Today is my younger brother’s birthday. He just turned 18 years old, and I really wanted to be there with him today but couldn’t. And because he doesn’t have a computer or a Skype account I couldn’t even contact him, but I’ll get him something “rare” from here to make up for it since I’m more certain of the camp I’ll be at. I’ve been bouncing around from camp to camp as an assistant coach for a few days, but for the past couple days, I got a chance to coach on my own. I was relieved when I found out that I had to help Joe (one of my co-workers who’s a P.E. teacher in Chicago) with his camp at Renmin University in Beijing because I knew I would get to work with smaller children with lower skill level. The first day alone was terrible because the kids were acting their ages (6-12)—they weren’t listening, were getting distracted by the bigger kids, and they were talking. After practice I was so tired that I didn’t even feel like going out to dinner, so I made a cup of noodles, watched the movie Wedding Crashers on my laptop, and took my hair down. I was so happy to rest and excited because I knew that I would get my hair done the next day by this girl named Marvon from Zimbabwe. (Side Note: We live in the building for international students at Renmin, so there are people here from various countries around the world, most of whom are studying Chinese at the University for the summer.) I don’t usually stay up really late, but it really paid off that night because I finally got to talk to my mom, aunt, and grandmother on Skype for the first time since I’ve been here.