12 years old. They were on the dinosaur/past tense unit, which they despised because they had to pronounce and spell difficult names like "Tyrannosaurus Rex". Playing games with them after the painful repetitions was the best part.
Since I was on a week-long break from work, I found an ultimate league here (of course) and played a bare-foot pick-up game with them, which was fun. It's mostly ex-pats and foreign students, but some Chinese joined as well, so stall counts were bi-lingual depending on the player-"yi, er, san...".
I know just enough Chinese to let people know I'm an American student, to direct a taxi driver, and to order eggplant, pork noodles, and fried pumpkin. I've discovered that eggplant is delicious, and my chopstick skills are horrible. Hopefully when I come back, I'll be able to pick up those pesky grains of rice like a master.
Hope your summers continue to be awesome!
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