Chinese Harry Potter???

Just in case you wondered...

don't iron scissors 

a story

written during practicum for the new summer facilitators


The Man Who Lives in a Basement
It is very hot today.
It is also very humid.
It makes me so sleepy.
So I went to take a nap.
After my nap I will take a walk.
I will walk to the pool.
At the pool I will use my binoculars.
I will work on my people skills.

30th Anniversary

The 30th Anniversary of ESEC (Education Services Exchange with China) the company I work for was a couple weekends ago.  It was an incredibly busy weekend full of dinners, speeches, and logistics.


One of the most interesting parts of the celebration was taking all of the students from the session to the main campus of Peking University (about a 15 minute bus ride) to listen to some of the speeches.  You should know that our students are never allowed to leave campus so this was completely uncharted territory.  The students were all very excited to leave campus and by the grace of God everything went super smoothly and no students were lost.


Another added challenge was the arrival of about half of the summer team.  They came early just to attend some of the 30th anniversary activities.  This meant that I along with a few other facilitators were responsible for making sure they knew what to do when and also didn't get lost.


A plus was being able to attend the welcoming banquet and the SAFEA banquet and talk with so many people who have been associated with the program through the years.  It was also great to see a few old friends and students who came back for the weekend.


The festivities ended with a worship and thanksgiving service Monday morning.  It was a great time to praise God for all He has done and look forward to the amazing things He has planned for the future.  

Summer Sessions!

The summer is a completely different ballgame here at TIP.  We bring in summer facilitators, who are often only here for one month and in this months case, more students than we have ever had in a session.  For the past week and a half I have been busy with training all of the new facilitators.  Now its go time, time for us to pray that they learned everything they needed to and are confident as they enter the classroom.

• We just finished interviewing about 960 students, which took 2 days (normally interviews only happen on 1 day)
• The students had 6 different groups for orientation (usually there are 2)
• There are 20 different classes
• 25 class facilitators
• 5 admin
• 2 color groups
• 12 AA's
• 20 days of TIP
• hundred's of smiles, laughs, and breakthroughs that make it all worth it

so here's to a great session!

the reason for my absence...

So, I know I don't post often, but I really do promise in the past few weeks I have had several things to post about.  However, I also live in a country called China.  China doesn't really like things like facebook and blogs.  Luckily, there is a thing called  a VPN which I have purchased that allows me to bypass the blocks China puts on the internet and access all of those websites.


Then there happens to be a little thing called the 90th anniversary of the founding of the communist party in China.  Actually, I guess it wasn't so little and there was a lot of celebrations, even though I didn't see any of them.  I just saw the signs and billboards all over the city.


When things like this happen China decides to be extra strict, which means that my VPN doesn't always work.  See...even though China isn't always smart, they do understand how these things work, and try to stop them when they really want to.  However, they aren't as smart as other people, so as soon as China blocks it the company does whatever they need to to unblock it.  Pretty much its a crazy cycle that has left me frustrated at times lately.


But, right now it works!  So I am going to hopefully write a lot of posts that will appear in the next few days.  I know, I know....you'll believe when you see it :)