3/9/2016

Dear Mom, Teaching is going well. It took me a while to perfect the lesson plan for grade 3, but I did. The cutest thing happened the other day in a grade 3 class. I showed individual students a slip of paper with a verb on it, and they had to act it out, and everyone else had to say what they were doing. I showed one little boy the word "dancing", and at first he looked at a loss and embarrassed, but then he started busting out "Gangnam Style." And he was really good! He looked so embarrassed afterwards, but everyone in the classroom thoroughly enjoyed it. It was awesome. And hilarious. I don't think you could appreciate it unless you were there, but I wanted to share that little moment with you. Teaching is awesome. Yesterday (March 8th) was International Women's Day, which is similar to Mother's Day. I had been informed by Miss Huang that, as all the foreign teachers were being invited by the school district to go do things, I would not have any lessons that day. This made me sad, as it would have been the first lessons I had with any of those classes, and I only have each class once every two weeks, but there was no way out of it. The Chinese don't seem to like taking no for an answer. So, I went, and it was awesome. The first place they took us was a chocolate museum on the edge of town. Everything in there is made of chocolate! There were so many beautiful sculptures, and with most of them, you had to look really closely to tell that it wasn't made of porcelain or whatever. As impressive as it was, though, in my opinion it was a tragic waste of chocolate. Chocolate is for eating, because no matter how beautiful it looks, it tastes even more beautiful. I got some really good pictures, and if at all possible, I'll try to get them to you. (I don't know how, but I'll try and see.) After that, the bus drove about half an hour to Tai Lake, and we got to see some of the scenery there. Once again, it was really cloudy, and, in fact, it rained all day that day, so I still didn't see it in the sunlight. Still, it was really beautiful by the silvery light of the wet sky. I was really glad that I had brought the umbrella that our apartment's previous occupant left behind, because I had to wear my glasses most of the day, and with the rain, I wouldn't have been able to see much. We walked along a walkway on the lake's shore to the Yixi Teahouse, which is right next to the restaurant where I ate on Sunday. It was a really nice place, where you can sit and enjoy warm tea. They served us Japanese green tea, which is apparently a kind of herbal tea. (It had better be, because I had some.) We also enjoyed the tiny, delicious cakes that they gave us. After that, they took us to visit another school. I wasn't sure why we would need to visit some random school, but there were cameramen there. I'm thinking we were probably on the news or something, I don't know. A group of us had to go to the restroom, and we all got lost, and so we missed out on whatever the others were doing. (This seems to be a theme with me.) I found out later that they had been looking for me, specifically, so they could interview an American. (There is actually one other American, but apparently they didn't think to interview her.) Darn it! I could've been on TV! On the bright(ish) side, due to the weather, my hair probably looked terrible. They then took us to one of those nice, fancy dinners that I'm starting to get used to, where everyone stuffs their faces with a glorious array of food before heading back. We then had the afternoon to do whatever, except that my school had been planning something for its female teachers, so I only had a couple hours. (I did get the bathroom clean, finally.) They had cancelled the hike, but we went to dinner (another one!) and a movie. The dinner was nice. Not as fancy as the one before, but no less good. A few of the staff did a dance to a Chinese pop song for us, in honor of the holiday. It was unexpected, and I loved it! Then, we went to the cinema and saw an American movie with Chinese subtitles, about the miners that got trapped by the earthquake in Chile. I wasn't sure what to expect on the movie, considering that one of the options was rated R (since they don't take no for an answer), but it was a really good movie. Then we made it to the car without being blown away or drowned, and went home. I'm sorry for writing such a long email again, but there's just so much to say! In honor of Women's Day, I want to say thank you to Mom, to my grandmas, and to all my teachers, some of whom helped me through hard times as a kid. And also to the sister missionaries, including Rachel. I love you! Love, Chelsey<3