Summer of Service

Well, it's 19 days until blast-off over here in Philadelphia. I'm so excited to land in Beijing and get this adventure going. I stopped by the PiA office the other day and I said to Leslie and Anastasia, "Hey, I'll see you in China." Isn't it great that I can say that? Hey, I'll see you 10,000 miles from here. Rock out.
Last night I had my first dream about teaching English in China. I dreamt that we had just been assigned our classes and it was our first day teaching. But, you know how dreams go. Things are very different from reality, but they're accepted as real. In my dream I might be in my room, but my dream room looks nothing like my actually room. Anyways, I walk into my classroom, which isn't really a classroom, it's just an area of a huge warehouse. My students are elementary schoolers (because, you know, we're teaching young kids...), and I start introducing myself when they just light up and start speaking perfect English, not allowing me to get a word in. All I'm thinking is, "What is going on? Am I teaching?" Yup. What does this say about my experience to come in China? I don't know. Let's just hope my dreamy confusion is not indicative of what's to come. With that, I sign off. Next time, I'll be writing from China.
-Ashley

Posted by Ashley Johnson at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was recently contacted by a reporter from the Trenton Times who had heard about our program. We had a chance to talk a little about SOS, and she also got quotes from Anastasia and Mike "The Animal" Vinson, who happened to be nearby. We should be getting an article in the Trenton Times sometime within the next two days, so keep a lookout. Is it bad luck for us to get publicity before we've actually gone over there and done something? Probably, but we take what we can get.

See you tonight for the Hiphopera.

- Rory

Posted by Richard Truex at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey everyone! (I have never written on a blog before. This is pretty sweet.) Anyway, I can't believe we will be leaving for China in about a month. Seems so soon. The orientation and preparation activities, (TEFL, etc.) have been awesome but I'm kind of nervous for my teaching skills to be put to the test. Seeing as the only thing I've ever taught are horseback riding lessons, teaching English should be an exciting challenge. But, I'll be honest, I'm really nervous.

Also, yesterday's meeting really made me think about the important stuff... such as, what to pack! Here's my preliminary list of necessary goodies to take:

1. Deodorant (If it's gonna be 115 degrees, we all better have some.)
2. Immodium and Pepto (no explanation necessary.)
3. First Aide Kit (Including bug spray and benadryl for all the buggies.)
3. Tasty Treats (Food to satisfy my cravings for non-Chinese food. I'm gonna go with Nature Valley granola bars... mmm.)
4. Princeton and Kentucky gear (To represent my home slice and give some really cool, American gifts to my students. Not to bribe them to like me... but it might help.)
5. Journal (To record all of our amazing experiences. OH, and my "feelings.")

Even though I left a few essential things off the list... (Turko, you're in charge of the camera!)...you get the general idea. I just hope that we can make this the first year in a long tradition of Summer of Service projects. Let's make it happen, dream team.

Yours,
Betty

(This is posted under my account; I just moved Betty's comment into a real entry so people will read it! -Jean)

Posted by Jean Hsu at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello there, this is Mike (once again). I just wanted to get on this thing one more time so I could let everyone know what has been happening.

I personally had the best time ever at the PIA banquet held this past Monday at Prospect House. It was so great getting to meet so many of the people responsible for helping to make this trip possible. The meal itself was pretty amazing, but I also loved getting the chance to see Rory get up there and get everyone else as excited about this trip as those of us going are. The entire night was without a doubt pretty fantastic.

The team just had a meeting yesterday morning so we could finalize visa stuff and consent forms and all that good stuff. It was actually our last meeting as a full, unified group before we all meet in Beijing, which is somewhat weird thinking about it. China seems so far away right now. I can't believe we're actually all going to be in China in only about a month.

So, in our meeting today, we just discussed things like packing and addressed questions people had, like whether it will actually be 115 degrees where we will be. Rory promises it won't be. I think.
So -- that's it for tonight. I have a psychology exam in about 32 hours. Yuck.

Posted by Michael Vinson at 3:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey, everybody. Mike here. I just wanted to get on the blog to write about how I just exited perhaps the greatest display of raw talent and emotion, fused with pure, cold, hard energy, never before witnessed upon this earth--until now. I like to call it--Rory's Awesome Chinese Skillz.

Basically, what just happened is that some other Middle-Country newbies and I entered Frist 309 not speaking a lick of Chinese (except my own terrible version of, you are pretty) yet left feeling really psyched about perhaps actually picking some up and being able to converse with Chinese people. Rory taught all of us the four tones essential to proper Chinese and then dished out some sick noun-verb combos to us, like I am and You are and some other words like teacher, friend, and mother (it's mother's day.) Then, we found ourselves sprawled out in a world heretofore unseen--complete Chinese sentences. By the end of the two-hour session, we were all asking each other, "Are you in China?", and "Are you a teacher?" We could answer back with a, "I am not in China. I am in America." Or even better, the "Yes I am a teacher."
So hot right now.

So basically, I just wanted to let everyone know that Rory is a teaching god. He's gonna rock the world of a few lucky Chinese students, I think. Plus, he got me pretty optimistic about that whole "learning Chinese thing".

Posted by Michael Vinson at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi everyone. Just seeing if this blog works. This is the first entry, but I’m sure there will be many more!

Jean

Posted by Jean Hsu at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)