Thursday!
It continued to be a weird week once again.
First off, I laid around pleasantly in bed before finally I
got up, and we caught the ten o’clock bus into town. To The Corner! I know,
second time of the week, definitely pushing it. But still, it’s a good spot you
know? We returned for dumplings- yum! The guy recalled us thank goodness, which
made ordering a bit easier. They weren’t quite as fresh as they were on Monday,
but still delightful! We didn’t get the porridge this time, though.
Then we stopped for a drink just a few shops up the street.
There was another girl ordering a drink and we just asked to get what she had,
in medium. Hey, it had boba and slightly resembled the chocolate one, so why
not? All the same, the price was fine and we headed up to catch the bus but one
stop before. We passed some vendors and other delicious food that we’ll have to
get next time. The bus stop is across from a pretty good shoe place that we
need to check out again… Anyways, the bus still took a while, but eventually we
got on and managed to get some seats.
It was just a quick breakfast trip. You know, people stop at
coffee shops for a drink on the way to work… we just went out of our way for
food and a drink and then headed back to school… That counts right? Haha, but
it was cool. We didn’t open our drinks until we were already in our offices.
But when we got inside, there was like five International
students mobbing Greg, asking him about each of their Self Introductions. Poor
guy- but they mobbed some of us too as we put our things down. We reviewed
them, made a few technical fixes, and reminded them of an idea or two. Katie’s
definitely more enthusiastic about it outwardly, so most of them head straight
for her. I love English so I made sure everything was correct and then tried to
motivate them. Without telling them to BS everything, of course.
Hey, it’s what
you do for every interview.
They finally headed out and we finally tried our drinks.
There was a distinct blueberry flavoring which was pretty cool! Milky still,
too. We have no idea what else it was, but it was pretty good! As usual, it
took me about two hours to finish my drink. Seriously, I don’t hate it but it’s
one of those kind of drinks I have to slowly enjoy. Really slowly, haha.
Anyways, Katie invited me to sit in on her class. Then as I
walked out with her, she went on about team-teaching which totally lost me. She
hadn’t mentioned that before! I wasn’t ready! Anyways, I helped her a little
all the same, I guess. She got them started, and I helped them choose some
songs- Hokey Pokey and Princess Pat. I didn’t know the latter, but we worked
out a rhythm all the same. It was so much fun watching those tiny kids wiggle around,
holy cow! So precious! I should video tape them…
Ah well.
I stood in the back for a while to get some of the boys to
behave, but that only lasted so long. Katie had come up with some clever number
games to keep the kids attention, which was a lot of fun to watch. Some of the
kids liked staring at me and making faces, which was largely amusing. We gave
them maybe two minutes of Pigeon Impossible before time was up. Then they all
waved good bye which was super cute. Oh and when I had come in, they wouldn’t
stop shouting hello to me, which was precious, and Katie told them my name and
they kept repeating out loud in a really cute manner.
We got back into the office, only to find QQ messages for
each of us. Her final class of the day was cancelled, and my first class of the
day was cancelled! I had joined Katie for one of her classes randomly and now I
wasn’t teaching Grade 4. And the strangeness continues...
So I sat around for a while. More writing. Less internet
access. It was pretty boring and tiresome. Finally Katie went to teach her now
last class of the day, and I got to pretend I was teaching Grade 4 but really
just spinning in circles on my chair… very sad, I know.
At long last, Katie returned and one of my cleverest Grade 3
Class 3 students came to get me! She always does, she’s such a teacher’s pet.
It’s kind of adorable. She carried my things and took my arm, and two more
joined us on the way. The kids were still running around and since class wasn’t
starting yet… I let them. Then they were all fighting over the marker, as
usual, which was kind of funny to watch. I talked to a few students shortly
before suddenly, Journey came in!
Guess who wanted to teach instead? Yup! Journey cut my class
before it even began. Apparently it’s some parent day tomorrow! That’s what’s
up. Seriously. So, yesterday and today, I didn’t teach at all. It was very
discouraging, I realized, as I wiped the board and picked up my things and
waved good bye to the kids. It was definitely messing up my schedule, that’s
for sure.
Anyways, so back to the computers. Again. Yay.
Dinner time, we hung out there for a bit and then returned
to our office. We were getting ready to go when Nicole came in, and asked if we
could all stay and help with her International class that night, to help the
students prepare their self introductions and talk to them more about it. We
were totally cool with that. Oh, and she let us know she can come to Beihai
with us after all, yay! That should be awesome and she’s buying the tickets and
everything hopefully in the morning!
She headed out, and twenty minutes later we headed up to the
classroom as well. After that, it was like the other evening all over again.
For a while, we were totally ignored and just watching and sitting around,
until the students came around a bit, asking for a few words, a little bit of
editing- and finally Nicole wanted them to practice talking with us about it.
That got fun! I was pretty pumped and probably would have
been totally willing to do an interview myself at that point. I don’t know why,
but I was totally ready for that! Haha. Anyways, I didn’t have as many as Katie
did, but I still had fun.
The thing is, they’re good at what they do- they wrote down
their speech pieces and memorized the whole thing. I let them do that for me,
and then explained it probably wouldn’t work like that with the foreigners, so
I gave them a few pointers, and tried asking them questions to prepare them. It
was pretty tricky, but they eventually figured it out and were able to
communicate with me. Very enjoyable! And towards the end, I had one of the
girls, Yolanda, and her two friends hanging around. Yolanda was having a hard
time finding the right words, but she was really trying! And then conversation
steered away as they asked me about American high schools and colleges, and
then I found out that they all love chemistry, physics and math. Seriously!
So I was explaining how those areas are definitely needed in
America because so many of us want to work in the arts [myself included,
booyah], and to definitely bring those up with the foreigners and stuff. Then
somehow I mentioned Ireland being my dream, and their knowledge of Ireland was
limited to the belief that people there cannot divorce, which was super
hilarious. Katie was chatting with us by then, and she was asking the girls
about boyfriends, which got super funny- they were all accusing each other of
having crushes and such, it was so funny and cute!
By then, the other students were heading out and we’d run
late once again. But it had gone pretty well, I think! We watched them go and
then Katie and I walked home, talking about this. These kids are so smart, and
in many of their talks they mention how hard they work, and how much pressure
there is. And seriously, these kids are so pressured! They share some of their
stories and it’s so sad- some of their parents call them stupid if they’re not
perfect. It’s horrendous. Going over some of their papers, they would often say
“I’m common,” or “I’m not the greatest person,” and things like that. It was so
depressing and sad. It’s crazy the education system here- they’re practically
geniuses but definitely don’t get treated that way at all.
We went about trying to tell them that, and I hope they got
some idea. First off, in an interview, you don’t say how not awesome you are.
And secondly, these kids have to know they’re not worthless. They’re really
clever and they can do so much, they just need people to really support them,
you know? It was just sad to see that.
Anyways… we got home, and finally closed the trilogy off
with Men In Black 3. Which was awesome and Katie likes the series since she’d
never seen them before and it’s been quite a victorious feeling over all,
really… Totally awesome! I love those movies, they’re incredible and witty and
ridiculous and rockin’.
And now it’s time for bed, hallelujah.
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