Why are they so nice!

Wednesday 3- 10 -13

I was really excited to get to the gate this morning because the last time we went to the JiaJiayue I picked up a container full of gum. I know that sounds random but let me explain myself. On the way back from Grimm Kindergarten, we were singing to songs that our cute driver was playing and just doing our thing when the girl who drives us every week offered some gum. We all took a piece and almost depleted her stash. After last week with her giving us our ice cream and being so cool with us trying to sing to her Chinese songs and undeniably butchering them, I thought it would be fun to give her a present. It wasn't big or expensive, in fact it was just a container full of the gum she offered us with a bow tied around it. I got in the car first as usual and gave her the gum. She seemed pretty excited about it as she put it in the middle console of her car, replacing the current container of gum. I hope that it showed her how much we appreciate her driving us and being so nice to us. While we are so weird.

We got to the school and headed up to teach our classes. I have been having to prepare a different lesson each week because Grimm started a week earlier than the other schools and I have known that this whole time but today I pulled out my book and was about to start when I heard one of my students say “long hair!!” wait a min, flash backs to last week flooded in... shoot what is wrong with me?? Have no fear this school is full of baby geniuses remember? So instead of reading our book we worked on conversation. I gave a student a book and then had another student start a dialogue like this

“i want to read the book. Can I have the book?”

“You can read the book”

Pass the book to the other student

“Thank you”

“You are welcome”

And repeat.

Normally, I wouldn't have even tried to get the kids to do that because its one thing to ge them to talk to the teacher, but to talk to each other is hard. Its great for the kids because it helps them realize the concept of a conversation, but its breaking the 12 foot thick ice to get them comfortable with talking to each other that is the hard part but not for these guys! I am pretty sure I sent off about how smart these guys are last week but I am still amazed every week at how fast they excel.

We went to lunch to find the cutest Mento we have ever seen!

 There is this steamed bread/roll that is served with almost every meal here along with rice called Mento. I like them because I know that they are safe and they are usually warm. But for the first time ever, I can say they can be cute as well!

We tried to see if there were any more like the ones we got and judging by the teacher’s plain rolls and the perfect number of butterflies divided among us we couldn't help but wonder if they just might be made for us. It didn't look too complicated, like the dough was rolled up like cinnamon rolls and then pinched in the middle so that they would stick and then baked but its the thought that made us happy. Man these Chinese people are awesome!

We got in the car and started heading home. Rachelle and Hannah remembered a certain song we hear her play on track 11 so we asked her to play it. Its actually pretty catchy but I think they reason we like it the most is because it has some English in it. She even put it on repeat for us! She looked up the song name and artist for us on her phone so I took a picture for later in hopes of being able to find it and we can then master it.

We got home and got all ready for in-service. We waited and waited and waited but the head teachers never came. Turns out one of the teachers who never really clicked with the ILP rules or other teachers (me included) was getting his arrangements for his flight home after being dismissed from the program. Oops. That sucks. Should a followed the rules. But it’s all cool because I’m not much of a fan of in-service anyways. I think it gets pretty boring and slightly frustrating at times when other teachers ask questions that are more individualistic and the discussion turns into their classroom problems rather than the skills or topic we were meant to discuss. So I came back into my room and did some major house cleaning until it was time for Pizza night!!

Kelly invited us to some Pizza buffet ,I went more for the social part of it.  Those of us who went were all piled into our van and headed to the city. We got to the restaurant and paid and then filed in practically wiping out the whole joint. Their pizza slices were like the Anderson’s pizza slices only cut in half again so basically 1/4th of a normal slice and then shrunk a little... it wasn't really pizza but it was good. I had a good laugh though when the pizza buffet had 3 pizzas out and then the rest was the normal Chinese food I have eaten all week. We were hungry and no one really knew what the plan was with Kelly coming etc so we just dished ourselves and got to work. I managed to find some wannabe French fries and ketchup and some sweet corn that was really good. A highlight of the night was the quarter sized sushi rolls that I downed in 5seconds flat and I topped it all off with a big ol cup of the Chinese version of ice cream... or frozen milk. Either way its ice cream to me and I liked it a lot! Half way through our meal, Kelly, Kandice, Penny and Jack showed up (all Chinese teachers at our school) Kelly was surprised we didn't wait for her but we didn't know any better... or we were too hungry to care ;) they got their food as some of our group was helping themselves to their thirds or fourths and didn't mind waiting for Kelly and the others to finish eating. We kept ourselves very much entertained as Crista put a sushi roll in Marks milk and stifled laughs as he drank it and found the roll at the bottom of his cup, or others having a competition of how high they could get their ice cream to sit. Yeah, you could say we are very much so a bunch of mature adults..

We all finished up and wished we could roll out of the door. But Kelly wanted to show us where a market was, we started to walk towards the market when Kelly took us into a very nice mall type store and brought us all real close to whisper “this is the most expensive store in Weihai” she giggled because she knew that’s the totally opposite of where we wanted to go but we decided we might as well walk around and explore the authentic Gucci and Prada purses for a few minutes and then head out. Kelly had locked arms with me when we got to the corner of the street. We stood there watching A few of the teachers getting ready for the walking symbol turned on so they could race across the street to their finish line. Kelly started to giggle again which is never good and leaned over to me and said “yell run” when the light turned green, we yelled run and everyone ran across the street as I felt Kelly tugging me to the right. We ran across the street and ended on the opposite end of the road. She was laughing so hard I couldn't help but laugh myself, while watching the group stop and spin in circles trying to figure out where we have gone. This girl has definitely realized the perks of being in charge of a bunch of helpless American English teachers; there is no question about that! After they found us standing across the street rolling around with laughter, we all met up and headed to the market. We walked up and down the street market for a little while and then hit a taxi and headed home. It really felt like a Friday night tonight. I had so much fun laughing and teasing with Kelly, we really did score with our Native Coordinator. I guess she used to live up in the rooms with her husband but because she just had a baby, they are living at home right now taking care of their little girl which is totally understandable.