I had great Chinese food... In China! (That may never get old.)

Picture Time! Bartholomew chillin' after our crazy taxi ride to the apartment. The second is of my door, Room 1506. The third is some pink birds and leaves right above my couch. I haven't totally decided if I like it or not.

I had 8:45-10:15 accelerated preschool class this morning. The first hour was pretty ok, but the last half an hour was way too long! Those poor kids. I tried to get them moving around as much as possible, but I still had content I had to get in that day, so it was rough finding the right balance. My second class was also a preschool class, but it only had five students in it. They are all five-years-old and can already sight read quite a few English words. I had a lot of fun with them. We are continuing to learn how to tell time and today I taught them 12:00, noon, and midnight and they caught on really fast.

One of my afternoon classes was canceled, so I had some more time to prepare for my final class of the day. It was a second/third grade age class and it was a special class, called a "Life Club" that parents pay extra money for. The focus for life clubs this term is other English speaking countries, and today we focused on storytelling rituals in Ireland. I showed them pictures from Ireland, and like true city kids, they were amazed at the rolling mountains and bright, bright blue sky from the country side. They were very impressed with castles. They did not buy the Leprechaun business one bit. They kept calling him "the green alien." I understood where they were coming from. They are not into Santa or the tooth fairy over here, so a Leprechaun would probably seem outrageous. There is one boy in the class named Potato. I met Potato when I entered the classroom and he had made a little bed for himself out of the preschool stools. He made quite the first impression. He kept looking at me like I was crazy. I had showed them on a map where I had come from and he kept saying, "Teacher, are you from L.A.?" It's close enough.

I went out to dinner with some other teachers and my boss this evening. It was fantastic food. So far, I haven't done a very good job of finding great food on my own, but when there are other people around that can speak a little (or fluently in the case of the local teachers) I've had the best stuff! We had lotus root, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, a beef dish that I didn't participate in, and a fish with sprouts that I did have and it was a little spicy, but fantastic. It was fun eating dinner with people from all over the globe. We each had a Chinese version of PABST Blue Ribbon and had a fruit plate for desert. Everything was on this lazy susan. So good!

Captain's Log: 2 Weeks Down...