hainan....here we come!

last minute, duff and i have decided to take a beach vacation next week. since coming to china, i have wanted to visit hainan island, in the south china sea, almost to the vietnamese border. it is called the hawaii of china. i hope it isn't as expensive.

we have next week off because our students will be preparing for their final exams and the cet-4 english exam. if you have been reading the blog, you know that we have been talking a lot about cheating in our classes. the students have to pass the cet-4 to graduate. one student told me to pass the cet-4 you can pay another student 3000 rmb ($375) and they will get you the answers. there are various methods for transmission during the exam, mostly through cell phone. she also mentioned that in all of the bathrooms (there is a lot of grafitti in china), there are phone numbers to call if you are interested in getting a wireless earpiece for about 400 rmb. i also learned that to pass the cet-3 in high school, you can pay 1500 rmb, and for assistance on the cet-6, students pay about 6000 yuan. i cannot believe that students are able to come up with this kind of money. when i said this to my student, she said 5 or 6 kids will go in on it together. amazing. and i finally figured out why the kids all write the same answers to different test forms: camera phones. someone in the first class snaps a picture and it ruins a week of testing.

duff has finished writing his final exams, and i hope to finish mine today. it is cool and rainy, a great relief from the 100 degree heat we have had in wuhan. if i can get my exams finished and copied, i am basically done with school. we give finals in two weeks, and grades should be pretty easy to tally. tentatively, we leave for western china on 23 june.

we'll be gone sunday to sunday, but we'll post from hainan. they weather may not be that great. it is typhoon season.