we got a puppy yesterday...not sure exactly what she is, but she has a bit of wolf in her, she's 2 months old. we decided to call her jiujiu, cause 9 represents longevity in the chinese culture, and also it sounds like jojo for josephine. so now jo, you have to name your first kid after me. anyways, jiujiu is super friendly, she's always going up to strangers and sniffing. she's pretty smart too, after we yelled at her for pooping and peeing in the house yesterday, she's waited till we go outside today to do her business, and she comes when you call her name. pictures to follow.

today was the first day of classes at the primary school too, i had two classes of fifth graders today. i didn't manage to convince the headmaster to give me fewer classes multiple times a week, so i have 13 different classes a week for a total of 700 kids. i'm gonna spend the week giving everybody names and practicing them, soon we'll have 13 different rasheeds, tupacs, and arwens running around china. the kids are great and most of the teachers are pretty cool, though i did get thrown into another basketball game tonite almost on the spur of the moment. this one was important, since the primary school teachers were playing the best club in town; apparently the primary school teachers have the best teachers' team in town and they split the last two games with that other club so there's a nice rivalry brewing. i was feeling a bit sick so i only played a quarter and a half and we managed to hang on to win 73-72, pretty exciting. being in china has definitely gotten me into much better shape.

i really like this country, more and more as i see and learn more about it.