We gathered together yesterday for our last pre-departure meeting after a morning of final exams. Most Saugus students will be celebrating the end of the school year today but this group will be heading off to China to go back to school on Monday morning - in a different country, continent and language. We took this picture of the eight of us as a "before" photo. When we return after 7 weeks in China we will probably look the same on the outside, but I think that we will all have been changed by the adventure. This will be my 4th stay in Xi'an, and I know that each has been an enriching experience. Three years ago our first exchange group spent 8 weeks at GaoXin No. 1 High School. For the nine students and two teachers it was a life-changing experience. Most of those students (who chose to study Chinese because it was new) have continued to study the language at universities across the United States and more than half of them have returned to China since that summer.
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