Shop till you Drop

4- 28 -13

Today was Grimm’s parent day so we made sure that we were dressed a little nicer. Despite the gut I have developed since coming to china, I wore my dress and did my best to pull it off like I did when I got here! We got to the school packed with people. We tried to make it to our classes but then got told that we would be starting at a different time. Well, that’s fine we can wait. They are splitting our classes up so today we have only 2 rotations and then Friday we will come back and teach our last rotation so that there aren't too many parents at the school all at once which was a brilliant idea because I can't imagine any more people trying to fit into that school. It was packed! We were asked to sit in an office and wait so we did until we saw out cute kids in the hallway. The poor teachers at Grimm, we are just like another kindergartener when we see our kids, jumping out of our seats to go give them hugs and high fives. We got to teach 2 rotations or 4 classes and I think it went pretty well. They cut a few classes shorter so I was frazzled with Popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners sticking out everywhere but I made it through the day and gave myself a pat on the back. The parents were very enthusiastic about watching their kids as they stood right behind their kids and helped them answer in English. I felt like it was almost a replay of a tv clip where the mom is sitting behind her son and raises her hand saying “he knows the answer” while pointing to her son. O well, I just kept on going with the flow. After we got done teaching we found Lilly and asked her about shopping. She was totally willing to go if we would wait. We were down. We walked around and found a class full of little kids dancing, so we joined in until Lilly told us to come with her. Lilly doesn't have the best English but she does have a translation App on her phone. So when I say “Lilly said” it’s more, Lilly typed out on her phone and let us read... which is totally fine with me. I appreciate the effort she makes to communicate with us! We headed out to her car and she told us we were going to get Korean food. Yummy! I love me some Korean food! We headed to what we call Big World and were shocked to find out that we were so close to big world! This whole time we thought that Grimm was off in a different part of Wei hai, come to find out, we have been in familiar territory this whole time! Lilly took us to the Korean place and let us order. I got some really tasty food but as Korean food usually is, it was served still boiling. Me, being the fatty that I am just dug in and burnt any surface of my mouth that came in contact with the first bite... perfect. Good thing the texture is nice haha. Lilly was so sweet and helped us order. We got sushi and the best food and then felt so bad when Lilly pulled out money to pay for it. We tried to pay but she insisted. Man she is so nice! We walked out and she asked If we wanted any coffee or tea. We told her no so she got us a hot boba instead and yes, paid for it all. Lilly! You are so nice!! after the boba drinks, we walked around from store to store. We hit us a cute trade shop full of little trinkets and then went out to more market looking areas and tried on more clothes. Everyone got at least one thing, I got the cutest navy blue pencil skirt with yellow polka dots that goes to my knees. I love it.

 Half way through the day we made a stop at her car and she pulled out water bottles for all of us and let us store our treasures in her trunk. This girl is so sweet. She was so fun! Even though we couldn’t really communicate, she was the first one to hold my bags when trying on my skirt and to give me a thumbs up when she approved. It reminded me of having my shopping buddies Maddie and Makayla back home with me! I miss those girls! I had a really fun time with Lilly today. We asked her if we could go back when we finally ran out of shopping juice and hopped into the car. Lilly was about to get going when we leaned back and handed us all a necklace with a harmonica on it! Okay home girl is too good! We were so grateful for her hospitality and fun attitude! Its times like these that I wish I could speak in Chinese and really tell her thank you for everything! The worst thing is feeling something and not having means to express it!

We came home and went up to our rooms. We missed in-service so we had to get a catch up and found out that there is another ILP teacher that is coming! Wow! Two more girls? Sweet! I hope they are cool.

It was too nice of a day outside to not go running so I did my best to run a few laps with my crappy cramping feet. I made it far enough to run up until it was time for Kunfu class. Which starts at 3:15. I practiced until 5:30 and headed off to dinner.

After dinner I went straight up to practice some more. Practicing is such an easy thing to do when you have a coach or teacher as dedicated as Lee. I feel so honored to be able to learn from him. He is so good at what he does and has made it apart of his life. I would feel too embarrassed to show up to class the next day having not gotten better. Not only would it be rude for me to do but how stupid would I be to not take advantage of this amazing opportunity? Regardless, I am so happy that I can be learning all of this. I love China!