I spent eight hours today loading songs on my ipod. I plan to purchase an inexpensive speaker system to play songs from the ipod when I get to Chengdu. It looks like I will be able to get about 1000 songs loaded. It will be nice to have music in the apartment. Two days ago I finished writing all the labs I hope to use in Chengdu. I took all my favorite labs, most of which were hand written or photocopies, and typed them up as word documents. Just for fun I added some graphics to the labs such as dragons, Chinese symbols, and pictures of Chairman Mao. It is great to have all the labs as documents! Now I can edit them as needed and have made many improvements. I am laying out all of the rocks and minerals I plan to take with me and am a bit nervous about the weight. I have about 75 pounds of samples to haul all the way to China! I will definitely need an extra bag or two at check in. The school will pay for extra bags but it will be a real chore carting the extra bags and weight through airports and customs. I hope there isn't a problem with all the rocks in customs. I have been in contact with my Chinese mentor Mrs. Cathy Hu and am thinking about renting or purchasing an electric bike wile in China. That would be a great way to get around in the area where I live. I plan to spend weekends in parks and tea houses. I am fortunate to have Mrs. Hu as my mentor, she lives in the same building as I will, and I know her from PCDS. She was the exchange teacher here in Phoenix last spring. I got to know her on the seventh grade field trip to the Grand Canyon. It will be nice to have a familiar face in China. I have my plane tickets and the work visa will be here in one week. I am so excited! Dell also has her tickets and will come stay with me from Sept 22 through Oct. 12. Dell has emailed Cathy Hu about shopping! I guess that is culture of a sort. It will be so nice to have Dell with me in the middle of my stay. I am going to look into taking the brand new train to Lhasa with Dell while she is visiting.
More Later,
J. Bob

I had a great lunch today with Katie McKean who just returned from four months in Chengdu. She was the most recent exchange teacher from PCDS to teach at CEFLS. Katie brought her laptop and showed me pictures of the students, classroom, teachers, apartment, and the city. I received many interesting tips on teaching and living in China. I am really looking forward to meeting the students and teachers. There is a great place to eat near the apartment in a department store that also has a grocery section. I am looking forward to trying many of the local dishes! The apartment is very modern and spacious. It has everything to make it home for three months. The more information I received from Katie the more excited I am about arriving in Chengdu.

I am still working on making lesson plans and gathering materials. I sent a message to the Mineralogical Society of Arizona asking for some help in gathering rocks for labs. Below is the email I sent to the Mineralogical Society of Arizona.

Hi everyone,
I teach Earth Science at Phoenix Country day school. I have been selected by my school to teach in Chengdu, China for thirteen weeks this fall. I will be leaving on Aug. 23rd. I will be teaching rocks and minerals to Chinese students at Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School. I am gathering rock and mineral samples to use in labs for mineral identification and rock classification. After raiding my house, yard, and garage I still need a few samples. Can anyone help me out with some free samples? Everything needs to be about the size of a golf ball. Here is what I need
1. Slate; seven pieces (I guess these would have to be flat golf balls)
2. Siltstone; seven pieces (these should be soft and blocky)
3. Shale; seven pieces (I guess these would have to be flat golf balls)
4. Coal; seven pieces
5. Rock salt; seven pieces
6. Gypsum; seven pieces
7. Rhyolite; seven pieces (I need these to be light grey to off white)
8. Gabbro; seven pieces (These need to be dark grey to black with crystals visible)
9. Limestone; seven pieces (these need to have obvious fossils or fossil hash visible)

I live in Ahwatukee (southeast phoenix). Email me or give me a call if you can help out.
Thanks for any assistance!

J. Bob

I have been very busy this week getting teaching materials ready for Chengdu. I spent ten hours Sunday writing labs. I modified 10 labs I had written previously and wrote two new labs that I thought would work well with seniors. All of the labs I had written in the past were targeted for 5th and 6th grade students. I changed wording, instructions, and the level of math to be more appropriate for the older students. I have also been gathering rock and mineral samples to take with me. I have all of the mineral samples I need at PCDS but I also want to teach rock classification and identification. I had a lot of fun gathering rocks today. I found excellent samples of granite, diorite, sandstone, obsidian, scoria, pumice, basalt, andesite, limestone, conglomerate, quartzite, marble, and gneiss. I scrounged from my yard, two of my neighbor's yards, the wash in front of Kyrene Middle School, and the crates full of rocks in my garage. I still have five varieties of rocks to gather. I hope to get together with the teacher who just returned from China to look at pictures and talk with her about students, the school, and living in Chengdu. This Thursday I will spend the day at PCDS preparing for my counter part from China to arrive and getting materials ready to take to China.

July 5th; I met with Lee today to go over some questions I had and to share information. I will be able to use my bank debit card at the ATM machine in Chengdu. The ATM will dispense Yuan rather than dollars! It is amazing and just a bit scary to think that ATM machines in Chengdu can access my bank account. I will get about eight Yuan for a dollar. Since there is no computer in Chengdu I will need to check one out from IT to take with me. Lee and I decided it will be better to take an extra piece of luggage than to have overweight luggage. I might need two extra bags. I will be taking rock and mineral samples with me to use for teaching. When I get to China I will be given a cell phone to use while there. Lee will give me a contact list to call in China if I need assistance. I look at this as a necessary evil as I detest cell phones. PCDS has medical insurance for me in China and I will have a copy of the policy with me in Chengdu. My wife, Dell, spoke with Irene Tseng at All Saints' today about this blog. Irene plans to have her elective class on China contact me and ask questions while I am in Chengdu. I hope that works out, it would be fun.
J. Bob

I acquired this hat from the Rawang tribesman in northern Myanmar near Putao and the Chinese-Tibetan border. The hat is made of finely woven rattan and decorated with boar's tusks.

I will be leaving for Chengdu on August 23rd and returning to Phoenix on November 22nd. It is now July 2nd and I have a lot to do before I leave. I need to plan my curriculum for China as well as work with Jane Creamer at PCDS who will be integrating science with social studies while I am gone.