China Doll

3-19-13

Today was my first day at Dani Kindergarten. Remember Darling? Well she is from the same school but different location. Hannah and Maddie stay at that school while Me and Rochelle are at the location we went to today. :) we got picked up by the most beautiful woman. She is so pretty. When I hear the words “China Doll” she is the kind of person that pops into my head. She is the director of this location and oh man she is so beautiful! She hasn't ever gotten an English name so I gave her the English name Chloe. I think it fits her so well and she loved it so it worked perfectly! We met Julianna at the school with a nice “welcome to our school” in English just for us!

 We figured out where we were going to teach. But not before we got a tour of the school! All of these kindergartens are so cute and decorated so fun! One room in particular caught me eye... I looked in and saw mats on the floor, smiling slightly thinking of TKD at home then I saw what looked like chest protectors... no... it couldn’t be! By now my pulse is rising and I keep scanning to see pictures of martial artists on the wall and kicking targets! All in little cubbies! What the heck?! Is this real life?! I was so excited!! I pointed in the room asking “taekwondo? Taekwondo? Teacher??” as they smiled and pointed down the hall and wanted to show me more rooms I thought about stomping my foot and flailing my arms wildly until I got my questions answered but I thought twice about that and just kept going. We got our classrooms and then got told that this school only has about 22 students so we will just teach two 40 min classes and then just wait till lunch and then head home. Rachelle and I weren't going to complain and I was still off in my own world thinking about how I could possibly get them to understand Taekwondo.... gosh dang it!

Well I instead got put in the dance room to teach my lessons but they went really well! Ellen, the one who knows English at the school sat in on my lesson and she was participating as much as the students and I just loved it haha it was so funny to see these little kids and then a teacher sitting on the tiny chairs attentive and ready to repeat on my command. It definitely made time fly by! Haha in fact when I finished my second class and Rachelle came into my room “well that was easy” I was a bit confused and then realized I was also done! ...But really, isn't the name Taekwondo universal?

After we were done, we had Ellen take us back to Chloe's office. After talking for a while I learned that Ellen learned her English at her university and she is a psychology major and 21 years old but loves kids and that is why she is here! She told us so many times how excited she was to have us here so she can practice her English. I thought I would try this Taekwondo thing one more time and asked her “the room with the *punches in the air* when is that class??” Finally! She got it! Haha she told me the classes are on Saturdays and if I want to come watch I can! Hahaha … watch class.. I’m going to try to figure out a time to get myself there... I have asked Kelly about a million times about Tai Chi but I still haven't gotten told anything yet but I am going to keep asking! Well, after I got my Taekwondo answer I was a little more focused on what was going on ;) and Chloe asked us if we like shopping and we told her oh yes we do! And then she outlined like paper money so we figured out that she was asking if we had American money! So I pulled out my $1 bill and showed it to her and she was so excited she pulled out her phone and took pictures of it so I got out a penny and a quarter cuz that’s all I had and I told her she could keep it and I am pretty sure I made her week. Have you ever seen someone hug a dollar bill? Cuz I have! Haha I love giving out gifts like that. Who would have thought that a simple dollar bill would have the ability to make someone so happy? The teachers here thought I should have traded 6UN for it and traded her but I think the reason why I was so happy about it was because I was able to give someone something who is helping give this opportunity to me. I feel so blessed right now. I am so thankful for the position that I am in right now so much so that I want to give back, and the only way I know how to do that is to teach these little ones to the fullest or to find ways to help or uplift someone here and for heaven's sake if its giving Chloe $1.30 I would do it again in a heartbeat! We were talking to Ellen after Chloe had to get back to her director duties and she told me that she saw that I named one of the Student's Zoe and that she loved that name... I’m a girl, I can take a hint so I asked her if she liked the name Ellen after she shook her head, I asked her how she would like to be named Zoe. She lit up! Haha she loved the name and accepted it whole heartedly! Man, what a good day it’s been! After Chloe was done, she told us that the teachers in the school wanted to meet us and show us their classes! So we went on a tour and it was so fun! We went into one classroom with music blasting American songs that I knew and she was so excited that I could sing along because she put it on just for us teachers! Haha then they turned on gangam style and watched the kids dance along. On my gosh it was so funny! We went from room to room dancing to one song then another following Chloe's lead and laughing while watching these little angles follow along as much as their cute little arms and legs would let them! We did the same thing in every room and it never got old! We got done dancing from room to room and took pictures and then we got told that lunch was ready! Sweet yo! Zoe took us into the room and they brought me and Rachelle a full plate of chicken and a full plate of pork slices along with a big ol bowl of tomatoes and egg soup stuff and then a giant pan of rice! Then they told us eat it all! Uhhh.... so Rachelle and I rolled up our sleeves and dug in! Haha the chicken was really a mini chicken leg with bone and all. We took the whole  divide and concur approach, Rachelle decided to take over the chicken and I would try to take the Pork and dig in... well, we started to try to eat the stuff and then realized that Zoe was not going to be leaving haha she scooted up the chair and sat down. We tried to get her to eat but she told us she is going to eat with the teachers after us. Hmmm well then, we did our best haha the food wasn't all that bad. Rachelle had to concur the tomato soup and I did pretty well on the pork, but then I thought to hard about what I was eating and started to notice the strange texture and that got my head going off and imagining a million different things about the pork I was eating... time to switch. Then the chicken was mine. We tried our very best but there was no possible way that we could finish that stuff. We threw in the towel and then told Zoe we surrender. She said okay and then ran out and went to go tell Chloe that we were ready to go... meanwhile Rachelle and I are smashing rice down to make it look smaller and put some pork and chicken strategically into the trash... yikes..

We pretty much rolled out of the kindergarten and then headed home.

We were headed up the stairs when we met Mark and Geoff (Jeff only spelled weird.. I like to call him G – Off sometimes for fun) and they reminded us of Chinese classes so we turned right around and headed off to our classes. We thought we would get in a class and be taught but we got split up and got one teacher for every few of us. Rachelle and I were paired together but then I have about .01 Chinese wishing I would have hit up a Rosetta stone before I left and Rachelle took Mandarin 1100 at school so she has a semester under her belt so we are already miss matched but we got the basics of some words still and tried to set up times for our classes. The main problem I think was that we didn’t even have time to lay down or even un load our backpacks after teaching. It is so fun don’t get me wrong I love it. But it is tiring once you stop or sit down you realize how much energy you just used and you need to wind down... or at least that’s how I feel. So Rachelle and I just wanted to go. I feel bad for saying that, but its the truth. We were trying to set up classes with our teacher but she has all classes in the afternoon and our classes are all in the morning so the only time would be 12:30 – 1:15 and that would mean that we would have to repeat what we just did every M W F … we just said okay yeah and then left. Not my proudest moment but we got it figured out later..

when I got back to the room Crista and Rachelle were out sleeping and Sam was watching movies on her lap top having her alone time so after I finally gave in and threw my first load of laundry in, said a little prayer “please don't ruin my clothes!”... I raided Ben and Joshes room. I brought Ben my rap to see if he approved and lets face it, I’m not much of a rapper haha basically all I have been doing is thinking of things that rhyme and put them together with no real fluency at all... so I decided we should try something new. Me Ben and Josh started writing a Rap that didn’t rhyme.. for example it starts. We thought we would write a rap that doesn't rhyme but then we found we didn’t have the …. skill. Just wait. Its genus it really is. But half way through I got bored and remembered my laundry was done and wanted to get it all hung up before dinner so I ran and pulled my laundry and threw it in the dryer.... HA! No way it there a dryer here! If you have to throw your soiled TP in the trash can you definitely better plan on hanging your clothes to dry! Haha I almost broke my neck trying to jump and stretch to get my clothes up on the clothes line WHILE standing on a chair... short people problems...

whatever, its all good. Dinner was just the same, good ol cafeteria food!

Its really really cold here. Its so windy and I am being a baby but we are all sitting inside and just waiting for it to get warmer. Every time we think about leaving our apartment we seriously have to debate on whether or not it’s worth the cold! I really don’t get it because I was getting so excited about it getting warm and then it takes a turn for the worst and is a freaking windy ice freeze storm every day it feels like! Well, I am being a baby right now. Probably because I am practically frozen while typing this but its bed time now! Goood night!