Last day at Daguanghua

Yesterday was our last day teaching at the public school. Today is our last day teaching at Daguanghua (our main school). Tomorrow will be our last day teaching at the EDK kindergarten.

Yesterday we went out and got some "last week in Weihai" souvenirs. Katie got a hair bow for 2 yuan (30 cents). We also got a surprise for Jonathan and Pamela Ramos. Then we went to the public school for the last time. The kids were all excited, and I wonder if they knew it was the last time they would see us. We watched Shrek 4 with them, and Bruce fell asleep. During the movie, our ADHD kid Tyler was really active: when he saw Shrek for the first time, he started yelling in English, "Green head! Green head! Monster!" Then when the donkey came on the screen he pointed at it and said, "Teacher, what is this? This is a cow?" I said it was a donkey. After pointing at it and calling it donkey a few times, he started pointing his finger at the other children and calling them a donkey, too, and laughing. Afterward we played and took pictures, and said goodbye.

This morning we walked down for the last time to see our Daguanghua kids. It was really kinda sad, knowing that we would never see them again. First we played with them while we set up chairs. Bruce took turns throwing the kids up in the air and catching them on the way down. Katie googled over her girls' new jewelry and toys. Then we started Shrek 4. We thought maybe the kids would all get into the movie, but they only sorta did. In between interesting parts, the kids would talk to each other in Chinese, play pogs, and climb all over us teachers. During the good parts, though, Bruce thought it was fun that a few kids would choose to sit in the back of the room just so they could be next to him. One boy, Chase, sat on Bruce's lap for about a half hour. We gave the kids cookies, and they had a lot of fun. After the movie (in English), we took them into our classrooms one last time and gave them prizes - balloons, pogs, erasers, etc. They understood when we told them it was our last time to be with them, and we took a few last-minute pictures and videos.

This evening we went to teach at the EDK kindergarten for 3 hours. It wasn't going to be for that long, but the school pulled some last-minute schedule changes on us. They have come to be infamous for giving inconvenient schedule changes without any notice. We taught our cute little kindergartners, who still don't understand hardly anything we say. Bruce made paper airplanes with them, and Katie glued together an island scene collage with small foam animals (talking about all of our actions in English). Today was sort of our last day actually teaching the EDK kids, too. Tomorrow morning we will leave bright and early at 8am to go have their end-of-semester party. We'll watch (drumroll please...) Shrek 4. Again. We got them cookie cakes, too. I hope they have fun!

After teaching today, the school took us out to dinner one last time. We chose to go to Hot Pot. It is one of our favorite Chinese food places to go. Basically the restaurant provides a boiling pot permanently in the middle of your table. You order potato slices, meat slices, tofu, etc. and as the pot gets empty you add more food to it. When you add something, it usually only takes about 30 seconds to a minute to finish cooking. That way you get continuous fresh hot food all night. It's a lot of fun. We did toasts, thanking the school for hosting us, and they thanked us for being great with the kids. Afterwards we went to JiaJiaYue with Kelly, and she helped us buy packets to do our own hot pot when we get back to the USA!

Funny Stories to Replace Pictures.

Ok, so we've been trying to upload pictures for the last two weeks (hence the lack of new posts) but it isn't working!!! Grrr!!! SOOOO I'm gonna write a few stories.

1. After teaching at the public school one day we noticed a group of 70+ year old women standing in a circle doing Sponge Bob "Around Town" hip rotations. Then they moved down to their knees and shook them out. After observing for a few days, Michaela and I decided to join them. Together with the old Chinese ladies, we knocked our wrists together and jogged in place. When Tim came to tell us it was time to go back to school I asked him why they do the exercises. He said it was to exercise their brains . . . It must work because the oldest woman there looked to be about 95... ?

2. This week we had to teach the public school kids at the beach. Tyler, our ADHD child, was fascinated with everything around him. Everything that is, but the lesson. I was his designated attention buddy, and I helped keep him on the blanket with the other kids and teacher. At one point during the lesson he spotted something on the beach. With out warning he took off running! I chased after him until he spotted and picked up a chunk of sea weed out of the ocean. I was able to coax him back to the blanket, but he brought his seaweed with him. Then he smelled and licked the seaweed. After growing tired of it, he handed it to me.

3. Again on the beach, Teacher Michaela was drawing sea animals on paper. She drew a walrus, and asked her kids if walruses eat people. 4 out of the 5 kids said "no." The 5th kid, Sky, said "Yes! Hao chur!"- "Yes! Very delicious!"

"I know of many kinds of hose..."

So yesterday (Monday) we had a water games day with the kids! At 10am we led them all out to the soccer field, split up into four groups, and started playing. Bruce and Sam got a lot of squishy balls that you can dip in water and throw at each other. The kids made two teams and played dodge ball. Each group made it about ten minutes before someone got hit in the face and started crying. Katie played the game where you fill a cup with water on your head, and have to pour it into a cup on someone else's head behind you. After going down a line, the last person dumps it into the team bucket, and two lines of kids race each other. That was also a big hit. After only two rotations, though, we threw all the water equipment into a big pile and just had a huge water fight. Balls and buckets and frisbees and bubbles were flying everywhere, and most of us got soaked. Although all the teachers were in our swimsuits, the kids were just in their school uniforms... oops. But they loved it. They also knew that the semester is coming to an end, that we're leaving, and vacation is starting. I think they appreciated the day as a kick-off to vacation. We gave them all popsicles while they dried off before heading back to their Chinese teachers.

The Principal Wears Tighty- Whities, We Saw Them

We made it through our last week of regular teaching at our home school, Daguanghua. (Next week we are having a water day and a goodbye teacher party.) I can't believe it's been almost 4 months! Wow how time flies!! We have 8 days till we leave for our trip to Guilin and then we are on a plane home June 28th. Our last teaching has been a busy one. We taught the kids a new song that they love. Some of you may recognize it from Girls Camp: "Singing in the Rain." They especially love the part when they stick their tongue out. We thought we'd teach it to our other classes (the public school and the EDK) to see how they like it. No surprise that they loved it also. Even Tyler, our ADHD boy, willingly participates. We are experiencing technical difficulties, the internet will not let us upload the pictures, so we will get those up as soon as possible!

There's an ant in my burrito.

Today was not our usual day in China. Bruce was woken up by a phone call at 9am. It was our school's foreign affairs officer. She said that a Spanish-speaking parent had come to the school to consider enrolling his kids, but he didn't know very much English, and no Chinese. I (Bruce) splashed water on my face, threw on some clothes, and ran to the front of campus to meet them. The guy was from Colombia, and it was so much fun talking with him in Spanish. The school tour lasted about an hour. It was funny, because everything got double-translated. First, the tour guide would say something. Kelly would translate it to English for me, and then I would translate it into Spanish for the guy. I had been worrying that perhaps my Spanish had deteriorated too much, but I could understand everything the Colombian said, and spoke with him at a pretty fast pace. He was raised in Colombia, then went to college in Russia, then got a job in China (here), and visits his wife and kids in Spain one week every month. His family is moving here to see him more often. I can't wait to go to Houston TX and use my Spanish much more often.

Then at 11:30am we all went to the international beach here in Weihai. Today is our last Monday off ever. Katie made a sandcastle, and a little Chinese toddler with the crotch-hole pants came and played with her and helped her build it. It was so cute. He stayed for like ten minutes with his dad. There were a handful of other European and American people out there, but mostly Chinese. The girls tanned on towels while Bruce and Sam waded out into the ocean water. We swam around, and then threw the frisbee back and forth. I think maybe the Chinese had never seen a frisbee before, because they seemed entranced in watching us. Maybe it's just that we're American. I skipped a few rocks on the beach, and they liked that, too. A Chinese guy next to me decided to try it. He picked up a rock about the size and shape of a softball (big and round) and tried to skip it. It just sank; no skip. He was pretty frustrated and yelled at the rock.

After we had all sunburned ourselves, we went back to do our weekly grocery shopping (we teach all day for the rest of the week). Katie and I bought Chinese burritos for lunch/dinner. After a few bites, a black ant runs out of her burrito and to the tip where she would have taken another bite. One of the other ILP girls noticed it and screamed. Katie flicked the ant off, and I traded burritos with her. I would finish the bad ant one, and she could eat my good one. But when she was first inspecting my burrito after I handed it to her... there was a hair in the lettuce. Welcome to China.

Children's Day at the CCTV Playland

June 1st was Children's Day in China. The school celebrated by taking the kids to a Funworks-ish play land. It actually doubles as a TV set for CCTV. They film TV shows at this place, kinda cool. Can you imagine if they charged admission to let you play in the REAL Sesame Street in the US?


First we went to the "playground." Chinese people have a new tradition of taking exercise equipment, disguising it in bright paint, and calling it a children's playground. There was a climbing pyramid, a maze, a pirate ship, lots of ladders, and balancing courses.


Bruce and a few of the kids made it to the top of the pyramid. It was about 20 feet high, and so dangerously steep that it would never have passed US safety regulations.


As soon as I spotted the merry-go-round I told a few kids to hop on, and I began to spin them. A few minutes later we had about 10 kids trying to ride the merry-go-round so I enlisted a few other teachers to help spin them.


Bruce's student Jenny is walking across one of the 4 different types of balancing courses.


There was a science center in the park too. Little did Chase know that they were training him to be a public bus driver . . .


Further into the science house were some physics experiments.


Chase, Andy, and Jenny were testing their shooting skills. Notice how none of them know how to hold the gun. It is illegal to have a gun in China. Most policemen aren't even allowed guns (or if they are, they don't know how to properly use them). The kid in the white shirt holding the gun properly happens to be a South Korean.


Come to find out there was a hidden arcade! Kim is focused on a pinball machine.


This was a really funny game where you sit on a bull, and push the button on its horn to rope in other bulls on the video screen. These are Katie's girls playing.


There was a funny white metal box with two black pads on it. You punch or kick either of the pads as hard as you can, and it gives you a number. Bruce's student Sam is in the picture. The kids usually got between 8 and 12. Chinese teachers got in the 40s and 50s. Bruce got 82. Our head teacher's husband, Sam, got 112. The machine almost fell over, and his wrist hurt the next day.


This is Bruce's student Emma. We couldn't figure out what this was for. First we used it to measure our height. Then we tried to see how high a button we could push.


The Chinese teachers yelled for all of the students to line up, and they have to hold their arms out to ensure proper spacing. Bruce ran into the line-up of kids and played along, at the mercy of the Chinese teacher.


From left: Jenny, Kate, Jesse, and Ringo. This beach is actually part of the CCTV fun land.


Jesse found some live sea creatures! That's Katie's turquoise fingernail polish.


From left: Amy, Maia, and Kitty; all Katie's students. This photo catches how Chinese people squat. In the US we kneel down, or sit on our heels. In China they squat to relax and eat their lunch... and also to poop in the famous "squatter" toilets.


Ringo eating a cold hot dog for lunch. I threw mine away...


Jenny, Kaysee, and Zooey eating bread for lunch at the beach.

Airplanes only have 3 wheels... so I can do it, too

Ok, so this blog will be dedicated to nearly a dozen really funny stories that have happened in the past few days. In no particular order,

1 - Today a group of parents came to our school who are thinking about enrolling their kids. As part of their tour of the school, they swing by our ILP building and could poke their heads in our classrooms. Halfway through my last rotation, Drew (a kid in my class) pulled Amy off of the Chinese-Chair (used to punish them when they speak Chinese), and she fell on her stomach. Amy then ran to the open center of my classroom, curled up into a ball, and started crying. I ran over to console her and help her up, but she refused to move. The three kids at the table opened up a Chinese story book and began reading it out loud to each other. Just then, our English supervisor teacher poked her head in and said that the parents were coming. My classroom was a girl crying in the middle, with other kids yelling in Chinese. The parents ended up not coming to my room, luckily.

2 - At the same time as my first story, Katie was in her room teaching her kids to play the game "twister" (Right foot, red... left hand, green... remember?). She was reviewing the vocabulary for body parts, and had put her foot up on the table. All of the kids put their feet up on the table with her. While talking about feet, Katie leaned forward to "smell" her feet. This kept the kids' attention, and would give them something to talk about in English. Right as Katie is nudging her face up against her foot, her classroom door opens. It is the head English supervisor. Taken out of context, it looked really weird for all the kids to be stretching one foot up to the table, and Katie's face in the middle of it. =)

3 - Yesterday I read a book to my kids about swimming underwater. I asked the kids if you could breathe underwater, and they said no. So we had a hold-your-breath contest. Everyone cheated by breathing through their noses, so we laughed and moved on. Today they remembered and wanted to try it again. I consented, so we all plugged our noses and pinched our mouths for about 15 seconds. Then we all laughed, and I went on with my lesson. After a while, I looked over to my left and saw little Zooie still pinching her nose, and her face was bright red. She was still holding her breathe long after the contest was over! I panicked, and got her to start breathing again. Oh, man. Some Chinese kids take school too seriously, even at 6 years old.

4 - Today we were shopping at the local street night market (window-shopping, really), and Katie found a shirt/dress that she really liked, for about $3. So to try it on, the lady at the stand held up a bed sheet to cover Katie while she changed. I felt like it was a little sketchy, but when Katie was done the shirt fit great... and about a dozen old guys from the street had gathered around to see how it fit, too... Pretty awkward... We bought it.

5 - This past Tuesday, I was going over a map with my kids, on the difference between the USA and China. I pointed to the USA and asked, "What is that?" One of my girls answered, "Amer-ica." Good, I said. Then I pointed to China and asked, "What is that?" The same girl answered excitedly, "China-ica."

6 - Our head-teacher's husband, Sam, has been joking for a while about cutting his hair to look like a Chinese man. He said he would buzz his whole head really short, except leave really long bangs in the front. That's actually what a lot of Chinese kids do... Yesterday I got a knock on my apartment door, and it was Sam. He had cut his hair just like we had joked about. It looked ridiculous. He then recruited me to help buzz off the bangs and make his head look normal again. Also, his did all this without consulting his wife. When she got back from teaching, she was pretty blown away...

7 - I want to write this before I forget it. You already know about the squatter toilets they have here. It's like a glorified porcelain hole in the ground. It's traditional. Also traditional is to have NO toilet paper available, ever. Sometimes my kids ask to go to the bathroom, and when they come back, they smell like poop. A week or two ago, I was playing with my kids by picking them upside-down by surprise. After three kids I got a "bad egg." Being upside-down put their bum pretty close to my face, and I could tell this kid had NOT WIPED. Sometimes at the public school when I lean over the kids to get scissors back from them for the lesson, I can smell poop. Just sometimes.

8 - This past Monday Katie and I went out with a couple of the other teachers to look at the famous statues along the ocean coast of Weihai. About four statues along, we found an absolutely ridiculous one. It is a statue of a teddy bear wearing pants, and they are the "traditional hole-in-the crotch" Chinese kids pants. Someone carved a square hole into the back of the pants, exposing two round butt cheeks. When we got around to the front of the teddy bear statue, well, let's just say we were 100% sure it was a BOY teddy bear. Katie took pictures. I want to meet the Chinese man who carved that statue, and take him out to lunch. This is ridiculous.

9 - Today we accompanied Kelly, our Chinese foreign affairs helper, to her drivers ed class. It was so funny. It was held at an abandoned gas station. They had weird cones they had to drive around and practice backing up into spaces. She said that if they messed up, they had to pay the instructor more money. The previous lesson, Kelly said she had lost $400 rmb to the instructor. It was so sketchy.

10 - To get back to our apartments after the driving lesson, we took a bun-bun (a taxi with only 3 wheels, and 2 gears). We asked the driver if his car had ever tipped over, since it only has 3 wheels. He replied, "Airplanes only have three wheels, so I can do it, too."

11 - For dinner today, Katie and I each got our favorite Chinese burritos. For about 35 cents, they roll out a fresh ball of dough and throw it on a skillet with oil. As the bread bubbles up, they pop one of the holes and pour in a scrambled egg and salt, into the middle of the tortilla! That's the coolest part. After flipping it a few times and cooking it, they spread a brown pasty soy sauce over it with a paint brush (NOT like soy sauce in the USA; more like peanut sauce, or sesame sauce...) Then they wrap it around lettuce and crushed pepper, and your choice of either a hot dog (Chinese hot dogs are disgusting), tofu noodles (Bruce likes them), or shredded potato hash browns (also very delicious). The whole thing is so filling, and delicious, and the sauce is soo good. We have to make Chinese burritos when we get home!

Children's Day pictures

This is Marcel. He is a kleptomaniac. He was trying to take off my fingers so he could hide them in his pocket and not give them back. We have lost many tokens to his pockets.


This is Emma. She is in Bruce's home room class. She is as tom-boy-ish as they come. You can't tell in the picture, but the first inch and a half of her bangs are cut to the stubs; I think she did it herself. She insisted I put her hair in pigtails like the other girls.


This is at the actual performance. Kitty is in the front. Behind her are Kaysee and Emma. They look like angels in those dresses.


One of the Chinese teachers put together a fashion show for the kids who weren't in very many performances. They wore recycled stuff. As Zooie (the one with the white spotted shirt with a blue flower on it) walked out, her yellow skirt slowly shimmied off her waist and down to her knees. She posed in her underwear, and then pulled it up. We got it on video! So cute! We will have it up on youtube soon.


This is my darling Drew. He is sporting the green eyeshadow and pink blush worn by all the boys.


This is the makeup we wore for our Lady Gaga performance. The kids loved it!


These are just a few of the pictures from the performance, let me know if I should post more. Most of them are on my Facebook (Katie's).

Lady Gaga and Marcel

On Friday 5-28 we had the annual Children's Day performance at our school. Most of our students' parents came to watch, and many of our students were in three or four shows. It was kind of like a stake roadshow. A few groups sang songs or played traditional Chinese instruments. Katie and my kids sang "Bingo," and the other ILP teachers' kids sang "Lollipop." Later, the ILP teachers all sang the Hannah Montana song, "The Climb." Bruce played guitar and someone else played the piano. Then, to end the talent show, we were the second-to-last act. We got on-stage and performed a dance choreographed to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." Katie learned it and spent the past two weeks teaching it to us. It was so much fun! We dressed in all black with sequins, and painted our faces like halloween, and ratted up our hair. It kind of felt like "Thriller." We got a huge applause, and the next evening the school principals paid for us to go out to eat, because the parents liked it so much.

On Saturday, Katie and I went at 8am to teach at the kindergarten. One of the kids is named Marcel, after a monkey from the TV show "Friends." He is kinda quiet, but one day he saw one of us teachers getting a token to put in our apron. He decided he wanted the token, jumped out of his chair and started clawing the token out of the teacher's hands. The teacher screamed, but Marcel just kept climbing up on her and clawing at her hands. Once he got the token, he never gave it back. So on Saturday, Katie was teaching Marcel when he did the same thing to her. She was able to whip out the camera and snap a photo of him:

*our internet is not letting us upload right now so we will gets those pictures ASAP*

We do dishes in the shower

This is Katie teaching at the public school. Tyler is the kid in the center, facing the camera.

So there I was (Bruce), teaching at the public school. My lesson for the food category was to pour juice into a cup, and use a straw to drop some in everyone's mouth without ever actually touching them, like a pipette. (We talk in English the whole time about what we are doing). At first I would tighten the juice cap so tight that the kids couldn't open it. I would pass it around the table, and when no one could open it they gave it back to me. I would dramatically blow on the cap, and unscrew it as if it were effortless (I actually had to twist pretty hard, but the kids believed it was magic). I tightened it again, passed it around, and all the kids would try blowing on it before opening it. Again, none of them could open it. Before we moved on, I would have everyone at the table blow on the juice cap at the same time. Then I would take the cap off like it was easy. After all the kids had gotten a few drops and I was done with my lesson (20 minutes), we would rotate kids and I would start over with a new group of about seven kids. After all four rotations, we were done for the day and I was saying goodbye to the kids as they walked off down the hall with their parents. But one kid, Tyler, had other plans. He is our ADHD kid who just got back from Beijing where they tried to cure him with traditional Chinese medicine. Tyler ran past me into my room, jumped over my chair, and squatted down in the corner where my juice bottle was sitting on the floor. I immediately knew what he was doing. He was trying to get some more juice! As I started pacing towards him, I could see him struggling to get the bottle cap off in time to drink some before I caught him. With no success, and upon seeing me, he freaked out and started blowing on the bottle cap as hard as he could. I started laughing so hard I could barely get the bottle away from him.

We ar like your Dinosaur Dance

This week we have been practicing a dance we choreographed for the kids that they do to "Bingo" (there was a farmer had a dog...) The kids worked so hard that we decided to give them a break and let them play on the playground. With us teachers being their play buddies, our little 1st graders were able to reach new heights! Bruce started lifting up the kids that couldn't reach, so they could play on the monkey bars. Then he helped them climb up to the top of the bars! The kids were so excited, and it was neat to hear them do it all in English - "Teacher, teacher, I want up!"

Katie helped Kim, our star English speaker, make a sand cake. Kim told us, "I will go to school in Shanghai with my sister, and if my English is good I, I can go to America."

You're like my own personal enzyme...

This was the most relaxing weekend ever! So Yantai is a city about an hour and a half west of us. There is a Brazilian family that comes to Weihai to meet with us for church every week, the Machados. Brother Machado has been asking us to come visit and have a real Brazilian BBQ at his house for months now. This weekend we finally went. Brother Machado and his wife are in their late 30's and have two boys; one is 3 and the other is 5. Their boys are very active. They have been in China for over a year, while Brother Machado works as an electrical engineer on an oil rig in the ocean. Nine of us squished into a shrunken mini-van built for 7 passengers. It was really tight! We sat four to a row (instead of three) and one lucky person got shot gun. It took a little longer than expected because our driver didn't really know where to go, and there was a ton of road construction and detours. We left Weihai at 4:45pm and got there at about 6:30pm. The first thing he did was take us out to dinner to an American restaurant. It was THE BEST American food I have had since I have been here! Oh, we had sour cream, guacamole, lemonade, pork ribs, Caesar salad, fries, twice-baked potatoes; Bruce got a chimichanga, and I got Parmesan chicken. It was heaven! I didn't realize how good food can be. It was indescribable bliss . . . They had to roll us out the door after we finished eating. We got home and played with the boys before going to bed. They go to an international school, and can speak Portuguese, English, and some Korean and Chinese. Sister Machado said they hated being so far from home at first, but now they have made friends, mostly Brazilian and Korean.

The next morning I woke up to what sounded like gun shots in a war zone. It was the Chinese shooting fireworks for a wedding at around 7 am. Then I smelled something yummy . . . Brother Machado made us pancakes with real butter and maple syrup! After breakfast we held church in their living room. Their home was small but beautiful! I loved how they decorated it! It didn't feel like China at all. It was like going home for a nice break! The talks were inspiring and uplifting. The rest of our stay was devoted to bumming around and eating yummy food!! Brother Machado made us Brazilian-style beef ribs and steak for lunch. It was the best. I felt so full and content. It wasn't just the food, though. They were so welcoming and the boys were so funny to watch. I could feel the love they have for each other. It made me miss our family. Unfortunately, it couldn't last forever. This coming week we are preforming at our Daguanghua school for Children's Day (which is on June 1st). I can't believe it is June next week!

Chinese Childhood

I took this picture a in front of the International Market in Weihai. While his mother waited for the public bus he wandered off to look at the balloons. This scene represents typical middle-class China - street vendors, toddlers with potty hole pants, electric scooters, the guy is smoking, bright red Chinese signs, and too many stairs. (We have looked through lots of toddler clothes here, and they ALL have the potty hole in the crotch. Normal toddler pants as found in the US are completely obsolete.)

As a side note, Bruce was so intrigued by the convenient design that he is commissioning a seamstress at the local market to sew him a pair that he can wear for the remainder of his stay in China.

Just kidding.

"Teacher! This is your . . .*Snip Snip Snip*"

While walking around downtown we found a lady selling something weird. It was in the shape of a star, with the texture of hard jelly. She tried to tell us what it was, but we didn't understand. We bought one! (It was only 15 cents). She handed it to me in a baggie with water. When we started to play with it, the lady started talking in Chinese and motioned for us NOT to poke or pinch it, and to keep it submerged in water. Weird. We brought the star home and put it in a jar of water. We are going to Yanti this weekend to visit some church members there. I wonder what we will find when we get back?? The only two guesses we have are: 1- it will absorb the water and expand to a ridiculously huge size; or 2- it is filled with fertilized fish eggs and food, and after a while we'll have a bunch of fish swimming around. Any guesses, looking at the picture?

Funny Story: I was teaching a game at the EDK (kindergarten) yesterday when one of my favorite students, Candice, walked up to me. She showed me a small sticker of a strawberry. I said, "How cute!" and continued my lesson. A few minutes later she stuck something wet on my hand. I looked down and saw the sticker covered in spit stuck to my hand. It was a cute gesture, and little gross, but cute! (The sticker wasn't sticky anymore, so she used her saliva to make it stick again, and then gave it to me as a symbol of her friendship).

Fu Yuen, I'll have the Gou Rou.

Katie's Experience Eating Dog: I know, I know, I said I would never eat dog. But there it was in front of me, and it smelled really good. So I picked up a rib (yes, a dog rib) and nibbled it. Wow- much better than I had expected! It was kinda stringy and a little fatty but it reminded me of dark meat on a turkey. The hardest part was getting over the fact that every time I remembered I was eating dog I thought of Lucy, Emmie, and Prince Henry. I'm not sure if I would eat it again. Maybe to gross someone out. Lol!


Bruce's Experience Eating Dog: My number-one priority was to make sure we got real dog meat; not sliced beef that they called dog just to be cool. We ordered two dog dishes- spicy dog, and dog ribs. They were both surprisingly delicious. It was weird to see what looked like chicken-sized bones attached to what looked like cow meat... It couldn't have been a midget cow... it was definitely a dog. The meat was a little stringy, and a little fatty, but seasoned to perfection. I watched the Chinese guy cook it in his wok, and flames were shooting three feet up. I took a video of the whole thing, which we'll post on youtube. It was definitely better than scorpion.

We have been practicing for the performance so each day we only have two classes. I got a few shots of the kids putting together a puzzle. (We repeat lessons at each school.) Tonight we are eating dog . . . I'll let you know how that goes . . .

"Seven, Seven. Go to Seven Eleven ..."

We got back into teaching this week and it wasn't easy! It almost felt like the first week again. I think our kids are just a little wound up for the performance coming up next week. Whitney told us that for the next few days we need to practice our song and dance. Bingo is getting really old! So I thought I'd try to make it fun by bringing in some other fun songs to warm up to. I played "S.O.S." and did dance stretches with the kids. My girls loved it! They kept time with me as I jumped and shook my hips. The other classes did pretty well to. After we were warmed up they lined up to sing Bingo . . . again. I was a rough run through but they found the motivation when we bribed them with candy. It was funny cuz one of they boys, Andy, from Bruce's class, was really hot and wanted me to pull his hair into a pony tail. It was too short, lol! We only had time for 2 rotations today. That was enough to make us all exasperated! I keep forgetting my camera, when I remember I'll take pictures of the kids.

Happy Square Pictures

Ultra Man

It has been a LONG and CRAZY week. At the end of each semester our school puts on a performance for the parents. Ours is on May 28th. However we just found out that they are having rehearsals 3 weeks early. So we spent the last week teaching our kids a dance to Bingo. I can't describe how difficult it is to teach a dance to 7-year-olds who don't speak the your language. Don't get me wrong, they speak English well, but there is a whole other jargon when it comes to dancing and singing. The next day we decided to speak the international language of "candy." Bruce held up a bag of suckers, and within about 5 minutes, they had learned the dance. They look so cute doing it! Kelly said we will get a DVD copy of the final performance. Also, I never knew how talented our students are. During the rehearsal I saw my kids do almost everything. Maia played two instruments, danced, and sang the English song with us. Amy (8 years old) played an instrument, danced, and sang our song and a duet with an older girl. When we weren't teaching, we were learning a dance to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." It is pretty popular here. I hear it on the streets all the time. But you will have to wait to see the video.

Today felt like a week's worth of work stuffed into a single day. We woke up around 7am to do a demo teaching at the town square. We were told it was for government officials. Our school set up blankets to teach our students so people can see how cool it is to go to our school. Basically it was a "LOOK! We've got white people and our kids can speak English! You should come to our school" advertisement. I don't know if the government people ever showed up . . . there were so many people. We were given microphones so everyone within 30 feet could hear us. It fun to see all the people gathering. I read a book for my lesson and sometimes kids that weren't from our school would sit and listen for 10 mins. I was nice to be in a setting where we could have fun with kids and not worry about keeping them in line. I taught Kitty (one of my youngest students) two hand clapping games; she picked up on them pretty quickly. I taught her "Down by the Banks" and "Double, Double, This, This." Drew (my little Korean boy) loved rolling around on the grass. He would do 4 or 5 forward-rolls in a row. After we were done teaching, most parents came and got their kids for the weekend. A few came back to school with us. Drew was one of them. I thought it would be fun to get out the bubbles on the bus. Both Drew and Chase loved them! Drew would blow bubbles in Chase's face and Chase would scream like a girl. After 10 mins I think the Chinese teachers were about to beat them. So I put the bubbles away. The rest of the way home Drew and I threw a ball back and forth.

We can home and ate a late lunch. I got a video of the kids eating seaweed soup. I wonder what American foods they would and wouldn't like...

Then we taught at the public school. I got a new boy in my class. He was really shy. He cried for the first half of my class, until his mom convinced him to stay. When he sat down I asked him what his name was. Brian, my little 6-year-old sweetheart, turned to me and whispered, "Teacher, his name is Kyle." So I don't know if that is his real English name or if Brian made it up, but the kid responded to it. For my public school lesson I cut up a picture of a panda and they had to put the puzzle pieces together. First I showed them the picture they were trying to make. Most of the classes got it right away. I decided for the last class to see how they would do if I didn't show them a picture of what the puzzle was supposed to be. They all took turns trying to rearrange the pieces to make them fit. I took about 5 mins to work out a 5 piece puzzle of the panda. I was surprised it took so long but it was fun to see them try to make a foot attach to the head. I've never seen them work so hard on a lesson.

Tim: "It is wet squatter."- Referring to dinner

Bruce pointed out to me that we haven't written much about teaching. Teaching is much easier now than it was 2 months ago. We have set schedules that the kids now know and follow . . . most of the time. They do some funny things. At our home school I have 5 girls and 1 boy in my home room. Drew is my little stinker. He was in shock when we moved him to an all girls class. He has opened up again. He is such a cutie. No doubt my girls are the best behaved. Amy is my show girl. She is always doing cartwheels, singing, or talking. She is super talented. Lilly is the teacher's pet. She is more strict with the class than I am sometimes. Lele is really mellow. She talks in English the best that she can. Maia is shy but mature. She so gorgeous with her big eyes. Last is Kitty, she is my baby girl. She is more sensitive than the rest; I think she is the youngest. She is a doll!! I absolutely love my class! They keep me on my toes. I've been meaning to get some pictures during class. I'll put them up as soon as possible.

Harmonious Habitat

There are no zoos like the zoos in China! At least not that I know of. Nine of us (plus the driver makes ten) crammed in a shrunken minivan (the size of a twin bed with a roof and wheels) and drove to the Weihai Zoo. It was about an hour away. However, there were about 10 weddings in the city, which created about a million cars on the road, which led to horrific traffic jams. It took us about 3 hours to get there. But we did get there and we were determined to have a good time. We ate lunch at a very slow restaurant, and headed for the first part of the zoo. It started with a BANG! There were tigers, lions, leopards, wolves, and cheetahs! The layout of the zoo was awesome. Well, I guess it was technically an "animal rescue reserve."

Anyways, it was designed so that we walked above the animals on a wall (like a mini Great Wall of China, with animals on both sides). There weren't any fences over the animals. It was concrete and a few electric wires. Most of the walls were 9 to 15 feet high. Just knowing that if a leopard really wanted to eat you he could skip to the top of the wall was exciting. Hearing them roar added to that feel of fear. The lion roars reverberate through our chests. I wish we could experience that in the States but there is no way that kind of exhibit would be allowed!