I think we have gotten into the warmest part of the year here, which just happens to be when the farmers are starting to harvest their rice, the freshman students are doing their military training and I am sick. All of these things have been a big part of our last week. The military training has been a little more interesting this year. This year they gave the students guns to practice with and they have the heavy, dark military fatigues. Many of the other students are a bit jealous of not being able to practice with guns, but glad not to have to march endlessly on such warm days. They have been singing some pretty fun songs, but it tends to start around 6:30 am and finish when it is dark.

Over the weekend, I went out walking with a friend and was able to go and help some farmers harvest rice. This was always something I wanted to try to do. So the farmers allowed us to finish harvesting the rest of the field while they inspected and wondered why. My students wondered the same thing when I told them. There has not been much rain so the rice fields are bone dry and the rice is a crispy, florescent yellow color. I did enjoy the experience, but am yet to drive the water buffalo through the muddy fields to plow (we will wait for spring).

On Sunday, I got sick though, maybe from being out in the sun too long or just a bug, but it is holding on and making me feel very weak and very irritable. I have been despising having to stay indoors and not being able to enjoy the warm weather as much.

Classes are keeping us more than busy, I have 6 classes now and will get 2 more after our October Holiday break. Patty is hoping to get more classes, but still more than busy. Some of the classes have been challenging to make them relevant and useful to the students using the textbook and other resources. We have a holiday coming on October 1st, the Chinese National Day celebrating the 59th anniversary of China's history. We are given a seven day holiday, Monday and Tuesday of that week though we are asked to make up on the weekend though, so we will have class on Saturday and maybe make a trip to Kaili with some students or alone during the break. This vacation we will actually spend time together unlike last year's long excursion to the Yunnan one day on the train, one night on the bus, a few days with my friends in LuChun and then the same protocol backwards. It was beautiful area and great to see them but the bumpiest ride I have ever taken. At times, I could have walked faster than the bus through the mountains (we averaged 12 miles per hour for 12 hours) and I had to hold on for dear life so that I didn't fall out of the bus or off my bed. Patty went camping with some friends, unwilling to make the perilous journey. Hopefully this year's journey will be less crazy.

We continue to have students over for our weekend open houses and it has been very good. We also started our Chinese lessons this last week. We each have a different tutor on Monday and Thursday. IT should be interesting as they are very excited about teaching us, but have never taught Chinese before. I guess then they can practice for their own Putonghua test (Chinese language exam). Most students do not speak Putonghua with each other but their local dialects and some standard Chinese with others.

We saw that the Vikings pulled off their first win and the Packers their first loss, maybe this will cause a trend?!? We miss seeing those things at home, and hope you are enjoying the fall. Many blessings!!