Wednesday
4- 3- 13
Today is the day! We leave for our Vacation! Man I sure was feeling it! I was so ready to have break! Its pretty much like the last day of school before Spring Break and if my teachers ever felt the way I did today while teaching, man, they sure didn't show it! I got up and we headed off to Grimm. We arrived and headed up to our classes and got started. My first class was a bit crazy but I think it was my fault because I needed to tweak my lesson a little bit. I chose to teach this week on the book Rapunzel. I don't think this is my best lesson but the kids really like when I pull out scissors and a piece of paper and let them cut the paper and then talk about the differences between ripping the paper and cutting the paper. These kids really are so smart though. I wish I could say it was all me and that they have an amazing teacher but really I only see them once for 20min a week and I have seen them 5 times at the most. Today one of my classes came in ahead of schedule so I started reviewing names and was so happy to hear 75% of the kids not only responded “my name is” after I asked “whats your name?” but they said their English name! Makayla and Cody were especially important to me because I named them after Family back home.
These kids are so smart I really didn't give them enough credit when I came here. I mean yeah yeah they are Chinese so intelligence is in their blood, but I am starting to realize just how fast kids can pick things up. You always hear people saying “oh I really have to watch what I say” when their kids are little but its so true because they are so smart and pick up thing so fast! They all especially learned “Yucky” and “Yummy” from our last weeks lesson. When I pointed out an apple tree in the book and got down to asking about apples without fail at least one student would take a bite out of their imaginary apple and then spit it out and say “yucky!” and the whole group (including my immature self) would start laughing... That lesson really was the bomb I got lucky there.
Today's classes seemed to go by really slow. Im not sure if it was me staying up late packing and trying to get caught up on everything or just not my day but the first half of my classes seemed longer than my ELE 40min classes! But as my classes rotated through the time seemed to speed up and before I knew it, my last day of teaching for the week was done! When I was walking over to meet up with Rachelle, I looked over and one of the teachers had one of the cutest sweaters ever! It is navy blue with 1 forest green sleeve and the other is yellow with a Rubber ducky on the front. Oh man it is adorable! I had some serious fashion envy. I really love the style over here! I am worried about when I find out where the good shopping spots are because after that, there is no telling what might happen!!
we got to the Cafeteria and had a warm welcome by a tray of Corn, potatoes and rice. Oh man its a celebration! The cooks sure do know how to kick off Spring Break in China! After lunch we headed out of the school. Once we stepped out into the warm sun we couldn’t help but throw our arms up in the air and spin in circles! ITS SO WARM!! it was the perfect weather! Its such a good day today! I was full of the “care- free” attitude right then and there. So ready for this weekend to start. Get out and mix things up!
We all loaded into the car as I looked at my watch. T -1.5 hours till Va-cay! We were on our way to the school when our cute driver pulled over and ran into the store! She came out really fast and hopped into the car and drove down the road a little further and repeated : Break, park, “wait”, get out and run off... we are all so confused, what in the world is she doing??? *in my head* “hmmm... I really hope I get back in time... its okay I am packed and I still have about an hour left.” well, she came back with a bag in her hand and after she got back in the car she passed out ice cream bars to us 4 teachers and headed back towards the school!!!
We all loaded up into the van and headed to the airport... err.. uh.. I mean train station! Yes. Today marks yet another one of my “firsts” and I rode in a train! On the way there I figured out what I had forgotten .. my headphones and ipod... snap. O well, this will be interesting.When we arrived, we got through the part they call security which is about as strict as the Delta Center for a Jazz game but that just makes things easier for us! Especially with my luck with security stops... perhaps my hermit habits and appearance that I have developed the last month while being here has softened my terrorist vibes... or in china, they really just don't care. We walked into a giant room with giant signs, a bathroom area and filled chairs. We managed to find a section of empty chairs big enough for the 11 of us and we made camp. It wasn't for long but it was long enough for some of the group to break out their PB&J materials to cram in one last meal before our long train ride ahead of us. I wasn't hungry and felt like exploring so me Crista and Andrea decided to follow the sign that said “shopping” in hopes to get a water bottle for Andrea. We walked down the hall to find one empty room after another until we reached a dead end... well, that was the most unproductive shopping trip i've ever been on! We headed back and sat down but not for long because it was time to board the train! Its just like it is in the movies. Get through the ticket line, walk over to find your car on the train which is on your ticket, but meanwhile you are trying to find platform 9 ¾ just for kicks and giggles. You walk up to the car and present your ticket and then get on the train! For this train ride we were on whats called a sleeper train.
Good Ol Luke put it in our heads that we were walking into a moving concentration camp. He told us it was old cracked wood floors with pee and nasty all over the floors, the beds are gross and small and we will not be comfortable but its cheap so we should roll with it... uh... totally wrong. We got in and there are basically 6 beds in a section. Three on one wall and three on the other. Then there is the 3ft wide isle people walk up and down and a small table which would better be described as a shelf with two seats that fold down out of the wall on either side of the “shelf” the top and middle bunk are awkwardly spaced apart so you do need to be aware of your head room or the lack of, but the bottom bunk was roomy enough to sit up on so most of the trip is spent sitting either on that bed or the seats on either side of the shelf/table or if your bed is the middle bunk, its convenient to lay there with your head where all the conversation is happening, Each section is repeated throughout the car and each car is linked up to make up our train that took us to Luoyang 20 hours later.
We got in our section to find out that we are all grouped together which was lucky for us and probably lucky for all the chinese people as well. We got all settled and the train took off. One of the down sides of trains is that they do make multiple stops to drop off and pick up people along the way. After we got picked up, we aproached our next stop and that is where we met our first friend. Amanda had the bottom bunk and was sitting there talking with the group when a Chinese man came up to tell her that was his seat. We are just the American english teachers pulling the whole fake it till you make it thing so we just assumed he was right and she apologized and moved over. We talked to him for a little bit with his broken english and then had a good laugh when a Member of the train staff came over to show him that he was indeed supposed to be bottom bunk of that section but in the car behind ours.. oops! Haha poor guy was embarrassed but we didn't mind and let it go.
The next stop, he got off and moved and we just continued our party playing cards and talking about anything we could think about. In the section right across from us we found Mars and Dan Dan.
Sam started talking to Mars when I noticed Dan Dan listening so I started talking to her. They both had great english and I just adore Dan Dan! She is such a sweet heart! We talked for quite awhile! I asked them all sorts of questions and found out many things about nothing but I just loved talking with them! They are dating and have been for the past three years and go to a university in Xian! Yes!! I told Dan Dan I was headed to Xian at the end of the month and she was really excited to tell me because they are nearing the end of their schooling and that they can take days off and that means that she could meet with me in Xian!! oh man! I am so excited! In china they obviously don't have facebook but that definitely doesn't mean that they don't have some sort of social media... When I first got here and was still adjusting to my celebrity status.. ;) I kept getting asked if I would give them my QQ. Im not giving them anything! Especially my QQ... what the heck is a QQ?! Your QQ is kind of like your phone number but for Instant Messaging. I don't have a QQ yet because to set it up there is tons of Chinese to sift through but some of the teachers here have gotten help creating one so I asked Dan Dan for her QQ and when I get back I want to make a QQ so I can contact her and Mars to meet up with them in Xian. I am supposed to be hanging mostly with Ben, Josh and Maddie in Xian just because of the way hostels worked out so I hope they are cool with that because I am really looking forward to seeing them again! While we were sitting there talking Mars and Dan Dan were teaching us some Chinese words and Mark came over with a Boy named Jack. Oh man he was quite the talker and SOO funny! He learned his english by watching the one and only Big Bang Theory haha he said he loves watching american movies and learned some very prominent 4 letter words from the movies so we quickly taught him that those words are for uneducated individuals and it means you know more english and have a better vocabulary if you don't use those words. He Told us that he was going to tell his friends that so they all sound smarter. Haha Phew! Man he was so funny! I tried to take some videos of our conversations but I dont think it could really capture the moment.
I love this post!!!!!!!!!! :)
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