Fall/ Holiday, 2008 Reveille! 5 expatriates living in Beijing. Although not deeply involved with students from local schools, Sam and fellow students occasionally visit local students and have even helped to raise money and supplies for a school for the children of migrant workers. Most extracurricular activities, particularly sports, are for the children of expats, although Sam's baseball team played local Chinese boys this fall. Chris, Susan and Sam continue to progress at the daunting task of learning spoken and written Chinese. Sam takes classes three times each week, and Chris has a tutor who comes to his office twice a week. Lessons are supplemented with flash cards and lots of practice by the family in their daily life. Initially the Albertis were using what they refer to as ' survival Chinese,' but are gaining proficiency in spite of the difficulty of a language that has so many differences from English. Their language confidence is buoyed by the welcoming friendliness of the Chinese, who respect the westerners living and working among them, and are support-ive of their efforts to use spoken and written Chinese. Although the Albertis miss friends and family back in the United States, they are thrilled with living in Beijing at a time when China is undergoing rapid growth and change. The family was in the United States during this summer's Olympic events, but, as ' China hands', felt the same pride in seeing China's stupendous games pre-sented to the world. Another fantastic Brookline were not easy; anti- Iranian sentiment was strong in the United States and Iran missed her mother and brother back in Tehran. After some soul searching, Iran returned to post-revolutionary Tehran in 1983, wanting to delve more deeply into her Islamic and Muslim roots. Shortly after her return, the 18- year- old Iran was introduced to a 29- year- old man looking for a wife. Believing that she could enter into a traditional marriage while maintaining a western woman's sense of identity and rights, Iran accepted the marriage arrangement, determined to make the union a success. Family and friends in the U. S. were shocked to learn of her decision but the traditional marriage proceeded in 1984 and within two months Iran was pregnant. In addi-tion to her routine duties of cooking, cleaning and other domestic chores, Iran began to do English- Persian translation at various conferences. At one of these conferences Iran was told about an audition that would change her professional life and eventually her personal life. Iran began working as an English- speaking anchor for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, promoting the accomplishments of the Islamic Republic to English- speaking viewers. Over the next seven years Iran and her husband Karim experienced many transitions. Encouraged by her husband's family to pursue a better life, the couple moved to Albuquerque, NM, to live near one of Iran's uncles. Following this move the couple had a second child and Iran ventured into the next phase of her burgeoning ca-reer in journalism by taking a job at the Albuquerque Journal, writing classified ads. Although still living a traditional Muslim life at home with her family, bonus to life in China is easy access to other wonderful parts of Asia, con-sidered hard to reach places from the United States. Sam and Chris enjoyed the honor of attending the 2008 Red Sox opening game in Tokyo, the family spent last Christmas in New Zealand and recently returned from a fascinat-ing trip with friends to North Korea. Sam is already looking forward to Lanakila ' 09, finding his time at camp to be a relaxing change of pace from his school year in Beijing. He would love to attend all seven weeks of camp, but is torn between a full ses-sion, and spending the second half of the summer catching up with friends in Boston and seeing some home games at Fenway Park. Sam also needs to work within the confines of his school's longer academic year, the first day of school unfortu-nately overlapping with the last day of camp. If you see Sam next summer at Lanakila, be sure to ask him for more details of his exciting life in Beijing; he has lots more information to share. Ardalan, continued from page 3 Alberti, continued from page 3 See Ardalan page 6 Chris, Susan and Sam Alberti in Pyong-yang, North Korea and in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

6 Reveille! Fall/ Holiday, 2008 Iran found a new professional home in the glass- towered headquarters of the Journal. Iran's husband, homesick for his former life, eventually returned to Tehran without her in 1990. Eventually Iran received a degree in journalism from the University of New Mexico, took an internship at a local ABC affiliate and then a work study position at the local National Public Radio station. After a whirlwind trip to Washington, D. C. to attend a symposium for public radio producers, Vietnam Words ~ Toni Hull and work in a foreign country, having made her home for a number of years in Moscow, with husband Vladimir Kvachev, and having worked in the past in Guangzhou, China, and Ifrane, Mo-rocco. By volunteering as an assistant to the English Language Officer in the US Embassy in Moscow Toni became interested in getting more experience as a teacher trainer; within a year, she found herself in her first choice destination, Vietnam. One reason that Toni was keen to work with Vietnamese students was due to a wonderful expe- Iran was offered a two- week position at NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, which eventually turned into a permanent position. She works closely with Jacki Lyden, Liane Hansen and Scott Simon, and is particularly fascinated with tell-ing women's stories. In October 2003, The Nobel Committee announced that Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi had won the Nobel Peace Prize. An Iranian scholar wrote, ' Shirin Ebadi is only the latest fruit from a big tree with deep roots in modern Iranian history going back to Ali Akbar Davar.' Ali Akbar Davar was Iran's rience working with eager Vietnamese immigrants in Pennsylvania. Toni began her sojourn as a Fellow with an orientation in Washington, DC, which covered not only the administra-tive side of teaching, but the role of the participants' public diplomacy efforts within the context of the State Depart-ment's overall foreign policy objective. The history of the Vietnam War, known as the American War by the Vietnam-ese, would make Toni's role somewhat great- grandfather and Iran's Minister of Justice in 1927, one of the country's foremost reformists in the area of law and justice. Ardalan decided to research the connection between her family and Iran's long struggle for a lawful society. In February 2004, that search lead to an NPR and American Radioworks series called, My Name is Iran and that in turn was the inspira-tion for her memoir of the same name published in 2007. Ardalan, continued from page 5 See Hull page 7 Toni in Hu? with one of her students. Longtime Aloha and Hive camper, counselor and friend Toni Hull, recently began an exciting year in Vietnam, working as an English Language Fellow at the Hu? College of Foreign Languages. Toni's participa-tion is sponsored by the Department of State, through a program which sends English language teaching professionals to locations all over the world, with a goal of fostering mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries. Toni is no stranger to life Toni's students enjoy lunch on an organized field trip