Duck & Dairy Queen!

I actually felt a bit better when I woke up this morning, although I wouldn’t have complained if I had to rest for another day! I had my typical morning routine and was out the door by 8:30.

I think I am going to cause multiple crashes on the road leading to school. Today when I was walking people literally slowed down their cars and turned their heads to watch me! I wanted to yell out “Look at the road!!!” because I swear I thought they were all going to kill someone! Luckily I made it to school without causing any accidents and was greeted by my happy man. This time, I saw one of his columns had either a number 1, 2 or 3! Ugh MORE things to think about!! I decided I would put number 2, although I have no idea what that really means.

When I entered the teachers’ lounge I got my new cell phone charger! Woohoo! I thanked the women a million times because it would have been a hassle to try and get it on my own. We plugged it in and started charging it baby!

Then the headmaster came in and started talking to Michael, which I knew would soon be translated to me. He asked about the copies I was going to make them and I was happy I stayed home yesterday because I had time to do it! So I gave her the copies of my “lesson plans”, which really are just some games I thought might be fun, and I also brought out some of the books and flashcards I had brought! She and Michael loved them and even more so when I explained they were a present and after I left they could keep them! The headmaster kept thanking me for volunteering etc. Then I went over some of my ideas with Michael, but the headmaster told me to wait.

Now I missed morning exercises today because, are you ready for this? I WAS LEADING A CONFERENCE! Ok well not really, but the headmaster decided to get all the English teachers together so I could explain my ideas and show them my books etc. So we all met in a classroom and they stood around me and asked questions as I “taught” them. I sort of had to laugh at the situation. Here I am, I’ve never taught before, I get thrown into random classes and am told to teach and now the headmaster is having ME show the other teachers what to do! Ugh! Haha! I explained the things we do in America and some of the ideas I had to make their vocabulary fun, etc. I was glad to get out of there! They are all SO appreciative but I always want to say, “Listen you guys are great teachers..I’m over here making this up as I go!”

We had to cut it short since class was starting. Since I missed Amy’s class yesterday I was back there today for two classes of 3rd grade! They were all excited that I brought books and flashcards, but we started off with reviewing body parts. I tried to play Simon says, but they didn’t understand the Simon says part, so it turned into “Touch your nose, your eyes, your leg, etc.” I still think they had fun because they were able to stand up and move around. Then we reviewed “items in your schoolbag” and I would have them hold up the items or things like that.

Then, the good stuff! Colors! I knew I had brought flashcards of colors so I decided to play a game that I made up as we went along! I broke the class into 6 teams (of 6 students each). I guess my next thought was to give them all some colors (I’m trying to remember since I was making it up as I went..) but I only had 11 regular colors so I had to throw “baby blue” in there, a little tricky! Each team got 2 flashcards with colors. Now I didn’t think this all the way through, because it became a BIT of a problem that there were 2 flashcards for teams of 6. But after I realized this I made sure everyone got a turn to hold the card, etc. We had already practiced the colors so then I would call out a color, for example“Red!” If your team was holding red, you all had to stand up and yell “Red!” (And if you didn’t yell loud enough I’d make you say it again!!!!) I think the students really liked it, but I have to say I liked it more! This was the first time I really laughed! They were so funny! Sometimes only one in the team would stand up and yell and then look embarrassed until their team remembered to stand up with them! Other times they would smack each other because someone didn’t know their color was being called. Sometimes if a team was confused the other students would yell at them something to the effect of “THAT’S YOU!” Oh man I just loved it they were SO excited and so into it! I think they loved the flashcards because I really don’t think they get “new” things or games or anything like that. We would play another round and I would switch up the colors so they would practice with different colors. I thought it went well because they had to listen and talk.

It sort of threw me for a loop when I got the cards back and they were FILTHY with dirt and grime. I sometimes forget this is the school for POOR children and while they do have clothing and some school supplies, they don’t have the luxuries that I took for granted growing up. I am very excited that when I leave they will be able to use these flashcards and books! After the color game I had them read the skit in pairs and we went over the alphabet and then it was time to go!

Lunch was pretty good! Rice, Chinese bread and my potato thing I have come to like! Ok SO I think the meat is chicken, not dog! Phew! At lunch Amy, Michael and I usually talk, sometimes about America sometimes about China.

So I am trying to learn SOME Chinese words..although even when I hear them I can’t get my mouth to make the same sound. BUT if you said the word for girl I would know what you are talking about and my new thing is learning the word (or words..) for “Hello Teacher!” I couldn’t tell you what it is but I know it starts with an L and sounds something like “La-sha-haw”. When I was leaving the school today I heard it and thought “Oh shoot someone is talking to me!” So I looked around until I found two school girls waving.

Again I almost caused a FRUIT accident! I was walking along the street to get the bus and a man riding his bicycle with fruit on the back turned his head to look at me and ran off the road! Luckily he was able to recover and didn’t hit anything and I had a good laugh!

When I got back to the hostel I ran into my friend Bronwen who asked if I wanted to go and get duck! To be honest, I still wasn’t feeling great and was looking forward to resting, but I decided I would go! I told her that the place across the street was suppose to be great (it was number 2 on trip advisor..and like my mother, I LOVE trip advisor) but she said she checked and it was VERY expensive. She had found a place in a magazine and wanted to go there! We knew it was down the road, but didn’t know how far, so decided to take a taxi there and then we could always walk back. Although it ended up being a good thing we DIDN’T walk there, as it was about 3 miles away. Luckily, she speaks a little Mandarin so managed to get us there! It was on the 4th floor of a hotel and it was beautiful! Very specious and we thought some of the bigger tables looked like they could be used for a wedding reception! We were the only ones there, but it was very early for dinner so I thought that was ok. We ordered half a duck! It came on a platter in the shape of a duck (cute) and then we got these pancakes (like VERY thin pita bread). We didn’t know how to eat it, but we put some of the onion, cucumber and sauce we were given as well as the duck in the pancake and rolled it up like a taco! I also put in my carrots but they were too long so I had to break them. We finally asked what to do and we were pretty much right, except no carrots (they were just for eating..it explains why I had to break them to fit in the taco thing). After my first bite I was trying to think what it reminded me of..but after Bronwen’s first bite she told me, PEANUT BUTTER! Strange I know..it must have been the sauce! All and all it was ok! I wouldn’t rush to go back, but I know I could eat it!

When the bill came we were surprised to see there was a 15% gratuity added (the first time I had ever seen this is China!) We left and knew we saw a subway so decided to walk to that and it’s a good thing we did because on the way I spotted a Dairy Queen (I can see those things from MILES away!) I must have said something to the effect of “YES! A DQ!” to which Bronwen responded, “What?” I told her it was ice cream and she read my mind when she said we had to stop! Apparently they don’t have DQ’s in South Africa! So I explained the concept of a “blizzard” and I got a brownie one and she got an M&M one! Delicious! We were able to find the subway and make it back to our hostel! All in all, it was a great night!

I got into my PJ’s and was ready to settle in for the night when I checked the weather for tomorrow and saw it might rain! I had been meaning to get an umbrella for a while because I forgot mine but just keep forgetting to go buy it! I knew the big store closed at 10 and it was 9:30 so I put it in high gear and went! I obviously didn’t know the word for umbrella, but my parents didn’t raise no fool..I used my flashcards! I KNEW there had to be an umbrella in my flash card pile and there was, so I brought it! I went to the info desk at the store (yes, I did feel a bit silly being 22 and carrying a flashcard) but she understood! She said floor 2, which I scoured with no luck and asked again! Floor 3! Finally, after asking a few more people (one woman who said, “Yes umbrella?” oops how are you suppose to know who speaks some English!!!) I found the umbrellas! Although I realized quickly I think they were the fancy umbrellas, not the “Oh shoot it’s raining” umbrella. I couldn’t really tell but decided it was better than nothing for now, until I saw the price tag, 380 ($55) I think NOT! I decided to ask in Starbucks and they thought the supermarket downstairs. So I went to where I bought my hairdryer and asked and found real umbrellas! Yay! I was so excited!


Kisses and hugs from Dairy Queen!