3-9-13
okay, today was just too much stress for me. We got up and I borrowed Crista's curling iron and got dressed up in my skirt etc. and waited around till it was time to go to the gate @ 9:15 Sam and everyone else had to leave at 8:00 so I was kinda pacing the floor. I got to talk to Cody over face time though so that was fun. When it was time we met Kelly and we all got into the Van that she arranged for us and we headed off to the Ocean Pearl Kindergarten. We were escorted by these cute girls in a cute purple jump suit and I thought oh maybe they have older kids here too?? Later to find out that they are teachers?! They look so young here!! well, after We walked in and we had to stand outside the building until they were ready for us so that we weren't distracting from the principal. While we were standing out there Kelly said she was nervous to interpret so we need to make our “speech” now 1 or 2 facts! Sweet, im so down with that. We all practiced and with my turn I said (practicing) hi my name is Dellany Olsen, Im 20 years old and Kelly said wait stop! How old is every one? And it was 18, 18, 19 and me 20 and she stepped back and said, “oh so young! Don't say your age, and if they ask,. Say 25” and I’m thinking Whaaa??? “ in China, they believe that the older you are the more of a master you become, so if you say you are older, they respect you more.” so I just didn’t say my age. #1 I hate lying and #2 I’m not even that good at it!! so we went in and instantaneously the cameras came out and they were definitely not listening to the principle. Anyways, we gave our spill and then they escorted us out and that was it? Thank goodness. We finished about 1.5 hours before lunch was scheduled so Kelly had us go back to the school.
An hour and a half later we headed off to lunch and tried to not get blown away because it was so windy! But it was really hot today too!
Oh yeah the incredibly stressful lunch.
We got to the place and not gonna lie, I was not expecting much of anything... until I walked into the door. It was like in the movies when you walk in and the rich drug lord is sitting across the table with wine glasses all around in his own separate room only the drug lord in my story is a girl...and the president of the Ocean Pearl Kindergarten... still, she was scary. We went in and sat down and there was us Americans Rachelle, Hannah, Maddie, Me and the two head teachers Alicia and Susan. The president of the school we are living at, Kelly and the 4 Vice principals of Ocean Pearl. It was so fancy. I had no idea what to do. Here in China, the serve you super duper hot hot water. And I think that’s a way to show you that it is clean water but it sure does burn your mouth if you aren’t careful. But besides that, remember how I said it was hot outside? Well we were already hot, and some of the dishes had full on red tiny peppers in them so it was spicy. Haha it was a never ending burning cycle. One dish in particular was interesting, it was obviously fried fish, so Rachel and I thought well that’s easy to eat... we took a bite and chewed and looked at each other like in the movies and almost busted a gut laughing so hard as we tried so hard to inconspicuously spit out the mouth full of fish bones.... So we, with our master chopsticks skills, peeled off the top layer and exposed the full spine of a fish haha oh man. We thought we were doing pretty good. We obviously weren’t relaxed by no means were we breathing easy, but we hadn't messed up bad enough to search for the trap door lever to get us out of there. But then the question came that would make us second guess every move we ever made or end up making... Kelly asks “they want to know if you need forks?” Do we look like we need forks?! And here we thought we were doing well. Haha oh boy. But I cant forget to talk about the toast… they all made a toast and then kelly leans over and tells us to make a toast too!! WHAT?! I don't know how to make a toast! Alicia our head teacher starts a toast and Kelly could translate it however she saw fit. For one of the VP's toast she said the whole hope for a good relationship thing but then also added and that she hopes that she could finally get an English name. So for my toast I just said we were glad to be here and are impressed by what they have done with their Kindergarten and gave her the English name Jenifer because she looked like Sister Paris. She loved the name. So I hope that was enough. Long story short, the food was great but I sure was glad to get outta there!
After lunch we headed off to the second School. Its like a 2nd building for this school. And one pair of us will teach at one school and the other at the other school. But we took a tour and we got to see our cute students all taking naps and of course they aren’t conscious so they were adorable! But I know better than let my guard down just yet. I know how they work. Haha after our tour we sat down in a room and waited for about an hour and then went down outside where the parent meeting was being held and we waited for another 30min and we were so exhausted! I dont know why other than the emotionally draining lunch but we went in and did our spill and it was exactly like the first, walk in and snap snap snap pictures and cameras everywhere. went back to our rooms thinking that we will have time for a nap before everyone gets back from their home town dates... wrong! Everyone was there so we had story time! Everyone had so many different experiences and I was green with jealousy until I had time to sit back and think about the crazy culturally rich lunch we had, stressful or not, the opportunity I have been given for the next 4 months and the fact that we can do home town dates every Saturday if we want so it took me time but now that its over, its cool that it happened haha
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