An E-mail to my father.

Dear Dad,

I wish I could be there to watch it all bloom! I noticed that the tree was starting to leaf out a bit when I was at your house, and wondered what you were going to do. I think you should plant a vegetable garden down there, perhaps. You've got so much yard--might as well grow some vegetables and herbs to use throughout the summer, yes? Flowers are nice, but vegetables can serve a greater purpose--your stomach. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, lettuce--these are all things you use already. Do it! (I was going to have a large vegetable garden on my back porch this summer until I decided to move to China.)

I'll try to take more pictures soon. it's just hard, because I want to appear to be as "native" as possible. Well, I realize that'll never happen (people stare at me all the time here...like, stare and then turn around and keep staring after I've passed them), so maybe I will just start taking pictures and being the tourist they expect me to be.

Classes were ok today. One girl brought her (I'm assuming) boyfriend to class and was writing notes to him all day--on the desk. I think I made my point clear when I threatened to call her parents (who are shelling out thousands of RMB a month for classes). Sometimes the students are awesome and wonderful and smart and well-behaved and engaged, and sometimes they're awful little beasts. I imagine that, on the whole, they're much better than American students.

Love you very much!

Brian.