Here's what my Friday looked like:

I started out the day with a beautiful sunrise with my morning coffee.

Since it's Friday we bought dumplings at our favorite cart on our bike ride to school. This is the first time we've stopped at the cart since we've been back, although we say good morning every day on our way by. I managed a short conversation with the head dumpling maker (the wife of the pair that man the cart). I figured out she was asking if we'd been to the U.S. for the summer and I said yes. It was a very short conversation. Clearly I need to get back to Chinese lessons.

The school day bubbled along nicely. I got my E block class to laugh, even with the principal in the room making them nervous. (She had stopped by to see how things are going in the ELL department.) As far as I know I did not make anyone cry today. I did graduate two students out of the program, which made them very happy, although they claim they'll miss me.

I spent a few minutes of my day looking out my window and watching the construction site. They are working on phase two of the new campus, which includes a new cafeteria, swimming pool, gym and playing fields. As far as I can tell they spent the day digging a large hole, filling more than a dozen very large trucks with fill that got carted away, and then apparently filling in the hole back in again.

The bike ride home went smoothly. They've almost finished clearing the fallen trees on the little section of bike path we like to use next to the train tracks. Just about all of the damage from the typhoon has been cleared up. It's been pretty amazing to see how quickly the work has gone.

When we got home I went for a swim at the pool at our apartment. It's an outside pool but it's mostly covered by the outside edge of the building so it doesn't get much direct sun which keeps it a little cooler than it might if it were more exposed. This evening it didn't get any sun, but it got rain instead. It turns out it's pretty cool to go swimming in the rain.

This evening has been spent watching the Patriots play a preseason game against Green Bay. We'd stopped at the 7-11 for a mostly western collection of snacks for football watching:

It's been a very nice Friday and now we get the weekend. I hope you all have had a nice Friday too.