Today we began the day with breakfast at the hotel. We met Maggie at 8:30am and proceeded across the city to visit the #1 middle school in the province, according to test scores, Middle School #89. The school reminded me of the schools I visited in Cairo 8 years ago. Lots of industrial, vanilla buildings. Lots of white subway tile. Large class sizes (50-56) and many students with smiles on their faces as they learn and watch the crazy Americans. We met ...

When I arrived back at the hotel, the Porter was waiting for our van with a big smile....My bag had Arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! Thank you Kylie and Maggie (Our tour guide). Mission accomplished. You have no idea what a relief it was to not wear sweats for the next two weeks. Clean underwear...woohoo! :)

After Facetime-ing my family, finding my clothes that were sent to the Laundry and a good breakfast, we headed out at 9am for our 1st Lecture on the Chinese Education System, with a professor at Shaanxi University. We got to hear from Professor Li, an English Professor at the University. We really enjoyed hearing about the Chinese Education Reformation (1978) and the shift to "equality" in China. The test-oriented system is fairly amazing. They only re...

Day 1 in Shi'an... We got to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors. As we walked in the complex, people and preparations were a buzz with preparations for 'Michelle'... That would be First Lady, Michelle Obama. We never saw Michelle, but we did get to banter with her Secret Service Crew. They were all fun and games until we starting asking questions about Michelle. They buttoned right up. Too Funny. I did not realize that the Terra Cotta Warriors were only fou...

After a quick 12 hour, 30 minute flight, we stepped foot in Beijing, China. Beautiful airport. Modern, clean, lots or workers, and easy to navigate. We arrived in the early evening and could not help but notice the thick smoke from an obviously close fire...err, smog. Thick! Heard lots about it, but it was sight to behold. We easily passed through customs. Each "police officer" who manned the stations looked like high school students. In fact, just about every w...