Orientation

Labas,

We have settled into our dorm room and our office. The mornings this week are all about orientation. We spend the time in an "upper room" with the rest of the staff. The summer staff comes from 6 different countries this year. Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, New Zeeland, and the US. Amazingly, this staff has taught in the following countries: Japan, China, Germany, Greece, Russia, Tanzania, Poland, Egypt, Czech Republic, US, Canada, Korea, and I'm sure I missed a few. A little less than half of the staff is new. The rest of us have been here at least once before. 4 of the staffers work with elementary students at home, 8 with high school or university students, 4 are English Language Learner Teachers, and at least 3 have never taught anything anywhere besides here at the summer langage intsitute. Not sure what the other 20 or so of the staff was doing when Robin took this informal poll. I guess we are all suffering from a little jet lag. Our afternoons this week are spent setting up our classrooms and writing lessons here at the university. The evenings are for wandering around town and noticing huge changes and of course a nice dinner out on a veranda surrounded by flowering baskets.

The students arrive on Saturday. The students come from at least 6 different countries too. They come from Lituania, Latvia, Belarus, Italy, Russia and Poland. The students range in age from 16 to over 40, with the largest population (70%) between the ages of 16 and 19. That sounds like a lot of late nights to me! However, all of the students are assigned the dorm on campus this year with only a few staff members. The rest of us are walking the 25 minute walk to and from everyday. 75% of the students are female.