Fresh From the Vine: September 2011

Amanda and I made it through our first week of school! It was only two days (and I only had classes 1 of those days), but we made it! Last Tuesday the Kindergarten, which includes all the children from ages 2 to kingergarten, had a day when the parents could come to the school and get information. There was a large gathering in the auditorium and hundreds of parents were there to get information about the new school year. The english department had it's own powerpoint, and I presented half of the information in english and Anne translated into Chinese. The other half of the slides were presented by two other co-workers. It went very well, and I wasn't abnormally nervous.

Wednesday was like a "Meet the Teacher" kind of day. Parents brought their children to meet their teachers. Anne and I wandered around meeting parents and talking (me....smiling) to people.

Thursday was the first day of classes. All children stayed in their homeroom classes, so there were no english lessons. This meant I didn't teach! Melody (the director) came into our office in the morning and said something in a very distressed tone. Anne said, "We have to go help in Dumbo...everyone is crying!" This is the youngest class. The poor little children. It was absolute chaos in the room. Almost all of the kids were crying! I am not sure if I did much good! I am more scary to them than anything else! I sat down beside one little boy who was sitting at a table and I started reading a book to him. The book was in Chinese, but I was pointing and saying, "Bear." and then when the bear was hibernating I gestured and said, "sleep." He thought that was pretty funny and I got a smile out of him. He laughed and started talking when I gestured that the squirrel was small and the bear was big--not that I understood any of his talking! I nodded as if it were the best thing in the world! Later on, we took the ones who were not really, really upset (so crying just a little) down to the inside play area. On the way, one of the little boys grabbed my hand and stood holding my hand. Then, he looked up, saw who it was, intentionally let go of my hand and purposefully put his hand carefully back at his side. Then, he stood staring at me. LOL That was so funny!

Thursday, I taught my first classes. I teach 4 classes. The first one is 30 minutes long, and the other 3 are 40 minutes long. I was pretty nervous that first day and I went through my material, and looked at the clock and I had 10 more minutes! Whoops! I sang some more songs and did some more things with that class. The next class, I sloooooowed down! The day was such a learning experience for me. I saw how things went, how the kids reacted, what they knew, what they didn't know, how the teachers acted. It was quite the day!

Each class is so different! Some classes are really into one song, and then the next class could care less about that song, but they love a different one! The children do not understand much, so I have to talk very slowly and use one or two word sentences. After some reflection, I told Amanda this is going to cause me to be very purposeful with my language...in instruction and in speech!

I am ready for my first day of school. All KG teachers got to wear this 'wonderful' shirt!

Amanda is ready for her first day as Teacher Amanda.

During our first few days together, I took pictures of my kids in groups of 3. I wrote their names under them, and used that to learn their names.

Jonathan, Mandi, Amanda and I went into the city for some bible study. It was a good time to sing songs and share what is going on in our lives. We went to Peter's Tex Mex afterwards for dinner. I had a peanut butter/chocolate milk shake. I'll go back just for the milk shakes! I had chimichanga's for dinner. The taxi back home was pretty funny. The driver acted as if he didn't know where we wanted to go, when really he just didn't want to go there! We hopped in and mandi told him she would tell him. He was so mad he was saying things in chinese, and driving roughly! I sat in the backseat laughing at the communication issues, and the disgruntled man who had our lives in his hands! We decided to get out early, and walk the rest of the way. Jonathan paid him, and thanked him, and he sat there saying Xie, Xie....grrr, grrr, grrr, grr, grrr! We all got a big kick out of that!

Yesterday, Amanda and I went to Merry Mart by ourselves! This is the larger grocery store we use, and a trip there involves using the bus! This was the first time we had ventured out into the great unknown...using transportation other than our feet...without someone more experienced with us. The trip went well! We got to Merrymart, did our shopping, bought some street food (whole roasted sweet potatoes! There is nothing like them! We eat them just as God made them!), and took the bus home.

Later in the evening we went downstairs to Ruth's apartment for a spaghetti dinner. Ruth is the school counselor. She is phillipino from the states, and she is such a wonderful, fun lady! We brought the garlic bread. Let me just tell you that there is nothing that can make me miss the kitchen I was using in the states more than cooking in this easy bake oven! Ok, so it's a toaster oven, and I am happy to at least have it, but....it's nothing like the kitchen I just left! LOL I am having to learn how to cook all over again! In an entirely different way, because of ingredients and equipment! Everything is different. There are 2 gas burners, 1 toaster oven, and all of the utensils and kitchen tools are new to me! We had fun at Ruth's! It was supposed to be a game night, but it was the first time everyone had seen each other since being back from holiday, so we sat around talking the entire time.

Today, we went into the city for Church. It takes over an hour and a half to get there...on three busses or two busses and a taxi, or a buss and 3 subway trains. We are going to try the bus/subway route next week! Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called 1001 nights in the SanLiTun area. It was really good! We ordered dulma, hummus, lamb with mushrooms, spicy fish, and baklava. We all ogled at this entree on the menu that was BBQ'd lamb. They come out to the table with the kabobs all stuck in this half moon looking thing. It cost 798 RMB, so we didn't get it. (The exchange rate is 6 RMB to 1 dollar....so it's expensive!) There was a table near us that did get it, and then they left half of the kabobs there with the meat on them! It bothered me so much that all that meat was going to waste! I sat there thinking that if I could speak to them, I would go and ask if they could box it up for me. I know, I have issues! Well, Ariel went to the bathroom and came back and was walking by their table and she said something about how she should just ask if they could box it up for us. I said, DO IT! DO It! DO IT!!!! She did, and the guy said yes, and we brought home all their meat! LOL We laughed about it for quite some time!