Talent Show

Last night I sang “I want it that way” by the Backstreet Boys in front of 500 people. During the performance they handed me flowers and I threw them out into the audience. My singing was horrible but I hammed it up and just danced my heart out. I was just happy that no one will ever know how bad it was except for 500 Chinese students. The other students did performances as well. One student did a Michael Jackson impersonation, grabbing his crotch and everything in front of teachers as well. There were some amusing skits and one dance that told the story of Mulan.

Did I already tell you that I am the Speech coach here? I am in charge of organizing speech contests, creating questions for the impromptu section and coaching the students twice a week. At least I will not have to judge since I am the coach. I do not like the responsibility of judging.

Slowly Blending into Chinese Shopping

Today I went to the grocery store to buy a new sponge and when I asked a lady for help the next thing you know I had about 50 Chinese people all around me trying to help me. They were customers and people who worked there alike trying to help me. I did not know how to say sponge so I was acting it and I was pretending to clean and the next thing you know everyone was grabbing different items off of all of the shelves and saying, “This? That? This?” When I finally found what I needed and went to buy the sponge the women at the counter told me something that I did not understand and she laughed and basically said, “Oh the foreigner does not understand,” and everyone else laughed. All of the sudden I remembered that my school credit card for the school grocery store can only buy 30 Yuan of stuff a day and I was buying 38 Yuan of things so she must have been telling me that I could not pay with my card. So I said, “Ok, you can use my card for 30 Yuan and then I will pay you 8 extra in cash.” I said this in Chinese and all of the sudden she stopped laughing and just stared at me in surprise. Everyone was staring at me. This moment was so good for me because I finally had a small clue about what was going on and was not only someone to be laughed at!

Class Participation in China

My Freshman are seriously so cute, but a little lost. It took me about 20 minutes to explain to them how to raise their hands. They are just not used to a foreign teacher or being active in classes at all. I had to stand in front of the class like an aerobics instructor saying, “Up, down, up and down, and up and down…other hand!” But slowly they are starting to understand the meaning of class participation. Also, to get them to talk at first I had to physically pretend to open some of their mouths, they were just so scared to talk at the beginning. But after the first couple of weeks they were getting so excited about what we were talking about they were yelling in Chinese.

Cold, but Happy

It is getting cold here and the heat does not start to work until November 15. So one month of coldness until the heat will work again. Also, I have the national geographic channel in my room and I am seriously learning so much from it! Although it prevents me from getting other things done at times.

Tonight I was walking home from class thinking, “I love my job! I love my students! I love it here! It was such a great feeling.” I seriously love teaching. It is great. Hope all is well!