Over the weekend a few students arrived in town, and this morning the major group arrived. Student travel here was without major incident: although one student had to do some last minute flight juggling in Dallas, and another had her luggage waylaid. The latter might take a day or three to work out.

The students arrived around three in the morning, were transported to their host families for a few hours, and then the host families brought them to the school. Then there was a walking excursion of the city that included a trip to the bank to use the ATM; the Vefa center, which is the lovely little mall catty-corner to the school; TsUM, the enormous main department store; a visit to the eternal flame; and a visit to the main square. The latter is visually impressive. Alas, our group got split up into two, so I didn't manage any big group pictures yet. (Note to self: don't include TsUM next year.)

We returned to the area of the school. The students grabbed lunch, and then we had confirmatory placement testing, after which there was a local orientation. Then the students headed homeward.

I quite dislike it that travel arrangements were such that students arrived on Monday and the first day of class was Monday. It would be much better for the students to arrive on Saturday and then have an entire day for their bodies to start adjusting. I'll have to see if we can somehow arrange things differently for next year.