KTV Madness

Sunday night all the teachers, with the exception of two of the local teachers that are on holiday, took the summer TAs out for a night of karaoke or KTV as it is called here. We were also celebrating the end of our summer session.

Right after the last classes ended a few of us stayed to clean up the staff room while everyone burned rubber out of the place. We then waited outside while Laura finished showing a visitor around. We made it out of the subway station and promptly got lost wandering the streets of my old hotel neighborhood. I proudly showed Miles and Claire places I tried to go into and then backed out of when I realized their was just no English menus. Eventually, we found a space ship looking restaurant and knew we were there.

We had a huge room to ourselves! There was one large TV and a bunch of other little TVs spread around the room. The only beer they had there was Coors Light which is pretty funny! The three of us American were happily surprised.

We had so much fun dancing and singing around the room. We went back and forth between Chinese pop songs and old school Western songs. It was pretty great, and I think the TAs had a good time. They work so hard for little pay and deserve so much more than one night out, but I think they had fun. I know I had a blast! I'm always game to sing with a bunch of people!

Monday at work was interesting. Everyone was suffering from lack of sleep and too many Coors Lights. It was awesome not having to teach the summer course. I enjoyed physically teaching the summer courses I taught, but it was so much work to prepare for them on top of all of my normal classes. I'm excited to give some much needed time to my normal classes again. I got caught up on all of my grading from the weekend and taught two small star classes.

Today, I woke up really late after sleeping for a solid twelve hours. I guess needed that. I went to the bank near my place to pay my water bill and waited an hour and a half! Then, I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure in Sanlitun and dinner at the Element Fresh place I have taken myself to in the past. This time, I had something akin to a chicken gyro and some juice and vegetable drink that promised to give my skin a boost! It was all delicious and I felt quite naughty actually eating some chicken since I have sworn off meat for the most part here in China.

Grace

I have a student in one of my middle school age classes on Saturday afternoons that is quite a bit younger than the other girls in the class by about two years. She is really excited to learn English and is a fantastic English speaker. Today, we we started a unit on sports and hobbies. This is only the fourth class that I have taught with this particular group and we are still warming to each other, although I did make a breakthrough with a few of the other older girls who like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, too.

Anyway, little Grace is willing to share her thoughts and answers when no one else will. I had asked the class to free write for five minutes about their favorite hobbies. The two boy talked about playing sports and computer games. The three older girls talked about listening to music and playing computer games. Then, Grace talked about how she gets on her bike after her dinner and tries to find the magical world where she visits her fairy friends. Then, she comes home and writes a few poems before she goes to bed.

It was the most unique response to any question I have asked here.

From my viewpoint, and this viewpoint about life in China is changing every day, so take this as you will, and this is probably a huge generalization, but children in China are not encouraged to use their imagination. Today, in an earlier class, I was teaching conditional language with a group of students and I was trying to have the students pretend it was snowing outside. Just getting them to a mindset that they can "pretend" a different scenario then the reality they are living in right now took a long, long time with me carefully searching for the right words. This is not the first time when I have been take aback that the students don't really practice "pretending" for play. Seriously, I've had a group of four-year-olds laugh at me for coloring a cow pink! I'm starting to understand how much many parents sacrifice their own time with their children to make sure they are learning English or taking additional math classes or are learning an instrument. In a country with the world's largest population, I can only imagine that parents want their child to have as many options to stand out against their peers as possible.

So, when Grace started telling us about her powerful imagination, I got upset when the older girls smirked at her, even though I get that what Grace said probably sounded pretty juvenile to them. I told Grace that I am sure her poetry is lovely and that her imagination is something no one can ever take away from her.

I have a feeling that Grace's creativity is going to help her stand out, in good ways and bad ways, socially, until she gets a bit older when being different becomes special again.

So tonight, I am going to bed thankful for my imagination. And all the people who have never smirked at it.

First True EF Observation

I'm starting to think that the weather is beginning to shift a little bit. It still gets fairly warm during the day, usually in the high '80s, but that doesn't seem too hot to me anymore!

I had my first official EF observation today for my only class of the day. For about the first ten minutes of the class there was only one student so Laura decided it would be inappropriate for there to be an observation for just one student. Luckily, the three other students appeared ten minutes later and we were able to go on with the observation. I'll be able to have a talk with her on Monday about it. I'm excited to hear her feedback, good or bad. No one has watched me teach here yet, and it would be nice to know how it's going. Weirdly though, Laura is also learning how to give observations. On Monday, when we talk, she is going to be evaluated by her boss while she is talking to me.

Luckily, the students I taught this evening are super sweet and are excited to learn. It's a nice classroom environment to be teaching in.

Missing Stars

I had a pretty uneventful day today. I went into work early to finish grading a huge stack of papers and work more on the lesson I have tomorrow that will be observed. I'm a little nervous about it, but I've put a lot of quality time into it.

I taught two small star classes this evening. Both were pleasantly uneventful. My last classroom was so hot that even the little ones were asking for water, and it takes a lot for kids to ask for water no matter where they live in the world.

As I was walking home from the gym tonight, I looked up at the sky and noticed how big the moon is.. and it has been for the last few evenings. The haze clouding it makes me sad. I miss being able to look up to the night sky and at least see some stars.

IKEA Madness

Yesterday, I finished teaching my last summer class! I've enjoyed teaching on the weekday afternoons, but this last week's group in particular was challenging either because the class in whole had a lower level language ability than my students in the previous weeks, or I was just tired from having a new group every single time. I've heard that once the students are all back in school our normal classes will go back to their regular attendance. I'm ready to have a bit more stability in my classes again. It's hard to go into a class with one lesson planned for at least a few students, but there is actually only one student there! I guess it's helped me think quickly about changing my lesson plans.

Today was my last one day off a week- weekend. I did some major grocery shopping and then I went to IKEA. I've been getting tired of sheets that are too small for my bed and decided I just didn't want to sleep like that anymore and I haven't found any bigger sheets in the local stores. I took a taxi to the store, because I read that it's far from the subway station. The taxi driver on the way there tried to just drop me off at a park. I kept on showing him the address and saying "IKEA" and he eventually started the car again and got me there.

I have never been to an IKEA in the states, but I am guessing the store format is a lot like it would be in the states, or any place in the world. I was directed up to the third floor where the showrooms are. I had looked online for what type of bedding I wanted so I had some goals. I had fun going from showroom to showroom. I found a dream living room room set where three of the walls were all bookcases. It was pretty awesome. Those IKEA people are smart about putting little things around that people would want that the customer can just pick up and put in their bag. I was a sucker for candles on this trip.

Eventually, I made my way down to the Merchant room where I picked out a fitted sheet, a top sheet, a quilt, and a quilt cover and pillowcase set. Everything just barely fits over the very top of my mattress.

The taxi driver on my way back home was either truthfully confused about my address or trying to make extra money by driving around in big circles. I finally asked to be taken to the subway station (I can say it in Mandarin now!) and he miraculously got me to the school. It's all the more reason why I hope I can get into a new EF language course soon.

Potty Humor

I had my second to last lesson of my summer course today. I had an entirely new group of students with an exception of one student. All of the other students had been asked to move up from the lower level class. It was exhausting. I had planned for a mid- elementary group and had a completely different set of students then what I had expected. We were learning the days of the week and one student kept saying that he only goes to the bathroom one time a week, two times a week and so on. Of course, this got the class rolling. He kept on throwing all of the various items from his pencil case everywhere and I had to confiscate it (OH NO! I'm not that teacher am I...?) and we had a long, long talk after class. We've agreed to make a do-over tomorrow. I feel bad for Marie who has this kid in a normal class.

I had two small star classes this evening. The violent one was absent, and class was going so smoothly until one of the more rowdier students showed up late with a huge bandage on his head and band-aid everywhere. The TA got out from him that a door had been slammed into his head at his grandmother's house. I felt bad for the little boy, and I felt bad for myself as chaos took over the classroom in excitement of the boy's bandages.

My last class of the evening was a parent open door class. There haven't been many students showing up for this class over the summer, and of course all ten of their for the parent open door class. They really did a fabulous job while their parents were in the room, but one little boy instigated a lot of the trouble. His parental unit asked me if he was this way in every class and I just nodded. The poor thing sighed and had to take off running after him down the hallway.

I was so ready to leave work and hit the gym. I was there again close to closing and a worker started to clean off the treadmill I was on while I was completing my cool down. It took me a little by surprise, but really, that's one of the great things about living somewhere new. There's always a lot of surprised, good and bad, every day.

Parents, Parents Everywhere

My school weekend was full of talking to lots of parents through translations. Today, I had an open door class with a group of students that I have only taught once. Luckily, they are a great class and I tried to make the work we did in front of their parents fun and casual. The class has seven 12-18 year old girls. They are all at such different maturity levels, but have about the same English language ability. Today, I asked them to tell me about their favorite places to visit in Beijing and where they all bought their smoothies during the break. I think we will be learning a lot from each other.

I had a parent orientation meeting today for a class that I have been teaching since I arrived that is melding with another small class. Only a few parents attended, but I think we will be able to make a fresh start with them.

I was so tired after my classes and had to wait around for our staff meeting, but I got a pleasant surprise from Meghan via mail! She sent me a few pictures that they had as table decorations at their wedding. Too cool!

Tonight, I went out to dinner with Marie and her boyfriend, King, Claire, Laura and Ryan the new teacher. We went to the restaurant Laura and Claire took me to my third night I was here. The place has the best eggplant I have ever tasted and carmelized sweet potatoes that are so yummy! Annie Erickson, when you arrive over Spring break, this place will be one of your first stops!

Captain's Log: 15 Weeks...

Rainy Day in Beijing

Today was a normal long Saturday at work. Everyone is counting down the days until the summer course finishes next week.

I taught two small star classes this morning. Both of the classes were special "Life Club" classes where we spend the class period on one particular subject. Today's theme was "Under the Sea." I taught the students a lot of sea creatures' names and we made goggles to search under the water. It was pretty fun. I enjoyed wearing the goggles around the school.

This afternoon I had two course orientation sessions. These sessions occur when the class is promoted to the next "grade" level. Luckily, I co-teach the first afternoon class with Stephanie who was able to translate for me, which was wonderful. I always kind of feel like an idiot nodding along as everyone else around me is talking.

I taught the first hour of my second class to just the students. We created a classroom "constitution." The expectations they came up with were pretty fabulous and quickly vetoed. Most of the them involved them being able to arrive late and play video games. I appreciated the suggestions though. I teach this class by myself and was suppose to have one of the customer relations staff members help me out, but the student and parent pair thought they would be ok with the student translating for the mom. I sent home a lot of things home with the students that probably will never been seen by their parents.

Today was a rainy day in Beijing. It was a delightful change, and actually made me pretty happy and homesick at the same time. I wished I was home though sitting with some good friends at Papachino's watching the rain pour at moments today.

Mean Girls, Preschool Style

Today I had an early summer course preschool class. We were learning about using money to buy clothes. The students were very excited to have fake American dollars to spend at the "store." I was able to take a little break to find some lunch and go grocery shopping before I came back to work to try to tackle a huge stack of grading.

Tonight, I taught two small star classes. The first class is a class that my co-teacher and I are working hard on trying to get more in sync with our classroom styles. The class is hard. There is one little boy who always arrives late crying and another student who should be in a younger class that feed off each others' unhappiness. I've been doing some observing of other teacher's small star classes and have started to do some reflection on my teaching. I've also noticed that I just don't allow myself to be silly with them as I do with other classes since it is so hard to get them focused back in. Plus, there are these little girl cliques in the class. Girls will fight with one another to sit next to the "popular" girl in class. I can't really figure out why she's so the popular girl. It's mean girls, preschool style.

Dancing the Night Away

My "weekend" started yesterday evening after my classes finished for the day. It is Marie's birthday today so some of the teachers went out to celebrate. We started at Marie's getting ready and had some snacks and moved on to take the subway to La Bamba. It took us awhile to get make our subway transfer because trains would stop but wouldn't let us on! Don't know what was going on with that. We eventually got on one and made our way to the restaurant. We all enjoyed some semi-good Mexican food and toasted Marie. Her boyfriend and a couple of his friends were in town visiting from another part of China so it was a big group.

Next, we went downstairs to the dance club called Propaganda where Stephanie proudly has a "ladies" card that gets her and her friends in for free and lets her buy drinks at a third of the price. I was given my own "ladies" card at the door. You know you've made it in Beijing when you have your own "ladies" card.

We had such fun dancing the night away. The club played only English music (kind of weird) but it was fun. We went to sit at a table to rest towards the end and were kicked out because another group of friends had paid 500 RMB for the table for the night. It was fun listening to Stephanie yell at the wait staff about how unfair that policy is in Chinese.

We didn't leave until close to four in the morning!

I've spent today recovering and went over to Claire's. Shay, one of the TAs came over, too, and she taught me how to traditionally make eggs and tomato. We watched a BBC miniseries that was about a romance during a strike set around the Industrial Revolution. It's been a good, chill day.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day!

Today is Chinese Valentine's Day. Cindy told me that there is an old Chinese story about an angel in heaven who falls in love with an earthling and the gods decide that she can spend one day with him a year. China has only really began to start celebrating the day about five years ago. Cindy told me it is mostly a commercial holiday, but I liked her story.

I taught my summer course this afternoon. We learned about different types of food and I had the students take turns being waiters/waitresses and customers. It lead to some giggles, but it was pretty fun.

We welcomed a new foreign teacher to our school today. His name is Ryan and he is from California. The Americans now rule the foreign teacher ranks at our school. I only talked to him for a few minutes but he seems really nice.

I taught two small star classes tonight. The violent one didn't hit anyone. He was still annoying, but I can put up with that.

Cindy and I went out and had some fruit tea at the restaurant across the street from our school. There were a lot of couples out celebrating Chinese Valentine's Day. It was nice to see.

Happy Graduation Day, Alex! (A little late...)

First, a big hello to my brother, Alex! Happy Graduation Weekend! I'm sad I missed your big day, but I know the "big days" in your life are just beginning.

I've been not writing the blog because my ex-VPN stopped working and I couldn't access the site. Now, I've dumped that one and am hopefully this one will work even better.

We've been having some pretty great weather the last few days. Still very warm, but not as humid. We've had very low attendance at school over this past weekend, which made me happy because it told me families were out enjoying the weather, even though it messed up some of my lesson plans.

We've had a busy weekend at work. Our boss has added a lot of things back into our system that the previous boss had let go of. Some of the additions are actually pretty great. Yesterday, I had a class meeting with one of my new classes and parents about what my expectations are for them, and what they can expect from me, to welcome the students into a new "grade" level. At EF, a student is promoted to a new "grade" level after about 40 weeks. It felt nice to have a fresh start with both the parents and the students. I also had two "open door" classes were the parents come and watch the class during the second hour and administered three sets of tests. It was a busy weekend. I also woke up with a cold on Friday, which is nothing like the one I had in June, but still not fun. Almost everyone at work has had a cold in the last few weeks. I'm blaming it on the small stars sneezing on me!

I also want to thank my Dad and Joanna for the gift package. I felt like a kid at camp getting a package. Camp China!

Today was a day in mourning for China. China was officially celebrating a day of grieving for the lives of over 1,200 people who died in the mudslides in northwest China a week ago. At ten o'clock this morning the country was asked to take ten minutes of silence to acknowledge the lives of the people lost. I was teaching preschoolers about the letter "N" at that moment, but I was able to talk a little bit about it with the students in one of my advanced classes today. It was awesome hearing five young women speak so compassionately about the people their country had lost.

Captain's Log: 14 Weeks...

My "Weekend"

My "weekend" revolved around a lot of good food!

I went out to a hot pot restaurant with Laura restaurant last night for dinner. It was so good. At this particular restaurant you pick out the type of "pot" you want, usually between something spicy and mild. They bring the pots to your table where there is a little stove on the table for each person and a temperature controller that I had off and couldn't figure out why my pot wasn't boiling through most of the meal. Next, they bring out all the vegetables, noodles and vegetables that you order and you dip them into the hot pot and eat them. It was so good!

Today, I did basic errands and picked up some delicious sushi from the little mall near our school for lunch. I also got to talk to Angela and her family on Skype which was fun. Tonight, I picked up a pizza at the Papa John's restaurant back at the mall to bring over to Claire's. I think it is pretty funny that they have a Papa John's pizza here. There's a lot of different kinds of pizza toppings here though. I got just a basic veggie pizza and it turned out to be quite good. Claire, Marie and I watched the movie "The Hangover" which I hadn't seen before. It was hysterical. I've realized I've missed watching TV and movies with other people. It's much more fun when you can laugh with other people!

Monday, Monday

Nothing too exciting to report about today. I taught my summer academy course this afternoon. The rough element about teaching these classes is that we almost have brand new students every week. It's tough to set expectations and classroom policies with such rolling attendance. It was nice that a few students stuck around for another week. Today, we studied the weather, especially learning simple past tense to express what the weather was like yesterday. They were really sharp. For our last hour of class we learned a little about Brazil. I went through a power point that Nick's girlfriend had made up and the students loved the pictures, but went crazy when they saw pictures of Brazilians with black skin. I asked, like I always do after an hour of learning about a new country if they would like to visit. A few of the students said they would never go to a place where black people were. I was a little shocked and just told them that I thought all skin colors are beautiful. They were a little shocked about my statement.

This evening, I had two small star classes with a brand new TA on her first day of the job. She was so nervous. All of us teachers carry around plastic picnic-ish baskets with all of our supplies. The TA's usually help us get supplies together for our preschool classes (I know, I'm spoiled right now!) and my TA dumped all of my supplies into another teacher's basket and filled mine up with the flashcards and puppets I needed for this evening's classes. Luckily, I realized what had happened before Claire had to go teach and I was able to retrieve my supplies and lesson plans before class started. The violent one's mother told me before class that her son's voice is sore, so please do not expect too much from him. However, the violent one's vocal chords were just fine as he started screaming at one of the relatively new girls to give over her shell necklace to him! It was that kind of evening. Lots of Roddy stickers were withheld this evening!

After work, I went to the gym. I know that the gym closes at 1o and was just starting to cool down around 9:45 when the lights started flickering on and off. I guess it was time to go! It's a lot different then 24 Hour Fitness, but more charming! I came out of the gym and saw a bunch of old men playing cards and eating plates of meat outside of a restaurant. Moments like that are pretty awesome.

No Kids Day

Today, I didn't have to be at work until 12. I caught up with my sister a bit about her camp life and was off to work. We had about an hour to plan and then had a group meeting. We all miss Amy a lot. I had a little meeting with Laura and Claire, a local teacher about the orange class that Claire and I share that Laura observed this week. Laura just guided us through how vastly different our teaching styles are, but told us that neither style is wrong, just different. She gave us a few suggestions and left us alone to talk about how we can provide the class with a bit more consistency. Claire and I had a great talk about how we can incorporate each other's styles a bit more and to make more of a structure for the students in our class. It was a lot of give and take on both of our parts, but I think we've come to some good solutions. The students are going to be a bit freaked out by the change, but I think it will help in the long run. It's interesting because Claire and I share another preschool class that is absolutely lovely. Each class is so unique.

I went out to dinner with Marie and Claire, the senior teacher, at a Korean restaurant not too far away from the school. We had a big plate of raw vegetables with a yummy peanut sauce on top, Korean bread sticks with tomato sauce on top, Marie and Claire had some meat dishes and I had some noodles and veggies. Claire told us some awesome stories about when she worked for a governmental minister in the U.K. and her travels around South America. I still think it's pretty awesome that I get to spend time with people from different countries and with vastly different backgrounds. It's making me realize how little I do know about the world. I'm a little in awe of some of my peers' life and travel experiences... almost like when I spent a few summers on the East Coast and was a bit star struck by some of my peers' life experiences too, but I feel like this time I respect where I have come from to get to the place I am in now. No, I haven't traveled much, but I come from a loving and quirky group of family and friends that have added a lot of color to my life, and have had a lot of interesting experiences and adventures that have shaped me. I have stories and ideas to bring to the table, and the younger me wouldn't have thought that.

Thanks for reading through my "Doogie Howser" -esque diary entry at the end!

Boom! Three Months Down....

I have made it three months here in Beijing. I keep thinking back to my first scary week in the hotel, not knowing where I was, thinking I could never figure out how to get around, and worrying about how to get food. Worried that I had made a huge mistake. I'm happy to be far from that place now. It still can be a bit overwhelming at times, but I'm doing o.k. I'm making some new friends who have helped me tremendously and am learning how to be a ELL teacher. I am learning new things every day and that is a gift.

Today was a busy teaching day. I had my fun group of four-year-olds this morning who were delightful. They are starting to sight read some basic words. It has been fun watching them advance over the last few months.

I had my first new preschool class that I am taking over for Amy. It is an orange level small stars group and they are busy! Poor kids were a bit freaked out to see me instead of Amy this morning. We got through it alright. A bit bumpy, but we are getting to know one another.

I had my other early elementary class this afternoon. It was the last class for their unit and they had a big test. We reviewed for the first hour and most of the second hour was test filled up by test taking.

I taught my first class of another class that I am taking over of Amy's. It has an age range from 11 to 16! They looked at me kind of crazy for the first hour, but I think we'll be o.k., too. I can already tell it is an interesting group of vastly different personalities and maturity levels! One of the eleven-year-olds was trying to tell me a story he made up about a person who could never stop puking and one of the sixteen-year-olds is drawing a beautiful masterpiece quietly away from the group. I think this class will be a fun challenge.

I had a funny encounter with one of the clerks at the gym this evening. I had paid for another month last week and have not been issued a new card. I've just been showing them my old card from last month and they let me go on my way. This time, the clerk kept on talking to me and I was just like "Sorry, no Chinese, no Chinese." Then, she gets on the loudspeaker. I feel people have been asking a lot of questions about me being here on the loudspeaker. Eventually, someone came out of an office with a key to get into the card membership drawer.

Uncle Ladd's Corner: What's the water bill like?

Hi Uncle Ladd. I got my first water bill under my door last week... the same day I ran out of electricity! For my first three months here I have used 28 RMB worth of hot water. I had to pay it, like almost everything else, at the bank. There was lots of stamping and checking of my passport and such. It's very thorough here!

An angry bank crowd

I spent my morning at the bank today trying to wire money. I waited for about an hour and a half in the lobby with lots of other people. The most exciting part of the wait was one dude came up to the teller when his number was called and said, what I guessed, was hold on a minute, while he ran back outside for something. The anxious crowd got pissed and there was yelling. It was great! I got a little show.

The teller that I finally spoke to was a wiring champion! When I went with Laura, the teller was really nervous and it took forever. This teller went as fast as she could, the process is a bit tedious with lots of photocopying and stamping and figuring out the interest rate and entering in my passport number quite a few times! It ended up being a successful trip, at the end! I felt a bit victorious after that.

I went into work and learned that Amy got a flight for this evening. Her being gone has left a big hole in the staff room. Plus, a few of us are taking on her classes, and that is a bit stressful. I'm taking on four of her classes! It feels like a lot now, but I think that will subside in a few weeks when the summer course has finished.

I just taught one elementary level class this evening. I taught them how to make introductions. It was pretty fun.

My friends Kim and Brian are getting married today! I'm sending them lots of love from Beijing to Sandy, Oregon today.

My first EF Observation

Today was an odd and sad day at work.

I started my day by reading the news and learning there has been another round of killings in a preschool close to Beijing. I'm not sure why these sick people are going to all of these preschools. Luckily, the man who has confessed to the accusations has been taken into custody.

I went in to work to teach my summer course small star drama course this morning. The students in that class are great, but today's video was much harder to recreate. It involved the students jumping to get fruit (of the names they just learned- we don't get too many plums in Beijing) off of imaginary trees.

I had a little break between that class and my OPT shift. I went to the grocery store and bought myself a new frying pan because the one that I had inherited from the last owner of the apartment was getting pretty bad to use.

I came back into work saying that one of our teachers, Amy, has to go back home suddenly and that I would be taking over some her classes earlier then expected. Amy came into work before her preschool classes this evening. Her cousin that she had grown up with passed away early in the morning from cancer. She had been given reports from home that he had been getting better, so it was really sudden and unexpected. She was exhausted from scrambling around to arrange a flight home on such sudden notice. Her new school had started to apply for her second year resident's visa so she had to run around the city collecting her passport and other important documents. I feel so awful for her. She was leaving EF to teach at an International school in Beijing starting in two weeks. Luckily, her new school has told her to take off as much time as she needs to be with her family and EF is letting her break her contract earlier. She's such a wonderful person and has really helped me. I'm sad to see her leave early in such a heartbreaking way.

Laura came in to observe one of my small star classes this evening. Parents had been complaining that the class was too slow for the students. This class is not my most fun preschool class. There is one boy in the class (the only boy which may be a reason for some of his behavior) that is kind of crazy. He would usually just cry through the entire class, but not he has started to be disruptive. He's been enjoying trying to rip out the carpet instead of learning the names to the parts of the body. I know that it is best for a child to start learning a foreign language early, but I think there is a large population of our preschool students who are just not ready. It's a very American statement on my part, but I think, in general, these little ones are just like all little ones around the globe. Sometimes they just need a little bit more time before they are ready for a classroom. I'm interested, and a bit nervous, to have my talk with Laura tomorrow. No one has observed me yet, so who knows how I'm doing!

Whoops! There goes the lights again...

Yesterday was my first small stars summer morning class that I have had to teach. Four of the students in the class are actually in my other classes, so I didn't have to work too hard on developing a rapport or setting expectations with the students. The preschool summer course is designed to incorporate drama activities into an expanded "normal" preschool class. At the end of the class period, the students watch a video about Roddy and his friends and then they have to mime the video with the help of the TA and myself. The students enjoyed picking out which characters they wanted to be, but weren't too interested into performing in front of the camera! They were more intrigued with the fake fishing pools they were given as props. I couldn't really blame them.

I taught my elementary class in the afternoon. I didn't get locked out of the class, so it was a successful class day!

My power went out in my apartment around 10:30 last night. Luckily, I didn't have anything perishable in the fridge. It was rather warm night in my apartment though.

I went to add more money to my electricity card at the bank when it opened this morning. At least this time I knew what to do! It's good to have electricity again, especially the air conditioner.

I spent a lot of my day on Skype and watching "The Bachelorette." I went to a mall to see the movie "Toy Story Three" in 3D and in English with Chinese subtitles. The movie theater was really nice. Much nicer then the theaters I usually go to at home. The theater was super clean and at the ticket counter, you actually pick out your seat number. I ended up being right in the middle of the third row. There were a couple of families way up top behind me. The movie was adorable and it was a fun treat. It took myself out to a nice dinner of a delicious salad at the same restaurant I went to about a month or so ago. I then went on the great search for shampoo and conditioner at the posh grocery store in the basement of the mall. It was really hard to find a set with the English words "shampoo" and "conditioner" that weren't really, really expensive. We'll see how it goes.

First Day of Summer Course Part II

Today was the start of the second term of summer school at work today. Everybody was all panic-y and running around. Gotta love it.

I am now co-teaching a mid elementary class in the afternoons. Today, there was only six students, but it might continue to grow. They are a fun group of students and are eager to share their ideas and answers much more quickly and earnestly compared to the young teenagers, so that was quite refreshing. They also thought it was hysterical to lock me out of the classroom after I fetched them back from the break. I put on my sternest look and made up this huge story of what would happen if you lock me out and someone gets really hurt. They were very cooperative after that talk! I talked to the teacher who had them over the first half of the summer and he told me that they had locked him out every day! There might be some more talks.

I taught my two green small star preschool classes this evening. The violent one's mom kept peeking into the classroom and opening up the door to tell her son things. It was annoying and, of course, all the other kids would stop paying attention to our activity and listen to his mom, too. It was a bit rough. I'm always happy when Monday evenings are over with.

I'm teaching a small stars summer drama course in the morning. I'm sure it will be interesting!

Grossest Bathroom of all time! (So far...)

Last night after work most of the teachers went out to celebrate the close of the first half of our summer term. Claire told us about a great restaurant area called the Muslim Quarter because it has a large Muslim population and Muslim shops and restaurants.

We took a quick subway ride to the area and walked around for a bit trying to find it. It was one of the least developed areas of Beijing that I have seen so far. As with all parts of Beijing, there is a lot of construction, but a lot of it was pretty run down. There wasn't any true sidewalks and the streets were either in need of great repair or just dirt roads. However, the mood outside was festival and there were a lot of people out enjoying our much cooler weather.

We ordered a lot of food to share and it was all incredible. Lots of vegetables and varying types of tofu. We had some Japanese tofu which is fried on the outside and all gooey in the middle covered in a tomato sauce. We also ordered a dish of tomatoes and it arrived with tons of sugar on top. It was actually really good. We had fresh Naan bread that was delicious. We also had cheap beer.

After dinner, people started making trips to the bathroom. I went on one of these expeditions with Claire and Laura. One of the men at the restaurant led us by flashlight down a few streets. The bathroom had no lighting and it was just holes in the floor to squat over. That part wasn't so bad, but the worst part was the smell. The ammonia was pungent to say the least. We laughed so hard on our walk back. Claire and Laura officially declared me a true Beijing resident! We came back and met up the others from their own bathroom experiences. There was many rounds of beer and toasts celebrating victories great and small from the past four weeks (and that evening!). I felt that the ammonia was stuck in my throat for awhile and so did everyone else. It was a pretty awesome night. Three months ago I didn't know these people and now here I am! I also came early this morning to read that one of my good friend's from college is engaged! I have a fantastic excuse to visit Hawaii in the future!

Luckily, today was a non student day at work today and we didn't have to be work until twelve. I talked to my Mom and Patrick in the morning after sleeping in. We were all a bit nursing varying degrees of hangovers at work so it wasn't the most productive day at work, but I think we have bonded a bit more!

Tonight, I went to my favorite farmer's market after the gym to pick up vegetables and fruit. I'm starting to make friends there. It's fun to practice my numbers with one of the owners that gets a kick out of my butchered pronunciation of everything!

Happy August!

Captain's Log! 12 Weeks Down