Christmas!
Didn’t feel like it.
Though as tradition, we didn’t sleep in. We went to the
school early for breakfast! Which was better than it has been in a little
while, truth be told. It was excellent, with lovely rice porridge [I didn’t add
enough sugar, shame], and with lovely noodles and slightly cold but still yummy
awkward potsticker-style dumplings. We enjoyed our Christmas breakfast and I
ended up taking a bit of it back with me to the office to enjoy for later!
I didn’t really have to do anything for a while so I wrote
on some more pictures and started cleaning out my desk, yikes! Took care of
that for a bit and then Greg called asking if we could cover his class. Turns
out Abby’s family changed their plans and suddenly they wanted to talk at the
one time when Abby actually has a class.
Greg offered to teach her class but he teaches at that time
so he needed someone to cover his class. Turns out it was the same time as
Katie’s morning class, and I didn’t have anything else to do.
Unfortunately, that meant it ruined my small surprise for
Katie! Shame… I told her what I had wanted to do for her that day, and she
waved it off so I ended up teaching Greg’s class! I was a bit run down and they
weren’t too enthusiastic either. Greg said they’re usually bad but I was new so
they didn’t really mind and mostly behaved.
He gave me a run down of what to teach, because Magi wanted
them to be working on the lesson. She was there when I started class, making
sure that was taken care of. We read through the dialogue twice, and then spent
a while testing them on the words and making sure they knew everything. It was
pretty boring but at least nothing dramatic happened! Magi left soon and then
with fifteen minutes of class left, we had overdone the lesson so I let them
watch some of How the Grinch Stole Christmas before leaving.
Katie and I enjoyed a basic meal after that, before heading
back home.
I tried to skype my family for a while and we talked for
about twenty minutes but they were a bit tired and everyone was doing their own
thing so it was short, and then I had to finish working on wrapping Katie’s
gifts.
Afterwards we brought the stockings and gifts into my
bedroom where the heater was. Warmth really matters! Seriously… We opened stockings-
she gave me full ownership of a scarf we had been sharing, quite a few goodies
to eat, pencils, and more! I made her friendship coupons and an I O U for a
gift I hadn’t had time to work on- hopefully I’ll get that done when I get home
and she can have it there!
Then we opened gifts! Like I said, she’s practically
impossible because she doesn’t like objects or do-dads, her bags are full and
she’s always at my side! But she still enjoyed the things I got her, I think….
Haha. Plus there was this bright red pony thing with Chinese designs to stick
on the inside of her car- she had me buy it for her at our last trip to
Wal-Mart because she wanted it! Very silly… she ended up giving me some DVD’s
she didn’t want and also gave me OUR movie, Puss in Boots! I also got her
headscarf, and so on. It was pretty fun opening and laughing, finding things
that we didn’t really want because we already had them lying around the house…
haha.
Soon we were finished with that and had to head back to
school!
I went to go teach my Grade 3 Class 1.
For the final time.
As usual, they were a bit nutty but I was lenient because it
was THE LAST TIME EVER. It was super sad and I almost got my words stuck in my
throat towards the end, it was terrible. The Christmas lesson worked a little
better with that class, thank goodness. And I started telling them my time in
China was up a bit earlier, with almost 15 minutes of class left, but that
still didn’t do very good at all.
For starters, the kids weren’t really understanding. But
Babbie was in the class, and she had overheard Abby talking to Katie’s students
about it, so she stood up, tears in her eyes, and starting telling everyone off
for being cheerful because I was leaving them forever.
It was a dramatic moment.
The kids loved the pictures, it was hard to get them passed
out to everyone and a lot of the girls wanted two, but thank goodness I had
enough. However I had one girl, Vickey, come hug me by my desk and burst into
tears.
Which… may… have… made me… ehm… tear up … a little?
And that made like five more girls start crying and hugging
me. Then to the side I had boys confused and asking me why I was crying. It was
tragic, and I couldn’t even think of what to say to explain it anymore, I had
nothing. More tears than I would prefer leaked out before I managed to pull
myself together. I have the sweetest little girls in that class and it was so
hard knowing I’ll probably never see them again!
Eventually I had to push everyone back to their seats, which
was cruel, and then pass out candy to them, and pennies, which was cute. Then I
had two girls give me back the pennies with somber expressions which sort of
ripped the rest of my heart into tiny little shreds for the rest of the day… it
was so sad and sweet!
Finally I left the classroom, almost running. Thank goodness
no one was in the office for a while after that!
Then I had the rest of my embroidery floss there at the
school, so while I waited for Katie to finish her classes, I started tying
knots and making bracelets! I had two of my girls come in, and I gave them the
finished products. I had another one finished as Eaddy came in, my favorite
boy!
He didn’t want a bracelet, but he did want to learn how to
make one! So I set it up by my desk, and set him to work. It’s pretty easy but
tricky at the same time… but it was pretty cute. Then I had the two girls
return, and of course they had to make one, too. I explained and got them
started.
More kids came after ten minutes or so, when classes
officially ended and all. A ton of my kids came to say hello and to come
snooping through everything, obviously. I ended up setting up another bracelet
making spot. By then, I had almost half a bracelet done and one of the girls
switched to mine because I had gone twice as far as all of them [I’m just so
speedy…], it was pretty funny. I took a few pictures of the kids for a while,
but Katie was patiently hanging around waiting to go to dinner, so finally I
told the kids good bye and headed over with her.
It was okay, nothing special. As we took our plates over to
the bins, the cook lady- super sweet, adorable- she looked so shocked and
showed us the spamburgers wrapped in foil for us! So we thanked her profusely,
because she’s sweet, and took them with us to go.
We ran into some older girls entering the next building, so
we each gave one away for them to share. I had to go back to the office to
return my Santa hat- I always forget I’m wearing it!
Anyways, more kids were in there! I ended up giving my other
burger away before leaving, and finally we headed home!
Katie ate hers- apparently it was pretty good once you take
the spam out, haha. Then I had one or two of my goodies while sitting around. We
ended up watching Christmas Vacation and then we sat around and talked for
almost two hours.
Soon she was super exhausted- okay, I was, too- but I had to
skype my family for their Christmas morning chat with Jenessa on her mission! I
was pretty excited for that. But it took a while for things to set up. And my
family was barely waking up. The only one who seemed awake and happy to see me
was my Grandpa, who was looking good with a big smile on his face. I haven’t
seen him in forever! It just was really awesome talking to him again!
Then it was time to talk to Jenessa, but she wasn’t online
and we started freaking out a little but after like twenty minutes she finally
logged on. It took another five minutes or so for me to be disconnected and
reconnected on another line.
Jenessa was doing super good and super busy, but life is
awesome for her! And she’s pretty blonde right now, it seemed… but good for
her! And she’s already been extended to stay through most of July instead of
coming back early June. Crazy! But she’s super happy about it, so we couldn’t
help but be happy for her!
She only had half an hour to chat, unfortunately. And I’d
even moved to sit on the floor in the hallway to chat with them since my
bedroom light doesn’t work… anyways, she logged off soon and then my family
wanted to open their gifts, so they said good bye to me and I finally closed up
my computer for the night! It was midnight and I was exhausted.
Overall, an odd Christmas. I’m not a fan of it this way. I’d
rather escape to a fun wonderland on my own or something… but still, I’m in
China and that’s kind of worth it!
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