the first day of school!

Finally, the first day of school is here! The weekend was full of students returning and making the campus buzz with energy again. It feels good to be starting off a new semester! It's also kinda good that our freshmen don't start until next week, because they have some classes required by the government at the beginning of the semester. So, I only have one class today. It's a good way to ease in to the year.

I also don't start my Korean classes until next week, so this will be a relatively easy week. I'm gonna keep my office hours to get into a schedule and get some stuff done in preparation for the busy year ahead. People keep scaring me that the Korean class Monday through Thursday nights is gonna eat my lunch, but I am determined to get my Korean up to a fluent level!

One of the perks of working in the English conversation office is that we have fresh brewed coffee every morning! I know that might not sound like much to most of you reading this, but it IS! In China (even more so than in Korea) it's really hard to get fresh brewed coffee. I've become used to the mix kind, that comes in packets with cream and sugar already added. It's actually not that bad once you get used to it, but fresh brewed coffee is SO good! Our teachers who go home for the summer bring back big bags full for our office, so we have a good supply. Some teachers who left last year even sent some coffee beans for our office this year!

I've had a really good time getting to know the teachers in our office, and the new set of young German teachers (we have a German major at our university, too). I am really looking forward to getting to know the students and settle into this year!