Saturday July 9, 2011

Yesterday at lunch we went to get a foot massage again. I also got a pedicure. Total cost 59 RMB or $6.00. It would have been at least $120 in the US.

Today was our last day of teaching our first group. It has gone by so fast. I taught lessons on food, emotions, colors, animals, and seasons. Today I finished up a lesson on foods and made the kids a typical American lunch of a peanut butter sandwich, chips, soda, an apple, and a candy bar. Then I gave them each a 1/4 of a sandwich. They loved it. My Chinese teacher said it did not look like a healthy lunch and I replied that now she knows why we have so many fat Americans and the Chinese are thin.

This afternoon during our last 2 classes we made dumplings with the kids. They had covered the desks with saran wrap, and divided the kids into groups. They had won ton wrappers and a pork mixture on the tables and we got to make all the dumplings. The lady that takes care of the kids after school was in the room and would cook them in boiling water. I admit I’m a germ freak, and to think about the kids making them with their dirty hands on dirty desks kinda got me wondering if I should eat them, but they were so excited about it that I went ahead and ate a bunch.

While they were eating the teacher and I talked. She is Amanda’s age, 28, and a darling girl. She lives at the school with a roommate, and eats at the school too. I really wish I had photos of my classroom to show her what it looked like. She was very interested in where I got my books and idea. I had several ways for them to show their work, such as drawing a leaf and then writing the song Leaves are Falling All Around, in the leaf. Same for Winter and spring. She said the ideas were great and helped the kids learn better.

We also talked about the price of the boarding school. It costs the kids, or rather parents, about $6000, a year for the school. That is a huge amount in China, but most of these parents are very wealthy and “are too busy in their work to take care of their children”, said my teacher. One of my student’s parents were the ones that just opened up the foot massage place we have been going to.

The classrooms are just like the other schools I have been in. Tile floors, dirty, hot, hot, hot, not many pictures on the wall, desks that are ancient and make noise when the kids move them. Chalk board, overhead projectors that do work, but haven’t been about to get our computers to hook up to them.

And the bathrooms! That is another story. We use the same bathrooms as the kids. There are about 10 stalls, and not one of them has a lock that works. There is one western bathroom, but for me, if you sit on it and try and hold the door shut, my knees knock against the door. No toilet paper or towels. But this year there is soap! Not hot water though. They keep them fairly clean, and the cleaning lady takes her naps in there sitting on a small stool. Not where I would take a nap! And yes, it smells. You can smell it from down the hall.

Tomorrow we are going to try and go to church. I had Mr. Mao write out the address for us in Chinese, and have been trying to call on the phone, but can’t get anyone to answer.

Tomorrow the school is going to an amusement park in Shanghai. We had a choice whether to go or not, and the Utah people chose not to. Only 4 of the 13 teachers decided to go.

After work we walked to KFC for some dinner. Because of the dumplings I wasn’t hungry so just got and ice-cream and a really yummy peach custard tart. I’ve never see it in the states. I’m going to have to have another one soon! LOL

We stopped at a couple of stores on the way home and one of them was some kind of weird medicine store. There were dried frogs, brains, antlers, sea-horses, and tons of other unrecognizable dried things. It was certainly weird.

Next to our hotel there were about 15 older ladies out exercising/dancing on the sidewalk with their Chinese music playing. I was with Anita and we stopped and danced several songs with them. It is kind of like line-dancing, but more graceful. I probably looked like an idiot, but it was really fun. They were so nice and made us stay and dance longer than we had thought we would. The weather has been cooler the last couple of days, but I was still sweating and dripping sweats down my face and back. They told us, or rather did it in charades, that they are there every night and to come back. We are going again tomorrow.

dumpling making

dumpling making

IMG_4300

dumpling making

My teaching partner, Sandy Ao, and I