School is back in session for the Johnson family!

The girls came home with their new school windbreakers.  They were very proud of them.  The girls go to their new pre-school 2 hours a day for three days a week.  On the other days they usually have play groups or ex-pat run "English" schools (as Anna calls them.)

The first few days Sarah screamed when we left her…but she used to do that in any new environment when we were putting her under another’s care.  Now she seems to be taking to "kool" as she calls it and enjoying it more.

The back of these jackets has Chinese characters on it they say something like "hao haizi something-yuar".  Basically, it means Good Child Pre-school.

Meanwhile, Christa is back in full swing with her tutor.  You all thought she had more FREE time on her hands, but this "free" time without the kids is actually spent learning or studying Chinese.

I am back at the Min Yuan (minorities college) taking 13 hours a week.  My grammar class is more difficult than last semester, but the spoken class is the same.  Yesterday, we learned that it is the student’s responsibility to erase the chalk board each morning before the teacher arrives in the classroom.  I guess this shows a form of respect.  We learned this because we hadn’t done it!  Our teacher (laoshi) was not upset; she took it very graciously.  After we apologized she said, "It’s OK, you didn’t know."  I still felt like an imbecile.  Needless to say I erased the board thoroughly after class yesterday.