archives

The jobs, duties and expectations of a Peace Corps Volunteer extend far beyond teaching English in the classroom. Along with our daily routine, we are encouraged to share aspects of western culture with our Chinese students. During the course of this year, my sitemates and I have hosted celebrations for Halloween and Christmas. Along with teaching our students the ideas and traditions of western holidays, we have organized educational activities for World AIDS Day, International Women's Day and Global Earth Day.

Students from Yangtze Normal Univeristy in Fuling, China take a break from dancing to pose with me during their first prom.

Yangtze Normal University's first-ever prom king and queen.

Livingston Mayor Gurpal Samra suggested last night that the police chief search should involve the public when possible, an idea that was met with some resistance by City Manager Richard Warne, who warned it could deteriorate into a "political circus."

"This is a very serious process," said Warne, who has the last word on who to hire. "This isn't 'American Idol.'"

The City Council approved the $18,000 contract with Bob Murray & Associates, and Warne will sit down with the firm next week to discuss details of the search process. He didn't want to commit to any town hall meetings for the chief search until after that. The mayor had suggested June 3 as a possible date to sketch a profile for a new chief, but that would be too soon, Warne said.

I'm barely back from Florida, and my mind is still stuck in Everglades National Park and Lake Okeechobee. I was over in the southern part of the state last week with about 20 other journalists from around the country to study with scientists and environmental experts.

Some of the best times, most educational times we had were out in the field -- slogging through the Everglades (although the ground was uncomfortably dry), boating near the Smithsonian Marine Station and wadding into Lake Okeechobee. To see me mucking around in the lake with my new friend Jeremy, check out the photo.

Do you have a thing or two to say about the shape of the campus your child attends?

If that campus in within the Merced City School District, I know a group more than willing to lend an ear.

The Merced City School District will hold a Facilities Master Planning Committee meeting at 6 p.m. tonight in the Joe Stefani Elementary School multi-purpose room, 2768 Ranchero Lane, Merced.

A half an hour earlier, at 5:30 p.m., a tour of the Franklin/Beachwood area campus will take place. The public is welcome to both the tour and the meeting.

As we all know, a massive earthquake (7.9) struck Sichuan province in China on Monday, May 12, 2008. Even though I am six hours away from this area in Fuling, I still felt the shock. I was cleaning my kitchen floor and realized the ground was moving. However, I thought it was from the construction work taking place in the apartment below. After hearing and seeing students run from the campus library, I quickly realized it was an earthquake. Throwing on some shoes, I walked outside (the last to leave the apartment building) and found one of my teacher friends. Nadia (her English name) told me this was the first real earthquake in Fuling she could remember. After watching students and staff panic for about twenty minutes, I was the first to return to my apartment and continued cleaning my kitchen floor.