BIRTHDAY

For my birthday a bunch of us went to Pizza Hut b/c I had never been there, and it was soo amazing to eat real american pizza! And all the cheese tasted amazing! We do not really eat anything with cheese over here. We ordered garlic bread, which tasted good but was these mini pieces of bread that were like two bites worth.

After pizza hut we split up into groups and each person had to go somewhere different and get a dessert and bring it back to our apartments. All of the ice cream and cookies we mixed together in a bowl and it was delicious! All the gifts they gave me were in sets of 23 b/c I have 23 on the 23rd.

The next day on my real birthday they gave me 23 different cards, and some were even from my family!! It was a lot of fun!

Yesterday my roommate and I spent the night peeling, washing, cutting 45 potatoes for Thanksgiving today! More about Thanksgiving later!

My kids are out of control

This week was such a fun teaching week because everything was interactive. The first half of the week my kids got an object and had to come up with a new use for it and inform the class about (we are doing informative speeches). One group of guys had one of my head bands and made it an IQ drainer. They took a kid and he acted like his IQ was being drained and he fell to the floor and could not speak then they put it on another kid and he started writing bit equations on the board b/c he became smart.

They had soo many funny ideas, it was a lot of fun to see my students be creative. Usually they do not use their creativity as much and it is exciting to see it. I am teaching them to make their speeches different and more exciting. To step out of the box and do not just get up front and start their speech with,"I am going to talk about". I am teaching them to use stories and examples and props. So we will see how this goes.

The second half of the week they had a "how-to" activity. I gave each group a task and they had to write down the steps to show me how to complete their task. I followed it word for word. One group had to tell me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (they have never heard of that before), they do not make sandwiches in china (usually). So they would use three and four pieces of bread to make it, and they would forget to tell me to use a knife so I would have to dip the peanut butter with my finger and they were grossed out.

Another group taught me to tie my shoe and one class was trying to be funny and they had me tie my two shoes together, and I taught the rest of class with my shoes tied together.

It was a fun week of teaching and my students really came alive using their creativity, so stay tuned to see if it actually shows up in their speeches!

BIRTHDAY WISHES!!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and cards! I am so blessed to have such amazing friends and family!!!

PICTURES!!!! Try number two

So I think this is the real site for my pictures, try this one... http://picasaweb.google.com/oadolph

SUPER STAPLER!!

So today in class I gave my kids objects like staplers and calculators and pens. They had to come up with a new use for this object, instead of what it was actually used for. Then they had to give a small informative speech about it. One group of guys got a stapler. When they got up front they opened it up and put it on their forheads. They said when you use the stapler like that it turns you into action man! You have super human powers to provide justice to the world. Then they raised their arms and sang a chant they made up about action man (He brings justice, he brings peace, everyone wants to... and I can't remember the rest.) they explained by adding extra staples gives you more energy just like the spinach and popeye. It was soo funny. My kids are soo cute!

PICTURES!!!

Please look at my pictures I have taken in China! Especially from my Jinan trip! I will keep adding pictures as I have more adventures. I have decided to make this website b/c it is to filling to put lots of pictures on my blog! I hope you enjoy, I am so thankful for all of you who keep up with my blog and send me emails!

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

40 KUAI MITTENS!!!!!!!!!

I went to carefour tonight, our grocery store, and it was reallly cold on the way there so I thought I will buy a cheap pair of mittens in the store until I can find some I like. So I picked up some UGLY mittens under the sale sign. At check up they rang up at 40 kuai so I told the lady in Chinese I did not want them. She put them back in my bag. So I told the lady again, and again, and again. SIX times this lady put the mittens back in my bag, and at this point the line was grumbling at me, so I PAID FOR 40 KUAI mittens. I was quite angry as I was leaving, I could feel I was red and flushed from arguing with this lady. I think she was new and did not know how to take something off the receipt and there was a long line so did not to want to learn. So she thought she would take advantage of the foreigner.

Well I left mad and thinking about it, and father knew what I need b/c outside carefour there was this lady slowly peddling a huge load of stuff with a little girl next to her on the bike. Her gloves were tattered and torn and so I gave her the 40 kuai mittens b/c if I kept them I knew I would be upset everytime I wore them. So thankfully there is someone who can get better use than I would of out of my 40 kuai ugly mittens!

Jinan

Jacinda and I went to Jinan last weekend to visit the business people she helped tutor in the states a few years ago. I was just along for the ride. We had an incredible trip, although it started off a bit rough. We couldn't find the train station only to find out it was the HUGE building behind us that took up the whole block and all the people were walking towards. We managed to get on the right train, but it was a 7 hour train ride, and the train was so crowded people were standing everywhere. They were especially crowded around us b/c we were white. I have never been frustrated with people staring at me and I use to the Chinese taking my picture all the time, but this put me over the edge. They were staring at us for 7 hours and everytime we stood up they would take our picture over and over. We met these ladies on the train who were entertaining at first, but then were slightly hard to be around after so many hours. So we pretended to sleep for a few hours (although, I don't really have to pretend in moving vehicles). The train was hot, long, and my feet were jammed under my seat. So it was a rough beginning. jacinda and I were slightly concerned about what we were getting into.
We arrived and Robin, Jacinda's friend, picked us up in his own car and took us to our sweet four star hotel. Then we went to the the top floor to a rotating restaurant where we had a lavish meal with the rest of the group. All weekend they wined and dined us, literally. They made us drink this wine and white spirit stuff that was so strong it burned my throat on the way down.
The next day Robin planned the whole day out for us. In the morning we met some kids our age who took us on a tour of Jinan and to see the natural springs (Jinan is famous for the springs). Then Robin and Bert met up with us and showed us the most famous spring and took us to the yellow river. That evening we were wined and dined again. We ate so much food but by the end of Monday night we wanted some familiar food soo bad b/c everything we had eaten was completely new to us and we tried everything that was on the table. So at 11:00 at night Jacinda and with the help of a hotel receptionist helped us get a cab and have them take us to McDonalds for a hot fudge Sunday and french fries! It was the best hot fudge Sunday ever!! We enjoyed trying new food but it was soo good to taste something familiar.
We had such a great time, but it was exhausting b/c we had to use a lot of Chinese (and I don't really know Chinese) and really speak slow clear English. But we really had great opportunities to encourage these people and we learned a lot about Chinese Culture. In Jinan it is not a Western even though it is a big city (the capital of the Shandong province) and so things we get in Beijing are not as accessible and we only saw one other white person.
On the way home Robin bought us train tickets for the fast train, which looked like an airplane with lots of leg room and tray tables. There was no one standing in the aisles and no one staring at us b/c most of the passengers were business people who did not care about us. IT WAS GREAT. It also only took 3 hours to get back instead of 7, and my seat reclined to a comfortable sleeping position. We had such a fun time and the people treated us like royalty, I am pretty sure I will not experience another vacation like that one.

Foods we ate:
pigs feet, donkey, sea cucumber, swordfish, duck, duck egg, duck feet, pig kidney, many types of fish (my favorite was the yellow flower fish), many soups (my favorite was fish bone soup: meaning the bones of the soup soaked in water basically), shrimp still with the eye balls, other sea creatures in a weird soup, and a few other things I cannot remember.

You ate what??

Last Friday night, some friends and I went shopping and then to this famous street (you probably saw it on TV during the olympics), where you can eat scorpion, sea horse, bugs, and star fish. My friends and I have been talking about it b/c we have wanted to say that we ate scorpion, so we got there and saw the scorpions on a stick, STILL CRAWLING! We were positive there was no way we could eat live scorpions, but then we realized they fry them before you eat them. So we got scorpions and a sea horse. I tried the sea horse first and it tasted like the ocean died in my mouth, so I was not impressed. Then I tried the scorpion and surprisingly it tasted like Chicken.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN... a few weeks late!

It is tradition for the foreign teachers to throw a big halloween party for all kids at our school and the branch school. We did the same party three nights in a row; one for the juniors, one for the seniors, and one for the branch school. It was so much fun, each foreign teacher dressed up in a costume and created a game for kids to play. Then we bought 1000 kuai worth of candy, which is A LOT (it took Andrew, Caleb and my book bag to carry it back in plus my bike basket.)
The nights that we did the party it was very very cold, but totally worth it. We had so much fun hanging out with students and laughing and playing with them.
I dressed as a butterfly with huge wings and antennas made out of a headband, straws, and tiny balloons. My game was balloon races such as putting the balloon between your knees and hopping from one line to another. They also did balloon games with partners which was funny to watch, usually it ended with someone being dragged or people on the ground, but they loved it!

The night we did the party at the branch school, we had to bike there b/c it is too far to walk. The only way to get my butterfly wings there was to wear them, so I rode on my bike with balloons tied to my handle bars and my wings on. I think that I was the talk of the Haiden district. Everyone was laughing and smiling and pointing at me. I think I should do this on a regular basis just to make people laugh! We had a great time and hopefully were able to build more relationships with our students!