Go Go Go. There's no other way!

Monday 4-22-13

Phew! What a day!! I feel like I say that a lot but that’s the only way I would have it! I got up nice an early to hop on the bus. Today I teach a new SPE and I chose arts and crafts! I love crafts so I figured this would be right up my alley! I didn't pick it before just because its sooo much prep work! I know, that sounds bad, but you have to get everything precut etc. and at times seemed very overwhelming. Being a few months into this, our supply room has started running low on paper so we have been trying to be careful about our use of paper. With me having to teach the same lesson and have to make a good 200+ of whatever craft I chose to make, I tried really hard to use the least amount of supplies possible but I still wanted a good class obviously. I searched the supply room and decided my craft based on the items I felt we had a surplus of... pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks and beads.

I got up and headed out to the gate, when I arrived, I saw Susan and Alicia waiting for the bus too! Dang it! Gonna get evaluated on my first day teaching this SPE for the first time! That’s stressful.. but I gotta do what I gotta do !

We got on the bus and sat down. Susan was excited to see her Bus buddy again until he hopped on and sat across the aisle from her, next to me. Haha I teach Charlie my second rotation and loved having him cuddle up next to me! He was so cute. I was totally fine with him sitting next to me, I was pretty stoked he wanted to sit next to his teacher, but when I reached over to give him a hug after we got “high five” down, and he snuggled right up to me I was more than happy to give him loves! In the seats there are patterns of snoopy the dog wearing all sorts of outfits, some of him as a chef, another of him with a back backpack and another with him as a pilot. Charlie started a game with me by pointing to a snoopy and I would say what he had. He loved to point to the chef because he knew that meant I would say “hat” and mess with the cute ball cap he wears to school every morning.

We hopped off the bus and went to a glorious breakfast. I expect nothing less! The cooks know us American teachers love the rice porridge and their rolls so every time we walk in they welcome us with a new bowl of eggs and a fresh pan of rolls. This week we got a roll that had a sort of crumb on the top of it that was amazing! But, amazing food aside, it was time to teach, I headed up to my room with Susan following.

This week I taught my kids English by making Butterflies! I pulled out my paper with a Butterfly drawn on it and we figured out what a butterfly can or can't do. They can't swim or walk, the fly! We also catch butterflies but they are too fast! That’s when I would pull out my pre made butterfly and have them try to catch the butterfly, after that I pulled out the popsicle sticks, had the kids ask each other for sticks to practice conversation. After the sticks were passed out, we felt the surface, we talked about wood coming from trees and making an X with our sticks. I pulled out the tape and we talked about Sticky things and what is sticky. After the tape was passed out and the sticks were stuck together, we pulled out the pipe cleaners. These kids love pipe cleaners! It makes me laugh every time I pull them out and the class responds with a *Gasp* man they are so cute!
We felt the fuzzy sticks tickle our faces and then folded them in half, we twisted the bottom to make a body. “We all have a body”. We put the X on the pipe cleaner sideways and then twisted our sticks in place. After we looked though the beads “i can see you!” we put them on the end of the pipe cleaners and twisted them over to make their antennas. Depending on the class, I would then pass out markers and have them write their name on the butterfly wing or I would one by one write butterfly as they told me what butterflies could do. “Butterflies can fly!”.



When I first heard we had twenty min classes I had something short of a panic. That is such a long time! Now, I would give anything for 30min classes! I love hanging out with my kids and I have so much I want to teach them! The first class I taught, I felt was a little rough, so I am a tiny bit worried about my evaluation score but, time will always tell! I feel like I smoothed out the bumps by the end of the day though and I am excited to teach crafts tomorrow. We went outside after we were done teaching and met up with Susan and Alicia. Turns out Equal, the principal of the school come out to talk to us and told us sorry he hasn't seen us, he has been very busy. We talked about all sorts of philosophical things because he is just that kind of a guy. He told us that the teachers and cooks really love us because we are so excited every morning and because we love their food! Haha it pays to be fat! ;)

The weather today, again, was amazing! So warm and we spent the hour between teaching and lunch like last week, enjoying every bit of it! After the hour was up, we went to eat a delicious lunch and then headed home with our favorite driver! Oh man he is so cool! He hopped into the van, raised his eyebrows with the perfect impersonation of Bruce Lee and says, “are you ready?!” In between our laughs and shrieks, he put the van in gear and cruised down the hill leading up to the school... I’m almost 100% positive we got air.

We headed back to the school, singing song after song off the top of our lungs. At our driver’s request, I wrote down the songs names and gave it to him. The weather was great, the classes were awesome, everything is better when its warm! I went upstairs talking with Hannah and Maddie about my need for some jeans and my lack of bodies willing to come with me to find jeans, they wanted to get their nails done (its $6.00 to get Shellac) so we thought why not go right now? I was supposed to teach English corner with Sam tonight so I asked Crista if she wanted to trade and teach with Sam today and I could teach tomorrow. I knew that she would be fine with it because those two are quite the besties so after I got that squared away, Hannah, Maddie and I went on our way!

We hopped onto the bus that takes us straight to the infamous Big world. Big world is basically a street market indoors. You walk in to shop after shop with every variety of clothing articles to accessories. All I needed were my pants so needing to start somewhere; we walked into the first pants store we saw. I tried on a pair with legs so skinny my foot wouldn’t go through the ankle hole. So, we started to describe the pant leg and saying straight leg, not skinny. The next pair went up to my ribs and screamed Ganny pants so loud you might have heard it over in America! That was the only style they had in that store so we decided to move on to the next... and the next... and next... I tried pants on that were snug on my hips but made to look like they are sagging... a style that I will never come to terms with. I am generally a very fashion open person, from hipster to chic, even if I wouldn't wear it, I can appreciate someone's style... until you start to sag. Boys need loose pants, I agree with that but there is never a time or a place for your jeans crotch to be at your knees... ever. The funny thing is that here in china, girls wear their pants like that too! Only they are sewn with extra fabric so it looks like sagging without actually sagging... yup tried on of those pairs on accident. The only pair I tried on in that store. It still baffles me. I suppose here in China more often than not, girls have the wonderful thigh gap. Dellany over here does not, so if the style suits you, (your brain needs to be checked) all I can think is ouch.. Chafing much?

I finally ended up finding two pairs of Jeans that fit me just fine and held true to my American fashion standards which I never thought would be such a feat! Thank goodness for Maddie and Hannah's help and patience! They were so fun to shop with and hang around! We went from shop to shop looking at clothes and laughing at shirts. We were ready to be done shopping so we hit up a little nail booth. I picked my color of Shellac and sheepishly nodded my head and said sorry when I put my short little fingernails up there on the table. I cannot stand my real nails being long and even when I get acrylics, I have them pretty short. I just feel like finger nails are a bacteria pool thriving off of my body and the thought of that doesn't quite tickle my fancy. The ladies who did our nails were so cute and so funny! They just loved the fact that they were doing our American nails even if mine are nubby. And we had fun trying to communicate with them with our terrible Chinese and there terrible English! It was 38¥ which is about $6.00. Score! I am definitely down with that! We took pictures  and headed out to grab some grub and head home! Maddie and Hannah love these things called Chinese tacos. I am not too much of a fan so I walked around and found those Burrito looking things that Kristen and Igot in Jinan!! yes! So of course I got that and an ice cream before we headed home.

I am really thankful that Hannah and Maddie were willing to come with me or let me come with them and help me get pants. I don't generally like to shop with groups of people and more often than not, prefer to shop alone. I think that developed after Morgan left and I lost my shopping buddy. But today was much needed and Hannah and Maddie saved me. I am thankful that I got to hang out with Hannah and Maddie outside of the teaching setting and get to know them a little better. Besides, now I have my nails done and happy hands make a happy girl! ;)

I got back to our rooms and threw my jeans in the wash and cleaned my room to try to get ready to start packing for my vacation coming up! I took a shower and now it’s off to bed for this girl! Goodnight world!