When it comes to freshmen, it is best to expect anything.

Finally, my full workload is in full effect. Today I had four classes of Oral English with all first year students. Fresh off their "military training,"--seemed more like walking around for hours at a time than anything else--my freshmen came to class eager to learn and eager to ask questions. Lots of questions. I started off my telling my students about my home town and Augustana.  I got lots of laughs when I told them that the entire student body of Zhongnan is equivalent to the population of Batavia. Many of them could also not wrap their minds around the idea of a college only have 3,000 students. I also did what any good sports fan would do, I warned them all against people who root for the White Sox and Bears--I would hate to see such intelligent young people associate with those types of people. Well after telling my students all that I could possibly cram into thirty minutes about myself, I decided to open up the class for questions about myself or just about anything else.

Telling my students they could ask me just about anything, was like opening the floodgates. Once one brave student raised his hand, I was answering questions on just about anything. I did this during all four of my classes today, and in my two morning classes the first question I received was: Am I married? and do I have a girlfriend? The students certainly started my day off with a good laugh. I had some very persistent students that wanted me to get into issues that I felt were ones that needed to be handled carefully. For instance, I told my students of an upcoming trip I have planned to Nanjing--more on that later--and one of my students, tried to get me to say the Japanese soldiers during WWII were the cruelest of all soldiers. For those that do not know, during WWII the Japanese occupied most of China, and at that time Nanjing was the capital of China. There was a massive invasion and subsequent take over of the city during this time and Japanese soldiers killed over 300,000 men, women, and children. The Chinese and much of the rest of the world call this "The Rape of Nanjing." To this very day, the Japanese government has never fully admitted to what happened at Nanjing between 1937 and 1938. It still causes diplomatic flare ups in the Sino-Japanese relationship. Eventually, I told this young man that what happens in war is inexcusable regardless of whose army you are discussing. No army in the history of man has never committed some horrible act in the process of war. Through its very nature war is a horrific scene and an unforgivable event. I am not entirely sure he got the answer he was looking for, but he sure did get a rant on my feelings towards any war. I thought the questions dealing with Sino-Japanese relations were over after that, but I had another student bring up a more recent Sino-Japanese incident. Once again, I skated very carefully over this issue and kindly reminded my students that any type military force or other, was not the solution to territorial disputes in the East China Sea.

Needless to say, my freshmen students offered me an incredibly interesting first day with all of them. The rest of the week, I only have four classes, two on Tuesday, then one each Wednesday and Thursday. After that, it is National Week here in China. During my free time for National Week--classes at the college are cancelled--I will be traveling to Nanjing. It is about a three and a half hour long train ride from Wuhan. I leave Friday afternoon and will be there till the 6th of October. I am really excited to be venturing off on my first trip to another Chinese city. It will be very exciting to see what the rest of China is like. Slowly but surely I am hoping to see as much of this country as I possible can.

In other exciting news, I finally was able to find a gym and join it. I would like to remind my good friend Mr.Aj Deeter that it will take more than old man strength to be the pack leader when I come home. Also Cos, I found the Chinese version of Smirnoff Ice, and if it were legal to send booze through the mail, you and Bill both would be going down. Other than all of that, life is going on as normal as it possibly can be here in China. The weather has finally cooled down. No more 100 degree days before noon. It looks like that is all behind me now, at least until May rolls around--or until I am on a beach in Thailand, whichever comes first.

Until next time, everyone take care and enjoy the fall back home. It doesn't look like fall happens here. I don't think it will get cold enough sadly. Oh, one last thing....GO PACK GO!