February 16th

You guys! I am having the most amazing time already! Seriously I had so much fun tonight! It’s like fun I’ve never had before! Everything is so exciting! So today we were able to chill and unpack and catch our breath a bit. Then we had lunch which was gross again, fish with BONES, lots and lots of them. Also another meat which some of us think was duck. It was good but also full of bones. Then just rice and the same green veggies which are okay. They don’t have drinks in the cafeteria so I’ve learned to bring my water or a coke. Then we had a meeting and I found out that I’m teaching 1^st and 4^th grade!!! I am THRILLED! I also got my team, it’s Kimmie (one of the triplets), Jordan (super cool guy) and Charitee (super nice cool girl). We got some of the best news ever…. We don’t have to teach until WEDNESDAY and we thought we had to start Monday so everyone is stoked we have a few extra days to prepare.  We also found out that our schedule for the semester rocks. The head teachers were ecstatic about it because when they did the program before their schedule was not as good. They told us we are super lucky. We get 4 vacations, each 4 days long!! It’s perfect. Our last day of teaching will be June 20^th which means we either get a few days to travel or to pack up and stuff, either way it’s really nice. Another new thing is that instead of teaching on Fridays we are just going to do clubs for 2 hours! The kids will get to decide what activities they want to do and we’ll let them join our “clubs” which will be like learning to dance, or singing or something. Since we’re off early on Fridays we can start our travels earlier for the weekends. My schedule will be like this Monday-Thursday: Teach 4^th grade from 11:50-1:10, have a break and then teach 1^st graders from 2:30-5 in 20ish minute rotations. So I will teach the same lesson 4 times to different groups of kids. Then… this is the best part! We went to the night market tonight. I just got back and it was AWESOME!! We went last night too but it was better tonight because there were less people and it was more familiar to me. I am so proud, I am already holding little conversations with the Chinese people! So I was able to ask how much this little bread thing was and I bought it. THEN my friend Maddie was like wanting this blanket and so we went over to this place and I was able to say “Doe shou jien?” (I’m spelling it how it’s pronounced kind of) which means how much.. then she told me it was 70 yuan for 2 blankets and last night the guy there was selling one for 25. Maddie was way confused about how much to give her so I stepped up and was like “Tai gway la” which means that’s expensive. Then she said 30 for one blanket and I was able to barter her down to 25 because I know my numbers. Then I was able to say sorry to people and no thank you because I am learning fast! LOOK AT ME NOW. After we walked around and took pictures with the Asians, we decided to try taking a tuk tuk home! We hopped in and told her “Ching Ying” Which is how you say the name of our school, it was just around a couple blocks. She took us right there and it was soooo funny! The tuk tuks are sketchy little small things like taxis but they only have one wheel. You can barely fit 3 people in there! But we did it! And it was so fun!