Over here in the NE of China, we are SIX DAYS away from the opening ceremony of the FIRE AND ICE OLYMPICS, sponsored by English Essentials Summer Camp. Need I say more?
This summer camp is set out to be our biggest camp yet. We have had an amazing team of marketers who worked very, very hard inviting their friends to camp. Presently, we have around 200 students, with some on a waiting list in case of last minute cancellation. At first, we were quite overwhelmed with the huge number, but were confident that with our 40+ teachers, we'd be able to handle everything. But that’s not how things are working out to be. There have been many unforeseen, difficult circumstances, mostly involving our teachers—health issues, visa delays, etc.
This past week has been very busy with teacher training. Six of our new teachers arrived last weekend so we were busy showing them around the city and helping them adjust to food, time, etc. 
They are doing great and are so excited about the coming camp and school year. Basically, our teacher training is split into three parts. We have team teaching in the morning, two sessions of learning how to be an effect ESL teaching, and a team unity session in the afternoon. I've been attending the teaching sessions even though I'm going on my third year of teaching. I know that I still have so much to learn and am eager to apply the new concepts during the next year. Our team unity sessions have also been good. We've learned a lot about our work here in China, working as a team, and different difficulties we might face in the coming year. 
Yesterday, we broke up into five teams and ran (and I literally mean, RAN!) a relay race through our whole section of the city. We had to go all the way up to the light rail station which normally takes me 15 minutes to walk (and I walk really fast) and back, plus doing many tasks along the way in about 80 minutes. I'm just glad that this week has been unusually cool and it was only about 80 degrees.
This coming week we have more training through Thursday. Friday and Saturday are our R&R days ~ nothing planned, just resting and preparing for camp. Then on Sunday everything starts. Let me give you a brief overview of camp. My team is called the Skaters (red team). I have the second level from the bottom (to put things in perspective, the first lesson in my book is letters and numbers!) I am on a teaching team with five other teachers. Every day, we start teaching at 8:30AM (that is, after breakfast and 1/2 hour of being together with just our team of teachers beginning at 7AM). After our first teaching session we have a pep rally followed by another teaching session. We eat lunch with our students and then have about an hour to rest in the afternoon. Our afternoon activities include another teaching session and game time. Again, we eat dinner with our students. In the evenings we have activities that finish at 9PM. Fortunately, for the teachers’ sake, we are able to rotate out of some evening activities so we only have to do about three per week. Saturday we are having a huge relay race and then picnic with our students at a local park.
We are especially hoping for good relationships to be built with students. Because my class’s English level will be so low, it might be more difficult. Safety for teachers and students is another major area of concern for us. Our outside games are not difficult, but the Chinese have never played them. My first year here, two boys ended up in the ER after running into each other playing one-base kickball!
Lisa