I hope this works...

Shawn and I had a pretty exciting weekend! We were invited to the International Kite Festival on Saturday, so bright and early Saturday morning we got up to hop a bus out to the desert... which is a great place for an International Festival. Little did we realize we were there to represent America in front of thousands of cameras. We were America's Kite Experts, and we were even interviewed on television as such. It was quite fun actually. A number of our students and the other teachers have already told us they saw us on television. Fortunately when we did actually fly the kites the cameras were not paying attention, because both of our kites snapped and flew away. Go team America!! There was one point in time where we were absolutely swarmed by middle school students (and a few younger kids) begging us to sign their arms, hands, and clothing. It was hilarious. I wish I could've gotten a picture. Equally as delightful, if not more so, was our Friday night experience. We've made a few friends within the Norwegian Peace Corps here in Ningxia and they put together a big charity fundraiser/performance for the blind and deaf students in Ningxia so that they can go to see (and compete?) in the Paralympics in Beijing this summer. They called us and asked if we would judge the performers. We were glad to, and as a result we were again camera-ed to death. The entire auditorium even sang happy birthday to Shawn when he was pulled up on stage. He was the "head judge" and announced the winner and signed and handed over the diploma/awards. I'm just so proud of him. We got to see the blind and deaf kids perform (2 dances and a few songs-- these were not what we judged) and they were amazing. Those performances were far better than any we've seen at our school! It was incredible. We learned yesterday that our liaison, Frank, quit (not just us, but teaching) and won't be at school anymore. We think it has to do with his mother who has been very sick and lives in Xi'an, but we're not sure. We haven't needed him for anything since first semester, so it doesn't really affect us at all. It does, however, severely lower the average English level at the school. Anyone else is decent at best. Should be fun! Shawn and I signed up for the English Department Volleyball team, and if you know anything about how absolutely terrible I am at any sport at all you'll be shocked to know that I'm probably in the top 3 players on the team. Yikes! Shawn is by far the best, of course. He is also playing intramural basketball with what we think are the Music and Art teachers. There's only one other male in the English department, so they have no team. They're brutal to him. He always comes home from playing with new cuts. Thursday nights are still going amazingly! We've had some really good questions being asked. Shawn and I may start trading off teaching the Sunday afternoon class at the church, because he's usually there anyway, and his style of teaching would be more appropriate for the students. We'll see. Our summer calendar is coming together really nicely. If you want to take a peek: http://calendar.yahoo.com/wollersinchina . The only events you'll find are in July and August, and we're not positive about the "Back to China" date, we're just assuming. If you see any problems, please let me know, or if there's anything you want to add.I'm pretty sure that covers anything major going on over here, so keep us updated as to what's going on in the States, and we look forward to seeing you all soon!