We've had a busy month this September, getting used to the flow of things here in Suzhou. my classes are going smoothly, both here at Suzhou Foreign Language School and at ACI, and the October issue of Open Magazine will have four articles of mine between its covers. A good amount of work, in sum.

My class is an interesting one, as i have already mentioned. I've gotten to know the students better over the last few weeks since our previous post, and now I am aware of the deficiencies and strengths of the kids therein. China's educational policy does not include holding children back if they fail a grade, (probably because there are too many kids waiting to enter the very same grade, so many students in all), so when a child is 'left behind' by the material and 'fails' he or she is simply pushed on to the next grade and given a sink or swim ultimatum. Needless to say, these kids end up years behind the other students, particularly because their English comprehension is much lower than what is needed to keep up in an average class. There are no remedial classes for these students, and overall they struggle. I am currently exploring ways to remedy this situation, involving pairs of students, shuffling the classroom, and constant checking on their understanding. However it must be said that the overall responsibility for these kids lies with their parents and with the educational policies of the country itself. A teacher can only do so much.

The bright side of the class is that since I've started teaching them, I've seen all of the students' grades rise by a significant amount, compared to the assessment tests I administered at the beginning of the year. While those tests showed about 60% of the class to be failing in terms of their retained knowledge from last year, all of the kids in my class are now passing, though some only barely.

Jack and Sophia are doing great, and becoming more and more social with Chinese strangers when we go out on the town. Soph talks to one in three people now, and sometimes she says, "hey, what's your probrem man?" This actually just started today, when we went to visit Suzhou's museum (designed by I.M. Pei, a native of the city) and between Ming Dynasty porcelain, Neolithic pottery, Song Bronze Dings, Tang jades, and Qing Ivory she managed to be the main attraction for the majority of the other people in the museum. When a garrulous guard came up to her to talk about the weather, she issued the aforementioned statement to our great amusement. The museum was wonderful, and the streets on the way to the site were packed with Chinese tourists and people enjoying the week off. An impromptu open-air market sprang up along the entire length of Lindun road, and all kinds of wares were for sale. The holiday, called 'Golden Week", combines the founding of the People's Republic on Oct. 1, 1949 with the Autumn Festival, at which time the moon is the biggest in the sky. This golden week is one of the major holidays in China, and despite the fact that they make us work the Saturday before to justify the full week off, it has been a much-needed respite thus far.

The traditional gift for the Autumn Festival is the moon cake. These are a sometimes delicious, sometimes outlandish cake with flavors ranging from sweet fruit to savory cabbage. Some are good to our western palates, some not so much. My students gave me a number of both kinds,. which we have been tentatively exploring.

Sophia and Jack have also made a new set of friends. They play with Nancy, the Chinese daughter of my contact at ACI, when I go there to work on Sundays. They also had their first play date with a couple of kids who hail from the U.S.A., having spent a few hours with them Saturday evening while Meg and I were out alone for the first time in the last couple months, getting our New Zealand Hot Stone massage at Olaysha Spa (for whom I wrote an article, and promised to be extra laudatory for said superfluous pampering), as part of her B-day. Yes, Megan shares a birthday with modern China. Talk about an auspicious sign!

We've been reading a good bit, and I just finished an excellent book summing up the major contributors to ancient Chinese philosophy. Fun stuff.

That sums it up for now. We will be attaching a new album to the site as well.

Hope everyone is happy and loving life. Miss you all!!!