My friends, it feels like its been so long, only a week since the last time I have written but so much to say and no way to write it all. I could write pages just on today, and I didn't even teach school today.
First off, I need to post my address for those of you I forgot to give it to, sorry. Getting stuff from America is the coolest! The cheapest postage gets here in about a month, the most expensive about a week. Thanks to my brother Joel who sent my basketball shoes, my "nagani" (foreigner) feet are too big for Wenling.
Wenling High School,
No. 1 Wanquan East Road
Wenling, Zhejiang Province, China
I must proceed with some stories! Oh but first, I guess second… a weather update. There was no Typhoon, no rain, no wind, only clear skies, well whatever you call our "smoggy-like-thin-overcast-always-in-between-sunny-and-cloudy" sky. Sorry to cause you all to worry so much, I know you all were. No news from our local weather man on when the next typhoon threat is. But Rodrigo, our new Brazilian friend said we have to experience at least one. Who doesn't want to spend a little time with a typhoon?
Due to the reoccurring practice of my Senior 1 girls for some "dance routine type thing" the last hour of the day, I had to cancel two of my classes this week and… play basketball with the left over students. Hint: Chinese students already love the foreign teacher. Play basketball with them and they really love you. And then they try and hurt you playing basketball, not really, but seriously… Monday I got poked in the eye by a student, not just a brush of the eye with the finger, I mean let me see if I can feel if there's anything behind your eye. The most painful poke in the eye I've ever had. My contact came out and the students took me to the school male nurse, kind of like Ben Stiller from "Meet the Parents" but looked nothing like him, was very Chinese. Anyway, he looked at my eye said no problem, then got some medicine that was all in Chinese. Hint #2: Avoid medicine that is only written in Chinese. Hint # 3: Don't pay for any medicine only written in Chinese. So I said its all ok spit on my contact, hopped on my bus to go home and finally looked at my eye 30 minutes later when I finally had access to a mirror at home. It just felt like my eye was bruised for a few days, nothing bad. Then the next day I majorly jammed my finger, nice and black and blue, can't blame the kids for that one. But I can blame the kids for something else!
If you ever have gone to school, which should be everyone, you know how it is when you're about to go on vacation. If possible you want to get out a little early, and usually teachers let you, as long as you get your work done and behave. Well I walked into class yesterday, the last class of the day and one of the students had written on a piece of paper, "may let go us vacation early, 2:55 or 3:00" (which would have been five or ten minutes early). I should have said no right away because she was one of the smarter students in the class and she didn't have very good grammar and sentence structure. But I told them, if they were good and participated I might let them go early. And there was much rejoicing… yeeeaaahhh. So they did pretty well in class, talked a lot and seemed to be trying, minus the "class over" "go home" comments that popped up every few minutes. So we got through the lesson enough and I could tell they really wouldn't learn anything that I taught in the last 10 minutes of class, so I let them go. There was much rejoicing… yayyyyyy. All of a sudden, kids started coming back in. There was a teacher outside that told them to come back. Half of the kids got away before though. I soon found out I am not allowed to let the students go home early for vacation. I think the students very well knew this, and it won't be happening again.
Well I have much more to say, but its 1:40 am because I spent the last hour talking to my old classmates from the Seminary online, miss ya guys. I'm going to try and write another blog this weekend because, well, it's needed. I will leave you with a quick teaser or what is in store. Cookouts, lighting myself on fire, smoking basketball players, dashu rou, great Chinese score keeping, my first basketball game with my teacher team, and shake shake happy. You'll have to wait and read to find out what all this nonsense is about.
First off, I need to post my address for those of you I forgot to give it to, sorry. Getting stuff from America is the coolest! The cheapest postage gets here in about a month, the most expensive about a week. Thanks to my brother Joel who sent my basketball shoes, my "nagani" (foreigner) feet are too big for Wenling.
Wenling High School,
No. 1 Wanquan East Road
Wenling, Zhejiang Province, China
I must proceed with some stories! Oh but first, I guess second… a weather update. There was no Typhoon, no rain, no wind, only clear skies, well whatever you call our "smoggy-like-thin-overcast-always-in-between-sunny-and-cloudy" sky. Sorry to cause you all to worry so much, I know you all were. No news from our local weather man on when the next typhoon threat is. But Rodrigo, our new Brazilian friend said we have to experience at least one. Who doesn't want to spend a little time with a typhoon?
Due to the reoccurring practice of my Senior 1 girls for some "dance routine type thing" the last hour of the day, I had to cancel two of my classes this week and… play basketball with the left over students. Hint: Chinese students already love the foreign teacher. Play basketball with them and they really love you. And then they try and hurt you playing basketball, not really, but seriously… Monday I got poked in the eye by a student, not just a brush of the eye with the finger, I mean let me see if I can feel if there's anything behind your eye. The most painful poke in the eye I've ever had. My contact came out and the students took me to the school male nurse, kind of like Ben Stiller from "Meet the Parents" but looked nothing like him, was very Chinese. Anyway, he looked at my eye said no problem, then got some medicine that was all in Chinese. Hint #2: Avoid medicine that is only written in Chinese. Hint # 3: Don't pay for any medicine only written in Chinese. So I said its all ok spit on my contact, hopped on my bus to go home and finally looked at my eye 30 minutes later when I finally had access to a mirror at home. It just felt like my eye was bruised for a few days, nothing bad. Then the next day I majorly jammed my finger, nice and black and blue, can't blame the kids for that one. But I can blame the kids for something else!
If you ever have gone to school, which should be everyone, you know how it is when you're about to go on vacation. If possible you want to get out a little early, and usually teachers let you, as long as you get your work done and behave. Well I walked into class yesterday, the last class of the day and one of the students had written on a piece of paper, "may let go us vacation early, 2:55 or 3:00" (which would have been five or ten minutes early). I should have said no right away because she was one of the smarter students in the class and she didn't have very good grammar and sentence structure. But I told them, if they were good and participated I might let them go early. And there was much rejoicing… yeeeaaahhh. So they did pretty well in class, talked a lot and seemed to be trying, minus the "class over" "go home" comments that popped up every few minutes. So we got through the lesson enough and I could tell they really wouldn't learn anything that I taught in the last 10 minutes of class, so I let them go. There was much rejoicing… yayyyyyy. All of a sudden, kids started coming back in. There was a teacher outside that told them to come back. Half of the kids got away before though. I soon found out I am not allowed to let the students go home early for vacation. I think the students very well knew this, and it won't be happening again.
Well I have much more to say, but its 1:40 am because I spent the last hour talking to my old classmates from the Seminary online, miss ya guys. I'm going to try and write another blog this weekend because, well, it's needed. I will leave you with a quick teaser or what is in store. Cookouts, lighting myself on fire, smoking basketball players, dashu rou, great Chinese score keeping, my first basketball game with my teacher team, and shake shake happy. You'll have to wait and read to find out what all this nonsense is about.
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