~One of this awesome week's highlights? An orange-picking field trip with my precious and crazy little kindergarteners...enjoy the pics~
Monday, October 31st—This morning, I gathered the nerve to ask a potentially touchy, but definitely important question: when, oh when, will my school PAY me? With the typical language barrier and confusion, I eventually found out that I will get paid...in two weeks :( Lame, since I've already been here for a month, brought along some money, gotten one loan from a friend, and would now have to get another. Ah well, I certainly didn't come here to earn money ;) I left school early today to go apply for my longer-term visa. Kevin, my recruiter, was as vague with details as ever, but eventually he got me in touch with Liz, his assistant, or something...she texted me the address of the police station, I showed it to a taxi driver, and met her there. Typical waiting in lines...making small talk with my guide...filling out paperwork...feeling slightly nervous as I answered questions. But! The most exciting part of the day was when I police officer (who was quite intimidating, initially) saw my paperwork and asked "Did you work at Wuhan Foreign Language School last year." Yes, I taught grade 7. "Do you remember class 8?" Yes... "My daughter was in that class...her English name is Sophia!" Whoa!!! After talking excitedly, I told her I did indeed remember her sweet daughter (once we distinguished between "Sophia Han" and "Sophia Pan" in that class, hehe), and I told her to say hello to her. What a cool surprise :) After taking the city bus home, and nearly getting squished by the closing doors as I rushed through the sardine-packed crowd on my way out of the bus, I met Andrea at a sit-down restaurant near our place. Eventually Peter and Darrin joined, but by then I was off to our study. We watched the "Luther movie" tonight...unfortunately the already-low turnout got even smaller...by the end of the movie, all had left besides Americans :/ You'll have that sometimes. Especially when the subject might be new and unfamiliar. My hilarious friend in Beijing, Mike, called to say hey, and then it was bedtime. Mondays are always an exhausting day!!!
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| Sadly, this school never really told me the English names of my students...but I've learned that the cutie on the left is "Alice." And I don't know the cutie on the right...but she plays "Snow White" in a school skit, so that's what I call her :) |
Tuesday, November 1st—Today was nice and warm...about 75 degrees. In November...thank you, China :) This afternoon in lieu of my classes, a pair of representatives from Papa John's visited, and gave a presentation to the little nippers. What was their presentation? Perhaps some kind of pizza giveaway or games or, you know...any kind of discussion about PIZZA? Nope. Dancing. The kids already do big group dances like ten times a day, but whatever ;) I was forced to walk out with the other teachers and demonstrate dance moves I didn't know, but it was fun hearing screams of excitement when I appeared. Yesterday on the phone, Kevin told me that Wednesday would be a special day at my school...a "trouble day." Huh? Then it sounded like he said "travel day" when I asked him to clarify. Of course he gave no insight whatsoever about what the day would actually involve, so I was left to wonder...until the afternoon, when Sinnina informed me it would be an orange-picking field trip. Sounds like some "travel" and some "trouble," potentially. Haha.The Papa John's presentation DID lead to my texting Andrea and Shirly and us deciding to go there with Aaron for dinner, so I guess it was effective. After a scrumptious Western meal, we naturally got dessert from McDonald's, and then headed to Aaron's apartment, where the five "Hankou" people (Aaron, Andrea, Brian, Kelsey and myself) played a game and had some bonding time.
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| Sweet little boy from my "Cherry" class. He's grown tons in just a month, from crying every morning on his walk into school, to smiling and waving every time he sees me :) His mom also speaks English pretty well. |
Wednesday, November 2nd—I showed up at school at the normal time today, as instructed, and then waited around for over an hour before we embarked on our field trip. I DID get the great honor of helping Sinnina tape numbers onto each of the five buses that we took to the orange orchard, so that was something special ;) The trip, in a nutshell was fun, a bit awkward, occasionally boring, and cute! Fun: taking lots of pictures, playing with students, having them give me oranges, trying to convince a cute girl who kept trying to talk to me that I can't speak Chinese, and bonding with teachers. Also, discovering that a few parents who came along could speak English well! An interesting fact: apparently for kindergarten field trips, at least this one, each student must have his/her own chaperone! A bit awkward: a sweet teacher clinging to me for most of the time, requesting tons of pictures, and always assuming I can understand more Chinese than I actually can :p Occasionally boring: standing around towards the end of the day; children were having picnics with their families, teachers were milling about and socializing...I was standing around...waiting to get back on the bus. Cute: watching students take naps on the bus, playing hide and seek with them, and just enjoying the innocence of the day. I got off our field trip bus before we got back to school, cutting some time off of my commute back, and took Andrea up on her offer of HAMBURGER HELPER for dinner. Yum!!!! Aaron, Andrea and I had a serious talk over makeshift margaritas they'd purchased ^_^
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| There were lots of tasty oranges! Had I known there'd be such a bounty (and that lots of kiddies would come delivering them to me), I would've brought along an additional bag to my purse). |
Thursday, November 3rd—Today after school I RAN to catch the bus as I saw it off in the distance. Nothing out of the ordinary (along with the driver's laughing and my embarrassed yet proud panting), but I think I had a little extra spring in my step, because I knew...I was FINALLY going to visit my old students today. After weeks of planning and having to re-schedule, my amazing students asking when I'd visit, etc., it finally worked out...I was quite ecstatic. I met up with Andrea, and she and I had a nice music/ dance party on the bus ride...just like the good old days (last year, haha). As we got off the bus and walked towards our old school, I couldn't decide if I was more excited or nervous to see all the kids from my first year here...would they still wanna hang out and talk, and be as stoked as I was? The first student I saw was "Tony," a smart and cute kid who always set himself apart by the awesome crocodile pencil bag he used in class. His "Miss Cox?" was filled with confusion and happiness, and we talked for a minute. He, along with all the boys from last year, has matured sooo much. Much more like a young man than the little punk I taught last year ;) We found out our students had a BIG test (on the day we came to visit...of course), but I was still able to get excited "hellos" from a few students as we made our way to watch our friend Sophia teach a class.
After that, and running into a couple old teacher friends from last year, Sophia escorted us to visit Class 2, one of my favorite groups I taught back then. With butterflies in my stomach, I felt instantly relieved as Lucky, Tliski, and Mike, three awesome students from last year all ran up to me excitedly. We talked, we laughed, and before I knew it, Lucky had run into their big classroom and told all 50 of the students "Miss Cox lai le" (Miss Cox has come). I got lots of hugs from the girls and lots of "cool guy" greetings from the boys. Miss S. and I joined the class in their room and talked to a bunch of them for around 15 minutes...it was just, great. My favorite quote of the day is from Tliski: "Miss Cox, when we were taking our exam, one student saw you outside and we all felt very excited. So we all told our teacher that we had to go to the bathroom, so we could come and see you. But the teacher said we had to wait until the exam was finished!" They shared other pieces of interest like, "you're better than this year's teachers" :D and "we are too busy this year to play basketball" :( and we had to let them go back to class. Andrea wanted to say hey to her students too, so we walked by and waved into their classrooms, and then did the same on my floor. I got to wave into five different rooms full of 50 past students, and was humbled as I was greeted by applause, squeals, smiles, waving, and cheering. What a blessing...they mean sooo much to me, and somehow, I mean something to them too :) I gave a couple awkward yet excited impromptu speeches to some of the classes, ending with Class 3, another absolute favorite class of mine. As I looked out at their beaming, sweet, enthusiastic faces, I had to say a quick goodbye and duck out...I couldn't help but cry, thinking of how much I miss them, yet how much of an unexpected blessing from HIM it was to be part of their lives. And hopefully I'll have other chances to visit them this year :) And you know, hopefully I can convince a few to come live in America with me :D
After all the excitement, I went grocery shopping with Sophia, and then we headed to her new apartment. She, her boyfriend Jasper, and another friend (with the English name "Sheldon Cooper" of theirs made a delicious supper of eggplant & green beans, egg and tomato, tofu meatballs (sounds strange, but they are sooo good), soybeans, pepper and pork. Pretty common dishes here, and all scrumptious. We talked about the B*ble for a little bit, Sophia mentioned her desire to be b*ptized, and also that she's shared some info with Jasper. Amazing!!! I was definitely disheartened though, when she showed me a Chinese "summary of the B*ble" she'd gotten somewhere...it was full of underlinings and markings from her (great!), but it was from a cult. Yikes. Luckily, Andrea has a plan to get her some better materials, since she tells us the B*ble is pretty complicated to understand sometimes.The group walked me to the bus stop, I had a typical teasing and somewhat nonsensical conversation with my friend B. Rock on the phone, and admired some beautiful new clothes that Sophia had given me. What a day...one I'll never forget :)
After that, and running into a couple old teacher friends from last year, Sophia escorted us to visit Class 2, one of my favorite groups I taught back then. With butterflies in my stomach, I felt instantly relieved as Lucky, Tliski, and Mike, three awesome students from last year all ran up to me excitedly. We talked, we laughed, and before I knew it, Lucky had run into their big classroom and told all 50 of the students "Miss Cox lai le" (Miss Cox has come). I got lots of hugs from the girls and lots of "cool guy" greetings from the boys. Miss S. and I joined the class in their room and talked to a bunch of them for around 15 minutes...it was just, great. My favorite quote of the day is from Tliski: "Miss Cox, when we were taking our exam, one student saw you outside and we all felt very excited. So we all told our teacher that we had to go to the bathroom, so we could come and see you. But the teacher said we had to wait until the exam was finished!" They shared other pieces of interest like, "you're better than this year's teachers" :D and "we are too busy this year to play basketball" :( and we had to let them go back to class. Andrea wanted to say hey to her students too, so we walked by and waved into their classrooms, and then did the same on my floor. I got to wave into five different rooms full of 50 past students, and was humbled as I was greeted by applause, squeals, smiles, waving, and cheering. What a blessing...they mean sooo much to me, and somehow, I mean something to them too :) I gave a couple awkward yet excited impromptu speeches to some of the classes, ending with Class 3, another absolute favorite class of mine. As I looked out at their beaming, sweet, enthusiastic faces, I had to say a quick goodbye and duck out...I couldn't help but cry, thinking of how much I miss them, yet how much of an unexpected blessing from HIM it was to be part of their lives. And hopefully I'll have other chances to visit them this year :) And you know, hopefully I can convince a few to come live in America with me :D
After all the excitement, I went grocery shopping with Sophia, and then we headed to her new apartment. She, her boyfriend Jasper, and another friend (with the English name "Sheldon Cooper" of theirs made a delicious supper of eggplant & green beans, egg and tomato, tofu meatballs (sounds strange, but they are sooo good), soybeans, pepper and pork. Pretty common dishes here, and all scrumptious. We talked about the B*ble for a little bit, Sophia mentioned her desire to be b*ptized, and also that she's shared some info with Jasper. Amazing!!! I was definitely disheartened though, when she showed me a Chinese "summary of the B*ble" she'd gotten somewhere...it was full of underlinings and markings from her (great!), but it was from a cult. Yikes. Luckily, Andrea has a plan to get her some better materials, since she tells us the B*ble is pretty complicated to understand sometimes.The group walked me to the bus stop, I had a typical teasing and somewhat nonsensical conversation with my friend B. Rock on the phone, and admired some beautiful new clothes that Sophia had given me. What a day...one I'll never forget :)
Friday, November 4th—Even though my silly school requires me to be at school from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays...I did win a small victory today...it's now 8:00 a.m. Whoo-hoo! After enjoying my extra 2 minutes of sleep, I taught an uneventful morning of classes, and came home to find that we FINALLY have internet in our apartment, thanks to Kelsey. Hopefully I'll have money soon, so I can pay her back! After an afternoon of hanging out and savoring the weekend, I hung out a little with Kelsey and Sarah (her good friend, who lives across the city), and walked to meet Andrea and Aaron. We grabbed Subway and met our friend Laetitia, who had scored some cheap movie tickets. Watching Planet of the Apes, while eating Subway, in a brand-new theatre two minutes from my friend's house, for the equivalent of $2? A good Friday night activity :D Back at my apartment, Andrea and I watched part of Mrs. Doubtfire together. The viewing was accompanied by profuse quoting and laughter...she and I both showed the film to our classes in the past, so we've seen it MANY times. Kelsey and Sarah came over a bit later, and we enjoyed some snacks, wine, and another movie! Gotta love the weekend :)
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| Taking one of many MANY posed shots with this sweet teacher's assistant. I love her oodles, but the language gap keeps us from communicating to any great extent. She keeps trying though, so I keep trying to listen and willing myself to understand more Chinese. Perhaps I should actually study ;) |
Sunday, November 6th—Absolutely exhausted, we dragged ourselves out of bed for ch*rch. We typically have English service, English B*ble study and any FoC discussions that need to happen, and then Chinese service. It's pretty cool to stay for Chinese w*rship, to meet new and old friends, strong Chr*stians and those who are just interested, and to even understand a bit of the B*ble readings and s*rmon in English! For lunch, Andrea, Jonathan, Tony (a Chinese friend with nearly flawless English, who's a strong Chr*stian), and I had yummy fried noodles. Andrea and I then headed back to do some baby-sitting/kids' B*ble study, for Bruce and Emily, two kids who lived in the U.S. for a year and can understand English perfectly. It ended up being a STRESSFUL afternoon though...a sweet new boy joined in this week, and he was smart, but understandably doesn't know English...it led to frustration all around, and a bit of naughtiness from the kiddies. Afterwards Andrea and I did a bit of shopping, and got cheap coffee from Starbucks (yay)! Kelsey and I made American-style breakfast for dinner, and planned the following day's B*ble study together.
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