Sept 5- Final

Thursday:

Today! It was… pretty good. I had already partially planned the lessons yesterday, with all that free time on campus [oh and that’s where I spent like 4 hours trying to put together the ridiculous blog- takes forever to change anything on that…] so that was really nice, and I could definitely reuse a good bit of everything.

The fifth grade class was good. Abby joined me for that, and after some tongue twisters [they kind of miss the point of it, but they’re not too bad at it], we threw a die/ball around and had them answer questions from us. I had read it from another foreign teacher here that she started out her classes that way, and she loved it. And boy did my class love it! I think we spent most of our time doing that. But it wasn’t too bad. And I’m starting to get a better idea of where they are at for their English.

Grade 4 is tricky… definitely at the same level as Grade 3- I tried to get them to write what they want to learn in this class, words in English, things about America- and no one understood. I mean, they wrote things down- but most of them say CD, TV, Dog, or Apple. It’s the majority of the words they know… But they loved the dice game as well, so we did that for a while, along with more tongue twisters.

Grade 3 is still pretty rowdy, but not too bad. I totally got mobbed by them coming in, which was pretty funny. Oh, and they love high fives. Katie and I try to stand tall and make them jump which they love- and Abby moves her hand really fast for them which they love as well. Anyways, they’re super helpful with starting the powerpoint, and then they all tried to goof around on that before I finally got them in their seats.

Scarily enough for that class, the teacher’s office room is right next door. Journey, one of the awesome teachers here, walked by a few times to shush them, which I felt really bad about. But it got them to be pretty quiet which was impressive.

Also trying to initiate Grade things in each class- every once in a while I put down a tally mark next to a A or B or C, to let them know how they are doing. It’s helped a few times, and we’ll see how this continues. I definitely need to work harder on the discipline though- the rules I tried coming up with before were basically shot out the window and very useless…

Then Journey and I talked a few minutes after class, and she actually does want me trying to use the English book for her particular Grade 3 class. It’s nice to have a bit of a guideline now, which is good, but throws me off because I don’t know if the other teachers even want me touching that book with them- because Journey didn’t use the book this week, but she will next week.

Anyways… oh, I finally got my QQ set up. It’s like a International AIM thing, more popular than Facebook or anything, seriously. And you can do it anywhere, so if anyone wants to join, DO, and send me your number [you get a QQ number for your account]!

Activity Class kind of failed today… we sort of played Red Rover for like 8 minutes before they all ran back to their classrooms… it’s very unorganized, this Activity Class thing. We don’t really mind, it’s just confusing. But we just love playing with the kids!

Oh and today… the very awesome chefs tried giving us American-ish food!

Abby and Greg had a very hard time with this, but it just got me laughing at one point. You’ll see why…

We skipped breakfast since we didn’t have any morning classes [we just laid around, showered, and I started The Book Thief which is an AWESOME book by the way, I love the writing style], and Greg pulled us aside as we headed to the cafeteria and he was leaving. He warned us they gave him 3 dishes for him and Abby in case they didn’t like the cafeteria food.

Noodles with sprouts and ketchup. Fried chicken legs. Then apple and watermelon bites with a… sweet mayo sauce. Chinese American food. It was hilarious. I don’t know what their problem was, though, because the mayo thing kind of grows on you [which is saying something because I am not a fan of mayo]. They didn’t give Katie and I the noodles though… Katie was very disappointed. I ate both chicken legs which were a bit different with a sesame seed seasoning- but still delicious. And we finished the fruit salad dish.

Then dinner- I nearly burst out laughing after I realized what was in the burgers they gave us. I know, burgers! Totally got us excited. Although I don’t think they like… have any cheese… at all… anywhere… must be a delicacy or something if that. Anyways, burgers. Best part was the bun- which Katie didn’t appreciate much because it was covered a bit in oil.

Which truth be told, I didn’t even notice. But hey, I was the kid literally licking the grease off pizza so many years ago… actually, give me one of those extra cheesy pizzas at Pizza Hut and I will gladly do so again, I kid you not.

Anyways, this burger was SMOTHERED in mayo inside. With a piece of lettuce. Chicken bits [tough pieces and Katie got a piece of bone] and… dun dun dun… SPAM. SPAM, you guys, SPAM! People like spam here, I don’t know why, I think it’s very weird and very… manufactured, in a way. Sorry, I can’t think of the right word. But that’s why I nearly burst out laughing- that was their idea of a burger! I don’t think Greg ate even half. I got rid of some chicken and mayo and managed to eat most of it [it was a huge bun which really helped], and Katie ate all of it. Because as weird as her eating habits are, she does enjoy her spam now.

Ha, spam…

Anyways, the Head Chef came over- grabbed a translator really fast for us- and said they could do American [Chinese American, anyways] food for us every meal. We said no, that’s too much, we couldn’t possibly, we’re loving the Chinese food. He said okay, but we could still do requests or just let them know if we wanted anything. Of course Katie asked for Chow Mein- Chinese, not American- and they said they could probably do that, haha.

Oh man, that was so great, though, honestly. It was hilarious.

Her classes are going great, by the way, much better. She’s got rules and punishments worked out and the kids know what is up, so that’s really good. I’ve taught each class twice now but I am already used to the noise and don’t really mind it… but I should. So I’ll probably get her to help me out with that over the weekend.

After our shopping trip of course!

Only a small one, but still. We’ve been waiting for this long enough, haha!