February 21st

China so far has been amazing. I feel like I am on a mini mission! Before I left I knew that this was just the right thing for me, and I know that even more now. There are moments that I wish I could just be home, eating an eggo waffle, watching bachelor and using a normal toilet, let's be real. But those moments are brief and the kids definitely make the difference. When we walk through the cafeteria and all the kids give us high fives and hugs, there is nothing better!

So classes started this week and that was a huge thing! My fourth graders are easy to teach and it's fun. Those classes are 40 minutes each and I only have to teach 2. Each class has 6 kids in it, which is manageable and they are well behaved since they are older. Those classes will be fun because it's not hard to get them to talk, they know a lot of English. One of my classes has an Ethan and a Gordon in it! I told everyone I have to keep that class no matter what because it makes me happy to say those names :) Then there's first grade, craziness! We have them for 25 minute rotations, we teach the same lesson 4 times to 4 different groups. Each group has 9 kids in it, which makes things hectic especially because they have so much energy at that age! We also do opening exercises with them and a little closing thing at the end of rotations. We are exhausted by the end! They really don't know any English since it's their first year so that makes things even harder. It's hard to get them to speak and follow along in the lesson. We'll say things like "Stay in your chair" and they don't even know what we're saying so we have to SHOW them everything. It's like we are playing charades for 2 and a half hours every day haha! Saying "stand in a line" to a group of American kids might be effective but these Chinese kids don't understand us. The struggle. The names of my homeroom class are Anna, Steve, Richard, William, Katie, Brock, Lily, Frank and Helen. I will try to take a picture of them soon!!

Last night was super fun! Me and my roommate Jocelyn went out into the city together and explored! We just wandered around into different shops and street vendors and talked to lots of people. It is so fun learning to speak and putting ourselves out there with the few phrases we know. We get laughed at A LOT and stared at everywhere we go. We came across this huge open plaza where they were playing music and everyone was dancing! We didn't hesitate and jumped right in! We spun around that dance floor and tried to do what they were doing. We also showed them some American moves and they liked that. I haven't had that much fun in long time!!! I also tried a bunch of more foods and I love some things so much that I'm starting to think I'll gain weight here rather than lose it! Ahh haha anyways I gotta go! Love you all and miss you!