Sept 13 2013

Friday the 13^th

Unfortunately nothing scary really happened today.

Although I did have the curiosity for a scary-ish movie, which is the closest I get to craving one because let’s face it, I don’t like horror movies. I refuse to watch them. But I brought The Sixth Sense, which yes, is scarier than I prefer [thrillers are okay, but not scary or horror or anything], and I kind of wanted to watch it… but Katie won’t so I’m not doing that alone so that’s not happening.

Oh, and then we ran into our friend Philip today. Not once, not twice but three times! Maybe four? We can’t really keep track, to be honest! Haha. The first time it was on our way home after school, where Katie said she wanted to hike a mountain and he texted us in Chinese so we could tell a taxi cab we want to do it sometime. Then another time he was actually in our building with some friends after we were coming back from dinner. We got up, grabbed money, then went out for ice cream and we saw him on the way there as well! Crazy right?

Anyways, so we didn’t go to breakfast there today- we’d bought a bit of yogurt so we had some of those this morning, and then headed out to the school just in time for the exercise thing, except all they did was announcements so we stayed in our office and fiddled around for a bit. I started writing out a new story ‘The Wordsmith’ [obviously a lot to be worked on, but the start is the most important!], and soon Katie taught her one class for the day. I glanced over my stuff before finally heading to my one class of the day.

Grade 5. Well behaved! They were all excited for the weekend- one of my kids really wants to play his video games- but they still behaved pretty well in the end! I’ve decided PowerPoints may just be the trick to keep the class a bit organized. Same as my Grade 4, we just went through the food groups, and I ended up stretching it out to go through the entire lesson. They wrote on the board a few times, and then I went around asking them their favorite dairy products, vegetables, and so on. They LOVE talking and always want to volunteer, so that’s something I always have to watch out for.

What I really like to do, and it’s a slight possibility it may even be frowned upon, but I like to keep moving around in my class and walk through the aisles- I don’t like just being in the front. So I’ll walk around the desks, [occasionally tap my marker on one if the kid is playing with something more] and talk to kids that way. That way no one really gets confused who I am talking to, and it gives me a good excuse to talk to as many kids as possible. It’s in this grade that the class helper can’t really speak English, but she always raises her hand, so I make a point to always try and talk to her and ask her questions. My second Q/A didn’t work out, but the first one did!

Anyways, so class went very well. It turned into chaos the moment I stopped teaching after the bell had rung, so I tried to calm them down and at least keep an eye before any real disasters as I started stepping out the door. I was accosted then by three girls. Lisa, her friend, and another one, though I don’t remember her name. But they’re starting to test me on their names! Not so good, especially because I know at least 3 kids have my name down pat [the Grade 3 kids always run up and ask me right before class starts], so I really have to start memorizing!

We talked and goofed around for a little, but their class needed to get ready for lunch, and I had to put my things away to do the same. However just before I was about to walk out of my office with everything, those three girls turned up again to talk to the four of us and walk with us to lunch. They’re very cute! I didn’t understand some of the questions they were asking me, however. Although YES, Katie IS my BEST friend. I understood that question and definitely answered that right! Haha.

Lunch was pretty good! They had these meatballs… the flavor was GREAT. But the texture was a bit iffy. Whatever the meat was, it was ground extra fine so it tasted kind of suspicious… but I still ate it- with rice, that helps.

After lunch, Katie and I returned to our desks to finish up on our computers for the weekend. I ended up pulling out my laptop that I had brought, trying to get a few more songs and other things on here, but it got super slow and I was trying to clean out my music library [okay, mostly just put it in order.  I have least 11 days worth of music on here and it’s not like I can just get rid of it!], so we ended up sticking around for an extra two hours. That got Katie pretty impatient, but I calmed her down with some slightly stale but very yummy koala cookies. They’re slightly chocolate with a vanilla filling- super delicious!

Finally, we walked home, ran into Philip and talked about our day for a little bit, and headed inside. I showered, continued fixing my music library, and Katie started trying to work out our holiday plans. We are planning for Xi’an for our October Holiday, and we were going to go to Tiger-Leaping-Gorge next weekend, but the cost was going to be about the same for Xi’an, which is still a good bit of money, and none of us really wanted that cost so we’ll think of something else to do.

We got that worked out finally, and through that we were doing our laundry! Our clean clothes still come out smelling like sweat so Katie took the initiative and wiped down our shirts with dish soap before putting them in the wash! Of course, just as we were hanging up our shirts to dry, I pointed out we wanted dinner and were only in our tank tops.

After trying to think of some idea and laughing through it all, Katie finally realized we hadn’t washed two shirts of ours which we don’t wear for school, so we changed into those and headed out. Dinner was just leftovers, where we had a ‘quality conversation’ about some of my stories [sometimes we’re both impressed with what I can do on occasion!], then we headed back, running into Philip for the second-ish time.

We were craving ice cream, as full as we were, so we grabbed some money and left again. Then we walked with Philip down the street for a bit [he’s very friendly, and says if we knew Chinese we would always be mad], then we parted and we entered the grocery store again for our ice cream. Katie had gotten a super delicious chocolate one the other day, so we both ended up getting that. 5 RMB so nearly a full USD which is more than I’ve spent on ice cream yet- but holy goodness that was quality chocolate and for a few minutes, we were in glorious heaven. We walked around the courtyard of our apartment complex to finish them before heading back up and settling down for the evening. Gotta love a peaceful Friday!

Sept 12 2013

What a day!

Wednesday had been a swell day so I wasn’t about to complain this morning when I got up. Thursday, neither Katie nor I have classes until well after noon, so we ended up not going to the school for breakfast, or even for the exercise thing. We stuck around and read. She’s in the middle of the Game of Thrones series… and I’m rereading my old stories! It’s fun, and I’m hoping it’ll give me the motivation to start reworking some of them.

Anyways, we did that, tried digging into our literally frozen yogurt. Didn’t really work, so we had to use spoons which wasn’t as fun as the straws. Definitely learned my lesson! We did this until about 11, where we finally got dressed up and headed out for lunch!

Which was pretty good! Huzzah! I don’t really remember particulars. There was cake, though. Yellow cake, a little thicker like cornbread but still tasty. And I think they’ve started topping it with raisins or something, which, ehm, I may or may not take off… but hey, I DO eat it with chopsticks. It’s pretty fun! I may never use a fork again, you Americans.

Finished with lunch, we headed up to our office to chill out and plan lessons.

Speaking of chilling out… there IS an air conditioner in there. By the way, all Chinese A/C machines look like skinny fridges. Sometimes they even have flower stickers to pretty them up. Anyways, we have a rectangular room, stretched back vertically. Katie and I are at the far end, with the A/C and the two windows. Abby and Greg are close to the door and often get hot, so they like turning on the A/C a few degrees colder than they need, so it’s perfect when it finally reaches them.

Today, I forgot a jacket. That was silly of me.  Very, very silly.

Katie had a morning class, so she headed off. I put together two presentations I could do, as well as turning in my final assignment for my online class [only a half semester course], and I continued to read The Hunger Games for a while.

Shortly after, Nicole gave me a call and asked me to come up and talk to her about train tickets in her office on the 4^th floor.  We’d been hoping to leave town during the Autumn Festival next week and head up to Xi’an for the terra cotta soldiers. However, as Nicole showed me, there were no more tickets left that could get us there and back in the proper amount of time. Huge bummer! I’ve been pretty calm about it [I adapt!], but if I don’t see the terra cotta soldiers… I don’t really even know. I would probably go back to the states very upset, and possibly someday plan another trip to return just for that [which would be really inconvenient for me, and who knows if I’d ever have the time or money to do it again meaning I’d live regretting it for the rest of my life… oh dear]- anyways, I need to go sometime while here!!

I know Abby will be as upset, if not more, because she’d seriously been planning this trip in depth. So most likely now we’re going to stick around, see the festival, and hopefully hit up the nearby waterfall or other things around Guiyang, and do go to Xi’an some other time.

We also told Greg to tell Abby [she had a head cold and no classes for the day, so she got to stay home all day], and hopefully tomorrow morning we can try to plan anything to do next weekend- as well as our October Holiday!

We also asked Nicole after dinner about a visa trip- going farther than Hong Kong. She doesn’t think we’ll have a week for it, and I don’t think I’d put in all the money just for a day in Vietnam or anything, so we’ve really got to work on that as well. Hopefully we get things figured out ASAP!

Back to the day: It took forever, but my class started right before 4, so I headed out to my Grade 4. They’re pretty awesome, and decently well behaved. It always takes a few minutes to get class in order, because they love putting my things on the desk for me, and then they have to go through everything and try to help me do anything and everything more.

We finally got it sorted out, though, and I did the food groups with them! I don’t know if they group them like we do in the states? I feel like they cover something like that, but I feel this definitely helped with some understanding of things.

I also made an extra one for SUGAR. Because we all know that’s important.

So I went through all these slides, made another list on the board, and had some of the kids name the foods, then come write down certain ones in their category. I also showed them a shishkabob! You know, a skewer? But I call them a shishkabob and I know I’m not the only one, so… now they know that word! Yay! It was definitely a lot of fun.

Then I moved on to my next class, Grade 3 Class 3. This is Journey’s, where she wants me using the book.  When I finally got class started, they had all their books out and as I finally found out, they had already done what I thought I would go over with them! I was just about to see if we should go onto another section, when Journey came in.

Apparently, there will be a teacher in one of our classes each week? So it was her turn, and I was fine with that.  She had come in while I was checking with their books, so we talked for a minute, and I wanted her to clarify what she wanted me to really teach: review. So exciting!

Ehm. I even asked if I could include my slide of stuff at the end. She just wanted the book.

BUT I adapt! And prevailed! Somewhat, anyways. To be honest, I hadn’t really gone through the book, but she showed me things she wanted reviewed so I ended up spending the majority of the class trying to teach them His/Hers/Theirs/Ours. They had a rhyme thing to go with that, so I had them working on that with me. We read it out, and then I asked them who the star belonged to- but the kids didn’t properly understand that. They just wanted to stand up, and say it aloud for me.

Their reading and memorization skills are incredible, don’t get me wrong. However, understanding it is the tricky part. And I’m still trying to figure out how to talk slower and get them to connect with what I’m saying, which can be tricky- especially on these sort of occasions.

But I let them read it, gave them a high five, then I had them help me draw on the board some of the things, like a pet and a star and a watch and a boy. I think this helped a little. They behaved pretty well, staying in their seats and everything with Journey in the back. Letting some of the kids understand the words and properly draw their pictures took up quite a few minutes, and I almost felt bad being patient.

I want so badly to know what the teachers are writing about us! I know they are very sharp with their kids, but I know they are always on good terms with one another, and I want to know so badly what they think of our teaching styles, and so on. Also, it would be nice if the other teachers told me if they want me teaching anything specific… My lessons are very random, because I’m still working my way into the groove. 

Hopefully next week things will start coming together some more.

So classes went good, over all- When things are going decently well I forget to look at the clock and more than often, the bell rings when I’m talking or writing on the board. I’ve yet found a good way to close class in those circumstances, but I’m hoping I can get something good down.

Finished, I waited a minute for Katie and Greg, and the three of us went to dinner. Pretty tasty! They’ve had this bean soup Katie enjoys, and I ate mostly cake, along with some really good noodles that were getting cold a little too fast. But still tasty overall!

We didn’t have a chance to talk to Nicole at the meal, so once finished we headed up to Nicole’s office to ask her about a possible visa trip outside the states, and so hopefully she can sort it out with the school hierarchy bosses and maybe we can do something fun! We’ll see…

By the time we finished classes, though, it began to rain. Seriously rain. The kids were shrieking and running for shelter. We have cover for most of it, but there was one spot from the cafeteria to the office building that’s maybe 2 yards- little less. Anyways, we had to cross that and that mere two seconds nearly soaked us!

We were about to leave, when we got attacked- by some of my girls! Seriously cute ones, all in my Grade 4 I think it was? I’m finally starting to recognize some of their faces, thank goodness. Hoping I’ll know a LOT more names by Halloween, if not all [okay, big goal but it’s possible!].

They took the chance to play teacher with us, grabbing our large flashcards and showing them to us. They even taught me a few words- or at least, tried. It took about 10+ attempts for me to sort out Minnie Mouse. It was tricky! Haha. So they goofed about with that- Lisa got super serious, and was yelling at me to be quiet because one of the other kids was distracting me. I couldn’t decide if I should be a good example and shush, or just wonder if she even knows what it really means, I don’t know…

Anyways, they stuck around for 20 minutes at least, before Katie and I got out. Talk about rain! At least it was slowly letting up though, thank goodness.

Overall on the walk home, Katie slipped a total of five times. Not on her butt, but stumbled pretty close! This is why you should not wear flip-flops often. It’s very risky! In her defense, the day started out VERY bright and warm! But really, a teacher wearing flip-flops to school? Tut, tut! Hahahaa…

Before getting home, we stopped at the grocery store for snacks for the weekend. And snacks because we just like eating snacks. We’ve probably gained back all the weight we’ve lost… Haha. We spent about 125 RMB there on everything. It was a butt load! About $11 USD each, which honestly isn’t too bad…

We ran into Greg there, getting snacks for Abby on the way home as well. We shared ideas for snacks- Katie and I bought only a few things that we’ve had before- we’ve only tasted about 8% of everything we bought tonight. It should be fun!!

Yes, our nights are getting boring. We’re definitely have to find more movies, buy games, or- gasp- even go out! Okay, probably not. Not yet, anyways. The busses stop running pretty early, meaning more pricy taxi trips to a point. However we do need to go back to the Vegas street down the road, hmmm…

Oh! So we made an African friend here!

Did I mention Philip? From Africa? He’s teaching at another school as well. He called out to us on the street last week and walked over- super random! But we got his number, I finally texted him back, he gave us a second number as well, and then we randomly ran into him again tonight. He likes shaking hands, he has a cool accent [being from Africa and all], and it seems we may be getting dinner with him on Monday! Who knows? We’ve already told him we don’t drink, however, and he was okay with that.

I love our extremely random friendships here in China, it really is a blast!

Katie with... I think- no I KNOW that trouble maker is mine in the front, and the other one may be hers?

Two of my awesome journals!

JUZEE POP- My Young, My Pop. Just funny

Our movie night spot. Snacks, blankets and a comfy corner!

Our largest assortment of Snacks yet! This is the one we bought last night after the rain. Hopefully it will last a good while! Haha

Some of my Grade 3 cute pies!

My bedroom! It has a slight NYC Feeling, eh?

Our door to our office!

Inside the office! You can't see katie's because her's is farthest away, but you can see mine a little farther off after that table!

Sept 11 2013

What a Wednesday!

Who needs Disneyland when you have such crazy roller coasters in teaching kids English?

Okay, you can’t up Disneyland, but you can get pretty close.

Katie and I do not really enjoy the breakfasts here at the school. We’ve been at least five times, but are never impressed and don’t really like it. Personally, I think it comes partially from the fact that in America, it is a very separate meal from the other two, while here you can still eat rice with it, and still have random spicy dishes and such, just like for dinner. Sure there’s an egg dish or two, plus hash brown-like ones, and the occasional rolls- but it’s not really doing it for us.

My point being, we ended up just eating yogurt we had bought at the bakery on our way home last night.  I had the berry one Katie had the first time around, and she had that also. Yummy! Still adjusting to the fruit bits though. But otherwise, yum! Plus I finished off my loaf from Monday. Delicious! We spent our morning mostly in bed with yogurt and reading… That is, Katie was in her bed, I was on the couch, separate rooms, and enjoying the quiet morning.

It was so pleasant! Except for outside- last night it started smelling like people were BBQ’ing or something and the smoke and smog and smell lasted through the morning. That wasn’t particularly fun, but luckily it was gone by lunchtime.

We eventually dressed for school and headed out. Since Nicole’s asked us to be there for the kids’ morning exercises or “gymnastics” we’re now always there about 9:45, so that’s a steady time to arrive seeing as we don’t want breakfast there but still structured enough to plan for later classes.

Our things were put away and we headed out to watch the kids. Katie was all ready to join them!

When it all CHANGED.

Well, they stayed in formation. And they sort of started with their stretching. But there was no line dancing today. For this second round, they did speedy Tai Chi moves in beat with the music. It was pretty impressive! The cool moves made us want to join right away but we have no idea what is said over the loud speaker and half the kids don’t know what they’re doing, so I refused to go join them just yet, meaning Katie hung back as well. Hopefully next time, though!

I sorted out my lesson pretty well- it was Grade 3, and I can usually do pretty similar things throughout the week. Plus I’m trying to ingrain more than “Hello” and “Hey” into them. Oh, and “I’m fine, thank you.” Some of the kids know “Terrible” which is silly because I think they’re mocking me but there’s the possibility they don’t even know what that means…

Anyways, I fiddled on the internet for a while afterwards, and then headed off to teach Grade 3.

Guess what?

More chaos! This time it was really out of hand. The kids wouldn’t stay in their seats or anything! I tried doing a few games we had done in the past, but literally nothing ended up happening for the entire class. I was breaking up a few fights, giving high fives when I actually got a few answers out of kids… One girl latched onto me, which was cute but I couldn’t stay right there and she was still sitting, so that was a tricky and long 45 seconds. I pulled up my picture of Spiderman and that helped for a minute or two… then chaos again. It’s just chaos. There is no other word.

The thing is, I don’t really speak Chinese and they all know that. To them, they have all the control in a way because they also can’t really understand what I am trying to tell them. The concept of ‘Quiet!’ doesn’t really even exist to them. So I’m definitely going to collect a pile of some words to use in class to get them to behave a bit better for later on.

Luckily, that was the only class I really had to teach because that was exhausting! I sat down, watched Katie head out for hers, and wanted to never teach again. Just for a few minutes though- then I was reminded I signed up for this- literally and mentally. And sure, there are going to be low points. But I shall rise!

Of course that didn’t help with Katie coming back and telling me about her angels- they started out as monsters but now they’re perfect. Not fair! Haha, but she does have younger kids, which means fewer to a class and they’re a lot more willing to sing, and that’s in Katie’s favor. I can get maybe 5 kids to sing in any of my Grade 3 classes right now- obviously something that must be worked on!

Anyways, she taught a few more times as I sat around, tried to watch a thing or two on youtube, went over my SUU assignment a lot, started reading the Hunger Games for the hundredth time [it’s the book that everyone has, it’s weird. Basically, it’s handy everywhere I go. So that’s what I pick up once bored, you know? But this may have to be the last time. Seriously… ]

Oh, between that, or something, there was a yummy lunch where Katie and I pulled out the Grade 9 book, because on Wednesdays we teach Nicole’s class. She wants us going a bit by the book so we had to check that out. After that, I headed home to see if we could get the repairman to come fix our wide screen TV [movie nights!], but unfortunately at the last minute they couldn’t, so I walked back to the school to hang out some more.

Eventually, Katie finished her classes and we went to dinner. Now this was good! They had one random dish out that looked like dough balls… I smelled fish when I walked by it, so automatically I thought they like dipped fish eyes in the dough. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Please say yes, because Katie laughed at me. Anyways, she got two and it’s got meat in it! Not too bad- but the dough is so undercooked and odd and there’s too much of it to get any meat so overall, I don’t really think it’s worth it. But they had the chopped and cooked potatoes with green peppers, and I love that dish. They also had out some spicy rice with pork- I added in white rice with it to mellow it out and that really helped. It was extra tasty! So tonight, very good dinner! [Did I just sound Chinese??]

Oh! Don’t know if I mentioned, but one of my girls from Grade 4, Nancy, came by to see us. Katie, Greg and I were in our office. Yoyo mentioned the other day, and Nicole stopped by this morning to remind us, that Nancy’s parents would like us to spend some of Saturday with Nancy, and we’re going to play badminton with her? Anyways, she came by and she had made cards for each of us! She got confused on my name with Katie [even though she is going by Kate here, it’s still tricky], but that was okay. She is such a sweetheart! She scampered out of there with her friend after that.

Activity Time was fun! I had brought the camera. The kids love it! They ask to be photographed all the time, and then they say thank you! It’s so silly and cute. I got pictures of kids posing, playing jump rope, and so on. However, I do not believe I grabbed a picture of Katie- one of her kids randomly started giving her a back massage! Can you say jealous or what? The kid knew what she was doing, too! And that got about four other kids enthusiastic to pound on her back for another minute as well! The kids are so sweet and adorable!

After that, we had our Grade 9 class!

Katie was not excited for it. I had been earlier, but I’d started getting doubts myself. However, it turned out a lot like I had thought a while back. There’s a DVD set with the books, so we put that in after we introduced ourselves [we didn’t use PowerPoints this time. Not sure if that was better? We still talk too fast for the kids, yikes!], and we played that for a few minutes. And I could have sworn Michael… Michael… the guy who plays Marty McFly. Michael Fox? Anyways, I would’ve sworn he was in there. Just saying…

So we watched that, and the kids filled out the Activity Page. That took a few minutes- Katie tried to help a little, but I figured they’re smart enough they could sort it out. And they did! We called out the answers together, and that was pretty helpful.

OKAY CUT!

During Activity Time, I was taking pictures… and this older Grade 9 kid comes up and suddenly says. “Teacher. What’s up?”

I’ve been trying to teach all my kids to say it, and he’s all smooth and yes, one day he will be a looker. BUT it threw me SO offguard after all the kids never getting it. I was stunned- Katie could even tell. I just froze for a second! “Uh, good, good. How about you, what’s up?”

“Nothing much.”

I didn’t know much else to say, so I asked his grade, which is a word they still don’t totally understand, but yes he is in Grade 9. His friends grabbed him, I think, or it got awkward enough that he just walked away… I don’t know. I was still pretty stunned, haha.

BACK to CLASS.

After going through the answers, we had them look around at the side of the pages- like in CliffsNote books, it explained things like California [Holla!], police officers, other ways to say “Thank You” and so on. So we made a game out of that. I got all the boys! And some super smart girls! After a short while, we had one from each side come up and start trying out the questions. My girl got funny- the girl from the story was living with a Hispanic family [people who speak Spanish, says the definition] so she asked how do you speak Spanish? And we had a boy from the back of my class call out “Hola, Muchachas!” That was pretty funny!

So we went through that for the rest of the lesson, basically, until it was really worn out. We had just a few minutes left, so Katie asked the class what they would like to learn. One of the talkative girls said songs, and music. We talked about that for a while- funny songs, real songs, etc. Luckily I had my thumb drive on me and luckily I still had Taylor Swift on it, so we played “Love Story.”

I stayed up front, singing along. We got some of the girls doing the same, and Katie took my cell phone around playing it as a microphone, which definitely embarrassed some girls, but it had everyone laughing and we were all having a fun time! That was about the end of class, but we had them quickly write down any songs they would like to learn in English, or get the lyrics or anything. That got them excited! Justin Timberlake, Avril, Adele, popular ones like that… but the boys don’t know rock ‘n’ roll! That is blasphemy!

I’m totally bringing them Bon Jovi, Elvis, the Beatles, and more. We’re only going to teach them like 15 times total, which is a huge bummer, to be honest. They do whisper to each other a bit, but overall they are well behaved [possibly because Nicole was in the back, I don’t know], they enjoyed the game and a lot of them were willing to talk, so that was great over all! Katie and I both really liked teaching them, and we’re already excited for next week!

And we’re already preparing for Halloween! Shh!

The walk home was nice, cool, and pleasant. The people love their evening music and dances! There’s at least two spots of people doing their dances. Once was just getting started, but there were two parents with babies dancing with them in their arms, and that was adorable! The second party was in the open square area, doing a synchronized aerobic dance. Most of them were women. As in all, but maybe 2 men? I only saw one, however- a tall, thin, older gentleman heartily attempting to copy the women. He was so adorable! He was my favorite of the dancers, haha.

We stopped for some snacks, and I got a pineapple soda so we’ll see if that’s any different from the states. I’m also excited for some steak potato crisps, and we also got something new and random… squareish treats that may or may not be hazelnut? I had to say no to the ones with the corn- sorry, but the corn gummy candies are still weirding me out! Haha….

Quick Note: I have over 15 bites covering my two arms. Five of which are just on one of my hands. As you can imagine, this isn’t very fun. Definitely bring anti-itch cream and more! I tried wearing a little bug spray last night and it may have worked, but I don’t really know. Anyways, Katie’s figured they’re most likely spiders as well as mosquitos trying to eat us here. So far they aren’t really coming under the covers, which is nice. 

But we might try asking Nicole if there’s such a thing as mosquito netting here and see if that works at all.

Oh, and the hazel nut things? They’re like blocks of nutty powder cubes. There is no other way to describe it. The blocks are about as big as my thumb. Katie stuck a half and just kept saying ‘Powder…Powder!’ 

That was pretty funny. They don’t necessarily taste bad, it’s just… odd!

^Pictures of some of our fun in Beijing! Slowly getting pictures up, it might take a while.

Sept 10 2013

Tuesday

IT WAS A HOLIDAY

OUR HOLIDAY

WHAT HOLIDAY?

TEACHER’S DAY!

Okay, this was legitly cool. They told us how sometimes the school gives gifts, and some funny stories, and we saw them putting up banners and they even had a blow-up banner outside of school which was super cute. And of course as we walk in for breakfast this morning, everyone is saying “Happy Teacher’s Day!”

To be honest, that took me a little while. With their English, you know. They’d fumble the words and often end with “Happy” and then they’d giggle. It was so cute, though- they were doing that all day long!

Breakfast was pretty decent. They had the fried sweet potato thingies, and we like those. And I swear they’ve been redoing some of these sweet roll things- they’ve just been getting browner and browner. It’s super funny, actually, and each of them taste okay… but it’s hard for me to stay away from bread so… anyways, pretty decent food, yay.

My first class: CRAZY.

I had my Grade 3 Class 2 again. I had hopes because the kids came in and helped lead me to class. I thought I had come up with enough for them to do, which I did, but there was so much noise going on, it was ridiculous. I have no idea… and the teachers’ office is right next door! I have such a hard time with it sometimes, how do they survive listening to this? And no, there is no noise when they teach. They are absolutely silent. Psht.

Oh well-

So Katie finished hers as well, and after dawdling for a short while, we headed over for lunch.

Now that was awkward.

So the lunch was the main meal for the Teacher’s Day Celebration. They even had this three layered cake, but we were supposed to wait for the boss to cut it before food came out and stuff, but he was stuck in a meeting. And of course no one told us this, so we just sat and waited, but then Shan-Lee came over and we chatted for a while [her husband went to America for a short while and now they have a 5-month old son! Cute!], and they explained what was up. It was still awkward!

And they even gave the two of us a dish of food to eat until more came out. That was embarrassing, and we had tried to say no, but we felt guilty so we took it. But they didn’t give anyone else any food, so we didn’t want to eat it without them. It was a very stressful occasion, especially as more teachers piled in and had to wait for food.

But finally it arrived! Katie and I dove in right away. They had fried wings… Duck or Chicken, I don’t know. Tasty but too messy. Some dumplings that tasted like potstickers [but after 3 you hate them], and this delicious potato casserole- pretty yellow with some light peppers for flavoring, SO GOOD], and then like… chicken sandwiches… but a super thin patty, I don’t know if there was even chicken in there, to be honest. Oh and they had some tiny breaded cookies, a sweet shortbread of sorts. Super yummy!

HUGE line of teachers for good food! Oh, and the cook, the Head Cook [handsome sweet man that can’t speak English], even brought us a Pepsi over [they still call that Coke. Would the companies be offended?], whereas the other bottles stayed with the food. I told you: we are so spoiled!

Anyways, Katie and I ate some and then got in line for more! Katie thought there would be twice as much goodness, but it was the same dishes, plus a ton more. Like shrimp- large antenna and eyes and all. See, if it was like a cocktail shrimp or something, I could probably eat it. But with the… oh gosh ew please no! 

Anyways, there was a few more fish dishes, rice, spicy meat, and noodles.

I felt like an American at a buffet, whereas most of the time I get just enough, if not a tiny bit extra, on my plates. But this time, it was packed and loaded. It was ridiculous, and I felt so absurd sitting in front of it.

And right as we sat down, they finally cut the cake and of course had to serve the first pieces to us! Jeez, it’s ridiculous. But it was very pretty and pretty tasty! Katie got a piece with a tomato on it. No joke! She ate it, but it’s definitely weird with cake. Greg had dragon fruit on his. Lucky me I got a chocolate shaving on top of mine [just the way I like it!], and though mine was draped in a chocolate syrup… it was very odd not very chocolatey kind of syrup. I didn’t really like it, to be honest. But the inside was delectable! Half of it was whipped cream, but you won’t find me complaining. It was delicious overall!

Oh, and they gave teachers ‘Lucky Money’ in these gorgeous red envelopes. Greg and Abby got those with everyone at a Teacher Picture thing, but that was when Katie and I were teaching in the morning. So Nicole brought those to us at lunch [our round table fits like four, but we stuffed seven there, yay!], for Katie and I.

When they first mentioned it, I thought, “Okay, yeah, I get it! We have lucky pennies for our money, after all, and so this’ll be what, five yuan at most? Totally cool!” How wrong was I?

I was off. Very off.

200 RMB.

Nicole said they used to do even higher sometimes! That’s crazy! CRAZY. If I had known, I would have definitely tried to say no. That’s so insane, I just couldn’t believe it… But now I have it, yay… Haha. But I’m definitely going to keep some “Lucky Money” in there, that’s for sure! And hopefully a picture of the school or something. And I’m keeping that envelope, it’s gorgeous. Very slip, and a bold red with large gold characters on it- spectacular!

After lunch, Katie left because she didn’t have to be back until dinner time. Lucky girl! I had already planned my next classes, and didn’t have to do anything for about 3 hours. I probably should have gone home, but I fiddled on the internet a bit, as well as trying to gather some things for future classes- teaching them songs, more games, and more things to look at for the lessons. Oh and it turns out I DO NOT have the right book for the 4-5 Graders…

With all that food, I got so sleepy, and tried dozing off for a good while. Until class started, really. I started off with my Grade 4, and some of them came to get me as well. To be honest I wasn’t sure it was them at first- they looked so young! But hey, age isn’t much of an issue here, I suppose, so I let them lead me on.

They pounced on me at class- they LOVE high fives and the more tricky you make it the more they LOVE it. We did that a few minutes until class began, and I started off with my die/box to start asking them questions. That always gets their attention for a good while, so we did that for a few minutes before I pulled up my powerpoint and we covered some shapes and patterns. This class, I never had much of their focus which was very frustrating. But the moment I start up a game of some sort, I have several kids literally shouting “Teacher! Teacher!” So I don’t know if it’s better if they’re not listening, or screaming out my title.

Anyways, it was decently entertaining before I got out and the kids dragged me into the next class, Grade 5. This one ended up going a good bit better. I only used the Question game for a few minutes- it quickly gets out of hand- before I passed out scraps of paper and asked them to write things down.

Their names: I have one smart alec, super cocky and gets bored with me. His name? Stark. The little stinker!

Their age: they have a hard time with the phrase “how old are you?” So I have to explain it often.

Their favorite fruit: Ice cream, yay!

Their favorite color: thank goodness they know this one.

What they like to do: usually swim. Always swimming.

And what they want to learn in English: so this was a disaster with my Grade 4, and I thought it would do much better in Grade 5. Not really, to be honest. Half of them wrote down ‘Funny Day’ which is a show or something? I don’t really know. Then some boys wrote down the NBA, and many of the girls wrote down Dance/Music and just a few more variations. But it was very hard to explain that!

Then we covered more greetings, and other words than answering with “I’m fine, thank you.” That’s what I am trying to make them stop! But then Stark said “I’m terrible.” Which led the whole row to saying that. Not funny! And yes, they were fine, trust me! Haha… But it worked, over all, I believe.

Between the next ten minutes, I walked down the hall to grab my other book and returned to teach my final class, Grade 3 Class 3. That started off the same- the kids tackle me for high-fives, and try talking to me and I’m all “English, English! I don’t speak Chinese!” Oh, and I always get at LEAST five kids around the computer to turn it on for me! Kinda cute :D

This is the class that Journey is Head Teacher of and she came in and I THINK she told them to behave for me, I don’t know. Not that it did too much good. But you know kids- the moment you’re not bossing them around, they go craaaaaazy.

But this was probably one of my better classes. Okay, that’s a lie. It was still insane. But almost controlled today, so that’s pretty exciting, right?? Hehe… Anyways, so last week Journey asked that I start working with them in their English book, so that’s we did. They had to put rhyming words together, which is still very tricky for them to understand. I probably should have put in the CD she gave me, but… I opened it on MY computer and it was ALL in Chinese and just really confusing and odd so I don’t really want to touch it again- although I probably will. I should enjoy these confusing moments, right?

So yeah, they had to match rhyming words together, and I went around helping them to do that. It was a bit crazy but the kids love using white-out so I guess I won’t stop them. There is this tiny little jewel of a girl that sits right in front of my desk and has NO idea what to do most of the time because her English is not so good. So during my rounds [I do a lot of those, I don’t like to just be in the front], I paused with her for a while and showed her a trick or two- and after that, she was a speedster!

The kids LOVE showing you once they are done. They scream my name and shove it in my face. Five of them at once, usually- even if they’ve shown me twice! So I say good job, and give them a high five. Then there was a crossword puzzle above that so they started on that as well, and that helped a little- although they started going to each other for help and running all over the room!

Class was about to end when I had them shut their books and look at the three words I wrote on the board- Flag, Hand, Grape. It’s three of the words they’re supposed to learn by the time they finish Unit 1 in their English book. They get confused with my instructions, but we figured it out. They rewrote the word, and I drew a picture, and got them to do the same to make sure they understood the words. After the first kid, a few more rounded up and made a line, so I had to start coming up with some words for them! That was pretty tricky, but the song/bell was sounding so I grabbed my things and waved goodbye. Although I did have two of the girls take my arms and walk me back to my office, which was sweet!

Dinner wasn’t too exciting- although YoYo came around, and asked if we were free on Saturday. 

Apparently one of the girls from my Grade 4, Wendy, wants me [and the others?] to spend extra time with her and practice her English, so we’ll all play Badminton together! That should be a lot of fun! I just wish I could remember which one Wendy is…

Sorry. Yes, I do have some favorites. But I don’t even know their names. It’s terrible, but I’m working on it. There’s just so many! I teach 5 different classes, and I have at least 40 in each class. That’s at least 200 kids! THAT’S A LOT! But I’m working on it, I am. I had two kids try to make me remember… that made me feel bad. But it was Lisa and Lily, so hopefully I remember that next time!

In my defense, most of them do NOT remember my name, so there.

J

Dinner was pretty decent. They had this dish of fish heads buried under noodles with these tiny red peppers. I figured, don’t eat the fish but try the noodles yes? Sure, it’s a little spicy… I NEARLY DIED. It was so spicy. Thank goodness I grabbed some of that lettuce dish- except then I spent the next 10 minutes, literally trying to get a chunk out from stuck in my teeth. The toothpick didn’t help much. Katie couldn’t stop laughing. It was awkward. Moving on.

Activity Time! Our favorite!

Guess what Katie played? That’s right! Catch the Fish!

I had two girls hanging on me the entire time, which was fun and cute. They read my paper about my neck again, and I had a few new readers check that out. I’ve even had a few feel my neck, but I think they were expecting a little more strangeness… sorry to disappoint, kids!

[To any new random readers, and to random friends who didn’t know, my vertebra is fused together a little to the side, as you may see in some future pictures on this blog, so my head is a bit crooked and leans to the right. It’s much better than it used to be, although there’s extra muscle built over the bones, basically, and it’s a little odd if you’re looking for it. Kids notice it more than adults. Unless the adults notice it because they’re the kind of adults looking for things wrong with people…]

We played Rock, Paper, Scissors [they call it Paper, Scissors… Stalk?], and that two-person slapping game [hands hovering over another pair, pair underneath try to slap above pair], and that kept them pretty busy! Then a bunch of little girls came over, and we danced Ring Around the Roses a few times- until they all got distracted with the kids around Katie.

The girls pulled me over there, as well, and we did some more high-fiving games. Katie got a few of the kids to do the Macarena, but we might have to wait until we have music to do any more with that! We goofed around a few minutes before the kids had to start running off to classes. I got a kiss on the cheek from the girl who could never get enough of me [she is so precious!], and they were gone!

One of the girls got her tooth knocked out. That was sad, and very bloody. They tried to make her go back to class, which didn’t make sense, but hey I’m a silly American. Eventually one of the guy teachers brought her a cup of water, but by then there wasn’t anything Katie and I could really do with the other two teachers there talking and helping her, so we headed up, packed our things, and headed out.

We bought more yogurt, yay!

Oh, one of the kids gave me a milk box. Juice box with milk. All the kids get a box through the day and one of them found a ‘special’ one for me. Another kid gave me… I don’t even know. It almost looked like chocolate covered peas, to be honest. Something random like that! But I’ll try them out soon and find out?

FINAL THING BECAUSE I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT:

Nicole has asked that we come early every day for the Gymnastics, she called it. A short ten minute-ish break where all the kids line up in their classes for some stretching and exercise. We stood to the side and watched, and the first one had them doing all these random arm-swings, jumps and more! Nicole came by and suggested we lead them.

Sorry, not yet! The instructions were in Chinese and most of the kids were off anyways and looking around at each other so we had no clue what was really going on. But one of the next ones sounded like a line dance. Basically was a line dance. And they did a version of Cotton-Eyed Joe. But less jumpy. Less everything, but still a line dance. Katie and I tried joining in half way but I was totally thrown off and probably humiliated myself but HEY ITS CHINA!

We backed up after that. One of the teachers may have glared at us, I’m not really sure… but it was pretty fun. Katie definitely liked it, the enthusiastic woman she is! I was just confused. And yes, that kind of covers our friendship-relationship, but I’m okay with that!

Anyways, then we headed off to our office. That’s all. It was a very fun Teachers’ Day after all! Yay!

Sept 9 2013

Monday

Back to school!

Less thrilled than last week, but ready for more! I’ve been having fun with the kids but I want to see them learning, so we arrived at lunch time [we grabbed yogurt and yummy bread from the bakery for breakfast], ate some okayish food [now we’re settling in routine so the food is less exciting, but we’re working on it! And trust me, we’re still eating plenty], and planned some lessons for the day.

I taught my first two Grade Three classes. The first went well… because the teacher stayed. O.o That was my face. She never talked to me, she just took a back seat and took notes. In Chinese, so I couldn’t exactly look over her shoulder and read what she was writing, which was really a bummer. Hopefully I got decent marks! The good part about her staying was that the kids actually behaved a bit, which was nice. We went over greetings, I kept them talking, we went over shapes and the like [they’re really smart kids, but in learning things in English, they seem set back pretty far, no matter their grade].

Grade 3 Class 2, however, was something of a nightmare. Utter chaos. Uncontrollable chaos. I can work with controlled chaos, but not uncontrollable chaos. It was ridiculous. I don’t think we got anything done, to be honest. I have some kids that really try, however- I think that’s the class with Kevin. Okay, there are a lot of Kevins, but I think this is where Awesome Kevin is. He is very smart and very helpful! He helped me get the class through some tongue twisters and more.

So yeah, that definitely exhausted me. Not exactly how I want my week starting, but there we have it. We settled down for dinner, where Nicole told us that the round table in the teacher’s cafeteria is for us, the Americans, and it’s where other teachers can come talk to us. I mean, they could before… I don’t know, weird rule maybe? Haha. But now we sit there all the time- kind of boring, unless someone actually comes to talk to us.

Anyways! Activity Time went crazy. For Katie, anyways. The energetic woman she is [my energy is my head, hers in her body, that’s what I mean…ish]- SO the kids spend the whole time chasing her around, or she chases them. Tag for Katie, or as she titled it, um… I think it was Catch the Fish?

They’ve got her racing pretty hard, so she ended up slipping [TOMS don’t have a lot of traction, unfortunately], and totally messed up her knee. It was pretty ugly, but a nice battle wound. I mean hey, if it scares she can be like “Yeah, totally got that in China with them kids.” That’s pretty chill.

I was busy with the ladies, of course. Well, and some boys. I think I mentioned this before, but the kids are fascinated and very confused because my head is crooked. I even have some of them try to fix it for me. So I wrote down an explanation for the kids, and asked Nicole to translate. She wrote it up and gave it back to me, so that now I can keep it on me at all times for the kids- and I’ve been pulling it out a lot.

During Activity Time, I had to race up to the second floor and back down to bring them the paper since I had forgotten it [last time that happens!], and I was showing the kids- and once they saw I was carrying a piece of paper with Chinese characters, a ton of them flooded over and all I heard was “Ooohhh,” for a good while.

Eh, kids. Haha. After I put that away, I played around with a few of the girls- I have two who are very attached to me in the cutest way possible. So we would try to communicate, which is hard, but fun, and we just exchanged the English-Chinese basics. They helped me count up to 10 in Chinese [I knew some of it!], and then we sang the ABC’s- because they do it differently! It was very funny when they got all confused at me singing once it breaks off in another direction- but it really catches their curiosity, that’s for sure!

All good things eventually come to an end, so we said our good bye’s, Katie left early because we needed a new water jug and the guy was coming early [We downed that in 5 days! Or I should say Katie- I drank MAYBE 4 half-way/mostly filled water bottles. And that’s barely a dent]. I was trying to load a few things up on my personal computer that I had carried, but after that we were good.

Oh, and we started discussing a trip we want to take over Autumn Festival. It’s their Moon Cake festival or something next week. About a four day weekend! We’re going to take a train to Chongxing overnight on Wednesday, spend the day there and the night on another train to Xi’an. Check out the terra cotta soldiers and stuff on Friday, and that night catch a third train back home to be here on Sunday in case we have to teach then to make up for Thursday and Friday. I know, it’s a lot of train riding. But the TERRA COTTA SOLDIERS are there in Xi’an so really. Seriously. Come on!

I got home, aaaaand movie time! I’ve been choosing movies and surprising Katie and she likes it! Well, probably because I didn’t bring Scott Pilgrim and some other movies that she also despises [I know, she’s an oddball. Ignoring that, she is still pretty lovable!! Just… don’t mention that movie to her, hehe], so it’s all good. And I DEFINITELY picked a good one.

Rush Hour 2

Jackie Chan! He’s our favorite, no questions asked. He’s just the best. He’s hilarious. We love him. Katie’s finally understanding him a bit more as well, because she’ll still see posters randomly in China and be like “Is that him? Is that Jackie Chan?!” And I’m just like “Nope.” So… we’re working on her recognition abilities.

Kidding, sort of.

Anyways, we love  him, it was awesome- they started the movie in Hong Kong and we were just dying because everything made SO MUCH SENSE. It was crazy. OH and we watched Shanghai Knights on Sunday.

 Guess where it starts?

The Forbidden City.

AND GUESS WHERE WE’VE BEEN?

The Forbidden City! WOOOHOOOO

It was a pretty cool feeling, that’s all. Ehm. Anyways… oh, and remember all those little random candies we bought at Wal-Mart? We’re eating a few of those with every movie. There’s these cheap chocolate truffle things- Katie says those are her favorite, which is surprising because she never really likes cheap chocolate. But we are still enjoying them all! Another one we love is this caramel looking one, but it’s really coconut, and we like those. There’s a ton of these nutty ones, too! Super nutty. Intensely nutty, you guys. OH and Sunday, we tried the gummy corn-looking candy.

Shaped like a corn

Did NOT feel like corn

Smelled like corn [in a good way].

And guess what it tasted like?

CORN.

I know, weird right? Corn isn’t just a vegetable here [though I’m really not sure if they separate them in to fruits and vegetables, because I keep asking all the kids what their favorite fruit is and everyone says ice cream, so…], it’s almost a delicacy. They have frozen corn with the ice cream bars, after all. And one of the most popular- actually, I’m pretty sure it’s the most common- street food, where they kinda BBQ it or something. Katie wants to try one soon, but is waiting to make sure we’re up for the bacteria. Hopefully we’re almost done biding our time, because they are looking gooood!

So yeah, real corn candy. Who would have ever guessed?

And Monday closed on a decent thought. I even ate some chocolate Nestle ice cream. Not half bad :D

Sept 8 2013

Sunday

I woke up feeling super stuffed and icky, which slowly went away. Except we’re all fasting, which kind of put a damper on things a little but we’re hanging in there [okay, Katie is. It’s 3 PM and I had to stop over an hour ago because the bug is still in me]. We showered, got dressed [I wore my new mustard flats], and walked over to Greg and Abby’s.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the skype-call church thing worked out, so we ended up doing our own meeting again. We’ve also set up plans for FHE together on Mondays, and we’re starting to plan out a trip to Xi’an for this 4-day weekend we’ve got coming up.

Katie broke off to FaceTime [like Skype] her family for a while, and then Abby and I looked over swimsuit prices and stuff. Why?

Because there’s a ton of cute ones here, some for as low as 50-100 RMB, and the majority are modest. And really cute [those combinations are pretty rare, okay?], and so the four of us are considering setting up shop back in the states with a few… so if anyone’s interested, let me know! Sizes will probably be limited, just a warning. And prices may vary…

Anyways, so that took up another hour or so.

I had been doing fine that morning, but after just walking to their place, I felt like crap the whole time. Part of the walk home helped, but then the last half was miserable. Katie had a hard time slowing down for me because I was going so slow [I’m short, it’s possible]. I came back and took a nap, which was great until I sat up. That wasn’t so good.

Here I am on the couch now, having taken some pepto bismal and hoping it goes away so I don’t have to take anymore because that taste is terrible! I had forgotten how bad it could be, yowza… 

Evening plans: Katie is reading and I’m probably going to watch another episode of Doctor Who [I saved a few for sick days, so sue me], and after that I’m going to get dressed and start walking to the school. Katie will eventually join me [she refuses to walk at that speed], and we’ll use the internet there and she can make a Birthday Poster for our friend Andrew on his mission, then dinner time!

I’ve had a few potato chips- weirdly in the flavor of baked potatoes, but it’s actually pretty okay and good even- and I’m hoping the rest of the food today will stay down. That would be pretty awesome…

But yeah, those are the plans for the day.

PS, I do not write my pain for sympathy, it’s just a fact. Personally I just can’t decide what happened and what exactly it is. Because it’s not quite food poisoning, but it’s not just stomach aches either, you know? It’s very odd… but hey, I was warned I’d get sick at least every month here and I was ready for that. Sucks that it started while I was out and with friends, but I survived and will hopefully be better in the morning. Really confused on what happened though, and that’s the only really lame thing about this situation. Ah well…

And now here I am, posting this at the school! Katie thinks it could have been the flu, but I should be showing more symptoms of a cold with that [I don't have much of a cough or sore throat, though my nose gets occasionally stuffed]. I mean, I guess it could be the Nile Fever or whatever that is... kidding. Totally kidding. I have no idea. But I walked with Katie to the school at a mostly normal speed and no longer have the urge to hack, so I'd say there's a lot of progress being made! Hallelujah!

Sept 7 2013

Saturday started off swell! 

We slept in a bit, read for an hour or two, then walked to the nearby bakery for breakfast. We hadn’t been to this one and had to check it out! Everything was mostly packaged separately which was a little odd, but whatever.

We bought: one blackberry yogurt for Katie. [I actually liked it which was saying something]

Two almond flaky cookies for myself [delicious, but may have a terribly consequence- read more]

A delicious loaf of swirled bread. It was so moist and tender and the best bread I have ever had.

A package of about 10 tiny fluffy croissant rolls.

And one very eggy cake with weird chocolate spread on top- heavy but good! Very thick. I had half of it, and it took me a while to eat. Me! A while!

Anyways, we brought that all back and enjoyed it in our place. It was so good, and very filling!

Once we were done with that, Katie and I started getting ready for the day and also cleaned up the apartment which was definitely necessary to do with these dusty wood floors! We finished off our bakery stuff and finally headed out to meet up with Abby and Greg.

We took the bus for about an hour or so into town, to see the Jiaxiu Tower, I believe it was- a really cool landmark of Guiyang. For the first hour, we didn’t really know where to go but Abby asked a lady on the bus [her Chinese is getting so good!], and we eventually found the right stop, and wandered around for a while, going through the walkways-

In the bigger parts of the city, they put the crosswalks underground. Some of them are big, and people set up shops down there! It’s all supposed to be pretty darn cheap, and it’s fun looking around!-

And finally found it. It’s on the river, and really cool. The architecture is classic and we took tons of pictures of the 3 story building [Once upon a time, it was tall to the people], as we wandered outside and in and towards the other buildings. There’s a little pond in one of the corners, where we found three stray cats drinking the water! Very pretty.

It was a lot of fun, overall.

When we were done with that adventure, we took another walk to find… WAL-MART!

It’s at another city-center place. It’s this huge… thing… it looks like lightening with clouds in the corners. There are pillars leading up to it, and all around they have statues of the Years there. Katie and I are Year of the Monkey- which I always thought was cool except here: it’s more like an ape. Or in certain carvings, it looks like a penguin. Anyways, we walked around and finally found that, took a picture, and headed over to WAL-MART!

First fact: It’s totally underground

Second fact: It smells weird. Possibly because we walked in next to all the sea food. Fish and crabs alive or dead, all for sale.

Third fact: It’s freaking huge!

As in bigger than normal, okay? I wouldn’t say twice the size, since it was kind of hard to tell… but then again, it might have been. There was lots of random cool things there. Katie found massage chairs that we all sat in for a while. I mostly wandered thought: as much as I want to love those chairs, I have found my body is at an irregular height and it always hits up my backbones in a really uncomfortable way. Abby found a cute shirt and it only cost about 2.50 USD. Not as many clothes as I had hoped though. Lots of scarves, however- we’re totally coming back sometime!

They had an imported section- you know, of foods… except it was all imported from like Japan or France or something. The only thing I recognized were Starbucks bottled Frappacinos.  We found the candy, though! That’s the important thing, right? Katie definitely thought so, and I wasn’t about to complain.

Lots of buckets of little pieces, where you could buy a pound for this amount or so you know? So we wandered around and grabbed several different kinds to buy! I’m really excited for some of them, like these blueberry gummy snacks. And a little nervous about things like the gummy corn snacks…

Anyways, we did that and moved on… to the NOTEBOOKS.

The best collection EVER. I wanted to buy all of them. At first I was just going to buy a little handy-dandy one to carry around at all times… nope. I needed more! It doesn’t matter I have like 30 back home, some filled and some not entirely filled. You can never have enough!

I bought a tiny one with a sketch of Italy, I think it was. Another really cool one ‘Diary of the Star’ or something with a single star on it, and there’s some little drawings on the inside flap and a few English translations of “Oops” or “Cuddling is best in relationship” or “Sometimes people have to be left to…” something I don’t remember. Oh, and the expensive one [26 RMB] is called ‘The Book of Answers’ and it looks like an inscribed old book, but you can write it in- and get answers. Like a magic eight ball? It’s got tiny answers up in the corners. Like “You Must” or “Start with an Adventurous Spirit” and things like that. 

It’s just cool.

We also bought a few balls to use for the classes, some packing tape, and Katie bought a few new notebooks as well as a blow up ball globe of the world, all in Chinese but it has an ‘I Heart China’ on it as well- pretty silly and cute!

After buying all of that, we decided to do KFC which is inside the Wal-Mart here. We got the ‘Family Thing’ or other- not really a lot of food though. One corn on the cob on a stick. A tiny side of mashed potatoes with gravy stuck in it [Katie ate those because she didn’t really want chicken with bone in it], about 4-5 chicken thighs and maybe 9 um… smaller thigh bits or whatever. Crunchier and tasty. Oh and it came with what looked like three small Pepsi drinks. Overall, it cost about 74 or so RMB, which we probably will definitely not do again, but it was enjoyable.

And that was about the last good thing for me that day!

Why, do you ask?

Well, because I got sick.

Yeah, not fun. We were barely out of Wal-Mart when the stomach pain started, and we rushed all through the street to find me a bathroom- and then I had to walk up to the third floor. I’ve never been so glad to see a squatter toilet. I wasn’t looking so good even after that, however, and after we crossed a street we had to walk through a very expensive mall to find me a second bathroom.

We hung out there for a while. My stomach couldn’t seem to make up its mind so I walked around a little, drank some water, and finally decided I was good for now. Everyone was kind enough to get a taxi instead of take a very long ride home on a most likely crowded bus, so we snatched up a taxi [had to call Nicole really fast, haha…] and the ride was actually pretty nice.

The taxi driver took us around the other way, the one we haven’t taken yet, which put us by another part of the river and all these bright light bridge places- looked like a super clean and barely crowded Las Vegas, really- and I enjoyed the cool air.

Katie decided it might have been the almond cookies, if it was any food, that made me ill. The timing would have been about right, and it’s the only thing that I ate that no one else did [well I gave her a bite or two but I ate the majority of it], and so it might not have been the KFC but we’ll see… I actually kind of want to try those cookies again and find out. What? They were delicious! Heavenly!!

Anyways… I drank some more water [Katie made me drink almost 2 full bottles], and then we tried some of the candy. Only two pieces though! The first was a nutty peanut butter little bit. So nutty, I could barely do it all and I only ate half. The second was a chocolate ball with a solid but creamy tasty inside. Katie had a hard time with the not-so-great chocolate… but when it comes to chocolate, I’m not too picky. Hey, it’s still chocolate.

Oh and that morning, we also bought a small tin of Nestle chocolate ice cream. It was like 11 RMB- we almost got one that was about 47 of tiramisu. But that would have been more expensive than for the states, it was ridiculous! But yeah, I can’t wait to try that.

Sept 6

Friday was quite the day!

We got up early to head over to the school- we were ready in about 15 minutes, which was pretty impressive. Headed up, ate breakfast [mostly leftovers so I tried a dish or two but overall we mostly just ate their rolls], and headed to our office.

The day or so before, Greg was able to find a way to the free internet unrestricted through Google and so he set that up for us- Hello, Facebook! Only gone for two weeks! Haha… So Katie went to teach her class finally and I fooled around trying to sort out a blog and everything for us [I’ve set up about 4 now, at least, and it’s been very tiring and very annoying].

Then as she was coming back I realized I had a school assignment due for SUU and so I had to start redoing it since it was overdue by an hour or three and I had done it on my home computer, but we don’t have internet set up at our place and I hadn’t brought the laptop with me. So I began rushing through that- when I had one of my fifth graders start dragging me out the door.

Yeah, I wasn’t supposed to teach that day. I mean, the other day they gave me a new schedule and transferred a Thursday class to Friday- but I had taught them Thursday, the day before, so it should have been for the next week, you know?

Go, China, go.

Anyways, I had two teachers trying to sort out what I am supposed to do except they both ended up saying different things. I ended up just standing around the class and seeing no one was coming back to tell me what’s up, I just started… well, playing. I didn’t have a lesson or anything planned. Luckily, I had brought my little dice/box/classroom tool of mine to play along with my usb with lesson plans on it. We reviewed some things, I even played them two songs [the first, by the Kooks, really confused them]- and then finally started showing them some pictures of mine and got them to talk about what was in the picture. Mostly they stated the very obvious- for example I have a picture of myself with Spiderman from Universal Studios in Florida, and they pointed out red, blue, and black colors- so I started asking them questions about it and that got them answering a little better. And we did that until class ended! I’m definitely going to do this more often, I think! Haha…

Anyways, it all worked out fine enough in the end, although I do need to start on real lesson plans with them, so maybe this week we’ll really learn something new, you know?

After that was lunch, so I put everything down and we went to eat. They had these almost stale potato slices that were seasoned, so we ate those mostly for lunch, along with another roll [I know, we’re going to get so fat, but we can’t help ourselves!], and then I rushed back to my office to finish the school presentation and got that sent in.

Done with school for the day, we gathered our things and headed home for a few hours. We ended up watching a movie, I think, and then headed back to the school for dinner [again, lousy because it was a Friday. But edible, yay!], where we found Abby and Nicole waiting for us. Magi was going to join us, but it was her only chance to go see her boyfriend so we let her go. Oh, and earlier in the day she had brought her computer into our office and showed us a lot of pictures of her traveling and such- it was really cool, all the places in China she had been! Very nice!

Finished with our meal, the four of us ladies headed out to hit up the town! Only to wait for the late bus for about 20 minutes. And it was freaking crowded even though we were at the second stop. We stood up for most of the journey, which was VERY badly caught up in traffic. No matter where in the world you go, Friday nights are the not the nights to hit up the town.

Should have been maybe a 20 minute drive, 10 minutes longer for stops- but because of the traffic, it took us just short of 2 hours to get to our stop. It was nearing 8 then, so we didn’t get to go to the smaller markets Nicole wanted to show us, but a bit nicer part of town.

This didn’t really deter us, thank goodness!

We hit up the streets in the dark, through the crowds, and looked at all sorts of goodies. Katie found something in the first or second clothes shop we entered, and found a very cute orange hippie crocheted top. After a debate or two, she walked out with a cute shopping bag and we were off again.

Next stop: shoes! Lots of Toms-esque ones, and we all ended up buying a pair. They look pretty sturdy, and yes we all got stripped ones. Well, Nicole bought some platform flats [contradictory, but you get the idea] instead.

And so on! We crossed a time or two, debated a few things, I tried on a cute dress once, more shoes, and we even found some funny awesome pajamas that Katie and I plan on getting some similar ones eventually. Why not, eh? Long sleeves will keep us warm in the winter. I bought up some cute headbands, a ring, a watch and one more pair of shoes before we called it quits because everything was beginning to close finally.

Not wanting to repeat that ridiculous [but silly] bus ride, we opted for a taxi which would only take about 25 RMB back to our place. We dropped Abby off, then the three of us headed back to our area since Nicole’s just a few buildings off just inside our apartment complex. We bought some boxed noodles to eat, being hungry and all, and then parted after the first elevator ride.

Katie and I still had enough energy so we opened the noodles- the first one turned out terrible. We think it’s partially because they had the crushed things inside that numb your tongue and it just didn’t help the flavor so after a few bites each, we had to toss that one but were able to eat the other one.

And we watched a movie during that, of course.

Although there was the smell of garlic hanging around our place for the next day or so.