On August 4 the big day arrived! Kong Long, Li Yuan (f), Liu Jia, Li Yuan (m) and Zhao Meng arrived with their teacher, Ma Xueting! Mr. Bolde and Mrs. Stephenson met them at the airport, drove back to Saugus and introduced the students to their host families. The next days were a rush of activities: the first pizza lunch, the "overly sweet" doughnuts, getting registered for classes, getting their first Saugus spirit wear and so many other "firsts." Meng joined the band, Long started basketball training, Yuan joined the tennis team, and Li and Jia began learning about life in America. Ms. Ma spent her time observing Saugus classes, helping her students and teaching elementary Chinese to students and staff. Over the coming months the Chinese students went sailing on the Pacific Ocean, attended a Dodger game, went to Disneyland, visited JPL, traveled to Yosemite, Sacramento and San Francisco, watched Yao Ming play basketball at the Staple Center and had many other new experiences. They also dove into honors and AP classes while improving their English, and by the end of the semester all 5 earned gpa's above a 4.0 and earned places on the Principal's Honor Roll! Before we knew it the 5 months had flown by and it was time for the exchange to end. On December 30 all the host families, the Chinese students, and the newly chosen SHS students who would travel to China in the summer gathered for a final banquet, speeches, pictures and tears. The only bright spot was that some of the host sisters were among those chosen to represent Saugus in China, so they knew that it was only good-bye for a few months. Then the adventure would continue.