Yet another fun adventure

Yesterday, Laura, another girl on my team, and I decided to go to the silk market to buy some gifts. The silk market is a giant shopping center with booth after booth of anything you can think of from paintings to jewelry. You have to bargain with the sellers to get a good price. The people there all want you to buy from them so they will grab you and yell at you. They always say,"girl, pretty necklace, come look girl". They know a decent amount of English, but only the words they need to know to sell their merchandise. It is a very crazy and busy place. There are lots of people and not a lot of room. We always have to convince them that we live in Beijing and they can't rip us off b/c we know how much the items really sell for.

Laura and I made it to the silk market we figured out how to use the subway. It took about an hour to get there by subway. Then we started to shopping and bargaining with people. We have never been before and no one else wanted to go with us because they wanted to go with old team members who have been before. Laura and I decided that we wanted to try and bargain for ourselves. So we started shopping and I actually was able to get good prices on some jewelry and some pictures. If someone would not give me a good deal I would leave and find someone else. So we felt very accomplished after getting there and buying items for a good deal.

We started home and we had to hurry because we had one hour to get home and it took 50 minutes by subway to get home. The subway pulls up and it is so packed with people that their faces were smeared against the glass. When the doors opened only one tiny person got off. Laura and I looked at each other and were unsure if we should try to fit. So we squeezed in, I barely fit when the door closed. I did not even have to hold on to anything because there were so many people I could not move. I could not even raise my hands to fix my hair. Thankfully we only had to go a few stops on that subway car. The next subway was not nearly as full. We made it back just in time for our meeting. It was a great outing, I like taking little adventures like that because it makes me feel like I have more independence.

I was meant to be in China!!

If you do not know, my favorite cereal is Trix. Growing up my mom would only buy it if it was on sale and we had a coupon. So I did not get to eat it very often. I always loved going to visit my nana because there was an endless supply of Trix awaiting my brother and I. Still to this day there is always a new box of Trix in the cereal cabinet when we arrive at my Nana's house.

I am happy to report that in China Trix is one of the cheap cereals. They sell cereal in the import section, but it is more expensive. You can buy Cheerios, Milk and Egg Stars, or Trix for a much cheaper price. And this is why I knew that I was meant to be in China this year, I can eat Trix whenever I want!

Blind running

This was amazing, these runners ran with a guide.

Medal Ceremony

Paraolympics

We were able to go to the para olympics and see track and field inside the birds nest it was awesome!

This is a picture of me attempting to make peach cobbler in my toaster oven. The first one was very bad, but by the third time it was great!

Peach cobbler

Teaching, WOW!

So I am finding out this week that teaching can be amazing and horrible all in the same day. I had a speech class today that went so well and I enjoyed the kids and I could tell that they enjoyed being there. Then the very next period I had a different level for speech class and they could not answer or would not answer one question even when I called on them. I told them that they have a quiz next class and they would not even take notes. I am finding that each class needs their own form of teaching and figuring out how to adapt my teaching to each class. The worst part is that I get frustrated with my kids but I am trying to learn to love them and let that over power my frustrations with them. It is hard to recognize how much they do not understand and how much they are not interested! So the adventure continues as I try out lessons and redo lessons. There are so many ups and downs in teaching, but you live for the high moments when you can see your students enjoying learning the content and that is enough to push through until it happens again.

Today was so beautiful outside and I was able to play tennis for the first time. It was teachers day and we had the afternoon off and I received a lot of funny cards and some flowers. One class told me that I was dead fantastic and they hoped we could be friends forever and ever more.

MOONCAKES :(

Tomorrow is teacher's day and it is tradition to give teachers gifts. I received some flowers today from different classes, which was great! It is also coming up on the the festival for mooncakes. So a student brought me and David (another teacher) a bag of mooncakes. We have heard that they have an interesting flavor and usually only the fruit ones are good but we decided to go through the bag of 13 mooncakes and taste each one of them. The outside looks good like a breaded dessert, and there is filling on the inside. They look great, however they are very dense and have an interesting smell. It was soo nice of our student to spend all that money on buying us mooncakes so we made it through ten of them taking a bite out of each one, but we came to the 11th one and it was asparagus and it was so bad that I could not even swallow. After eating 12 mooncakes I feel like getting sick!! It was funny at the time, trying them all, but now we are all laying around in agony of the dense dough sitting in our stomachs. Although, it is funny none the less, I drank three glasses of milk to get them down and I do not even like milk.

I think I need to buy a raincoat

Today was an interesting day, it was filled with so many emotions I lost track of how I really felt. The day started out great because I had two senior speeches classes and they went so well. We had fun doing activities and I felt like they really understood my lesson, but we will see on their quiz tomorrow. Then in the afternoon I had a junior class, and I went into it not feeling ready because the activities were not very exciting and hard to understand. I have the juniors whose English is not very good so it is very challenging. There are three kids in my class who can speak really well but the rest I never know if they understand or not. Today they would not stop talking no matter how many threats I gave and they would not even repeat after me all the time in the exercises. They would lay their heads on the desk and not pay attention to me, even after I would tell them to stop. So I left feeling very discouraged.
After class I was supposed to go pick up the tickets we bought for the Olympics because they were under my name, and I decided to go by myself. Joel told me what street the bank was on but he did not know where it was. So I took off and it was raining (today was the only day I could b/c they need my passport to get forms later in the week), but I was able to find a bank of China only when I got there in broken English they told me they do not have the tickets but go east. I was trying to talk on my cell phone while riding my bike and I went to cross the street but I couldn’t break one handed and I fell off, but I did not get hurt. So I went east and found another bank but they also said no, so I went searching for another bank. I found another Bank of China with a huge line so I knew this had to be it. I went inside and tried to convince them to let me get my tickets but they made me wait in line. I waited in line for an hour and a half in the rain. However, I was victorious and I came away with all ten of the tickets. It was raining and I still do not have a book bag so I had to tuck the tickets and my passport in my shirt for the bike ride home. I was soo excited to have accomplished getting tickets all by myself I even bought food on the way home which was great. Sometime going off for a while feels great because we are with people all the time and it feels good to get a break.
For dinner we went to subway for 2 for 1 Tuesdays, and we went on the busiest street at rush hour, I almost died. We made it soaking wet, and on the way home it was dark and it poured rain, and my bell does not work in the rain. It was a very busy day and full of adventure. I spent part of the day frustrated some of the day excited and some of the day stressed. So much going on in one day, but all in all it was great and I learned a lot.

To end the day, since a lot of us had rough days, Andrew learned to play the song I had a bad day and Cherie Andrew and I went around singing it to the other rooms to cheer them up and it was fun it cheered me up as well. And we made a hilarious video of us singing it.

OLYMPICS

I have officially started my second week, and to start off they cancelled three of my classes. What a great Monday! Tonight we were able to buy tickets to the paraolympics. On Sunday we get to go to the Bird's Nest and watch track and field events all morning. I am really excited. We had hoped to go to the opening ceremonies but it did not work out, we are glad that we still get to go to the birds nest!

This is a bunch of us that caught in the middle of the road between rushing cars on an eight lane highway! It was a bit scary b/c buses were going really fast right next to us like we were not there.

This is me the morning of my first class. I am a real teacher!!!

This is outside the building we live in watching the opening ceremonies for our school. Early in this ceremony we had to go on stage and receive flowers.

This is Jacinda and I walking to dinner enjoying the bright sunny day and the clear blue skies. We have had a lot of them but we have heard they won't last long!

More of my room.

This is my room, I have a king size bed, but it is as hard as a rock.

This is the view from my window, I live on the 8th floor so I can see very far when it is not hazy outside. The first two weeks we have been here we have been soo blessed because there have been many days of blue skies.

I am very nervous to talk

I have successfully completed two days of teaching, and it was such a rush! The first day I was really nervous and we had to attend a ceremony where they presented the foreign teachers with flowers in front of the school. That happened at 8:00am and we did not have to teach until 10:30 so I had to sit and wait for my classes which made me more nervous.

My first class was Junior 2 (8th grade) and I went through my material to fast and I had ten minutes left. I decided to have my kids ask me questions and it was more than I could handle. One kid asked me three consecutive questions if I had a boyfriend if I have had a boyfriend and was I interested in a Chinese man. My favorite story so far was a kid who meant to ask me why I was wearing a pink shirt but instead asked me why I was wearing a pink bra. Also, because my shirt was so bright kids come to the foreign teacher office asking for the pink shirt lady.

My classes are going well and I really enjoy teaching speech class. The only down side is that the students do not know what class they are taking when they first come, so when they see speech class on the board they all moan and groan and tell me over and over they "I am very nervous to talk" and they beg me to not make them give speeches.

I have had a lot of kids get up to tell me an interesting fact and talk about being fat. One kid told me he loves sports but cannot play because people think he is fat. This year is going to be great I have already spent time with some of my kids and I can't wait to get to know more. I teach six speech classes and four oral english classes. Later I will teach one elective speech class. I have found that teaching really makes your throat sore after talking for so long and I have acquired a "teacher" voice. This has been a great few days and I can't wait for more to come.