Thursday… only two more days in Guiyang. Holy crap. Holy
crap.
I slept in until eight, which was nice but definitely not
enough! I got up to shower, and my skin is more dry than ever, it’s ridiculous.
And it’s so important to me to have the heater afterwards or else I think I’d
probably freeze to death within a minute or two of being out of the shower.
Anyways, we headed out two hours later to meet with Abby at
the bus stop. We boarded, chatted about Shanghai, Christmas, and more, as we
drove to our food stop.
Our main priority of the day, we went up to the overpass to
get manicures! 80% of the shops, if not more, were closed. We got a bit worried
but luckily there was one small nail salon open! Yay! So Abby and I sat down at
the tables, Katie sat by the heater, and we got our nails done. It was really
fun to chat and hang out that way- and it’s been forever since I actually took
care of my nails. Seriously, I bite at them and call it good, that’s it. We
didn’t end up getting colored nail polish, something got lost in translation [I
blame them], so it was pricey to me for 30 RMB and you can’t really see much
improvement- BUT it was fun and definitely worth it.
After that we were STARVING. So we walked back down towards
the bus stop. I bought another fried bread with egg and onions in it- Abby
bought a round one with some slightly spicy meat inside. Katie walked a little
further to get a similar patty like mine, but it got folded over with spice and
a piece of real lettuce tucked in. Weird, but super good! We ate our food, and
then I bought a weird fried and lettuce thing for myself. Abby bought a mango
and banana cold smoothie- super good but a bit cold! Then we walked to get
Katie some spicy potatoes.
There we split ways with Abby- she wanted more adventures
and we had to get back to the school! So Katie and I crossed to the bus stop.
There we found that Katie’s potatoes had the numbing things which are not cool.
She didn’t finish them and went to the stand behind the bus stop to get some
new ones. I wanted to have my final fish on a stick so I got two of those-
which should not have been more than Katie’s bowl of potatoes but apparently
was! Stupid... but tasty!
Suddenly the bus arrived, we grabbed seats and headed to the
school!
We put away our candy and chilled until our classes. There
were kids constantly coming in and out, wandering through everything or asking
for pictures, pennies and candy! It was a little ridiculous but still super
cute!
Katie went to teach one class, and then her favorite class
was cancelled for a test! It was so terrible, I’m so glad that didn’t happen to
me. She was super bummed and I don’t blame her a bit! So wrong to take that
from her, seriously…
After that I went to teach Grade 4.
However, I got held up- I realized I didn’t have my thumb
drive so I went to go get it but my Grade 3 Class 1 was out and about getting
ready to use another classroom, so I had more kids tackle me- even a boy or two
in the mix- and say “no go America! No go America!” It was so cute and so sad!
But they seriously nearly pulled me over, I was so off balance. I barely got to
my office in time- just as the bell was ringing! So I ran back to the classroom
to teach Grade 4-
Who was terrible,
that class was going nuts. Today they had six boys conducting and no, they were
not making anything better. It was chaos and ridiculous. I mean, I had almost
six students listening and they were trying so hard to be good- I had one
sweetheart repeating and then rephrasing my words to understand them, she’s so
smart!
I was so lenient, I spoil those kids. I still gave them
candy but I really shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t.
Oh well…
There was no time for a DVD, either. I passed things out
haphazardly- they all kept trying to get in my face and I was so close to
yelling [I try not to ever yell, only speak loudly and firmly] to make them sit
down, it was ridiculous.
What broke my heart was when I was making them all be quiet,
and the sweetheart up in front asked, “Teacher, are you angry?”
“No. I’m sad. I’m sad everyone is talking.”
Ugh, that was so sad, I felt so bad for her. I mean, I know
I am not always smiling- maybe rarely ever smiling, truth be told, but still,
that hurts to be heard. I don’t want to be known as the angry teacher, the
angry girl, the angry anything…
Anyways, only a few of them were bummed I was leaving. I don’t
know if anyone else understood, or what, I don’t know… But I hugged one or two
of them and rushed out to go. I switched books in the office- with a few girls
clinging to me then- and finally made it into the classroom as the bell rang.
One of the kids took my pen to write on the board, and I talked with a few
students until I managed to get everyone into their seats, and tell them about
the possibility of candy!
It helped with class, but only a little. They lost half
their lines because they were being so noisy! We went quickly through the
slightly dull Christmas lesson, and then I told them they were good enough for
a quick DVD, so they watched that as I passed out the candy and then the
pennies, which the kids were super excited about!
Then that was over and I still had ten minutes of class-
which I prepared for just in case. I pulled up my slide and explained, as best
as I could, to the best of their understanding. I think a few of my kids
already knew, and they grabbed me in hugs as I was going around trying to
explain the situation. I passed out pictures and gave them all away because
some of them wanted more than one.
And of course I had a few liars saying they hadn’t gotten
any candy, the stinkers.
Anyways, I finished up taking a few pictures of them for the
last two or three minutes of class. Then I hugged a few of them for a while
after the bell rang and they all ran out.
I was cleaning up the board when Journey came through with
the other teacher, and made them file back into the classroom… yikes. Hopefully
they weren’t in trouble or anything! I don’t really know. But I apologized for
the time, gathered my things, and went back to my office.
There, Katie told me how she had showed her children the
candy and the pennies, promising if they were good she’d give them to the kids.
And they were good enough, so towards the end of class she started passing out
the pennies-
And all the kids started trying to eat them!
Funny faces, confused expressions, dismay written in their
eyes- the whole works. They were pretty upset and then Katie ran around
explaining NO, that’s not the candy, and then she had to show them the bags
that WERE the candy. Super funny! Too adorable, silly kids…
We were still pretty full from having such an awesome lunch,
but I didn’t want that to be the only food we ate today so we went to the
cafeteria to eat some food, which wasn’t too bad, yay! And which might be the
final meal we eat at the school, aww…
After that we headed home.
There’s some official/officer guy that’s coming over so we
started really packing things away and trying to clean up and all… I repacked and
then kept finding more things I needed to pack. Then Katie and I questioned the
weight of my big bag, so she opened it to find it’s nothing like her packing
job! Huzzah! No, I’m kidding, it’s not really a good thing. Haha. She made me
toss some things out, go through some papers and such. Hopefully it’s okay!
Then we had to put more things in my suitcase carry-on, so
that’s freaking heavy!
Then we had the hot drinks we had given each other. I
thought the one I gave her would be chocolate or coffee… it was bean paste
flavored! Insanity! She couldn’t finish it- but it had come with boba which she
really enjoyed, so that helped I guess. She also opened these crescent moon
cookies that had been put on her desk on Christmas- they were like moist
shortbread. Very delicious! We sat around, talking and eating for a while.
Finished with that, I went to my computer to pull things up
and finish the photo books that we’ve been putting together of our time here in
China, except now it won’t let me save it or anything. And then I had to catch
up on the entire week of journaling- yowza that’s a lot of work! During that
time Katie caught up on the day of journaling, played Plants vs Zombies and
then fell asleep on my bed while I worked.
We never ended up watching the movie, which I guess is okay.
Except now our house still isn’t very clean although quite empty, I’m staying
up till midnight but I’ll have to get up early, and it was a pretty dull
evening over all. Such a shame.
Now, one more day in Guiyang. That’s so sad!
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