April 26, 2016

Dear Mom and everyone, Nimen hao! Hello! I'm very sorry I wasn't able to write you last week. Believe me, I wanted to, but my Internet was being weird again. It does this thing where I can view emails, except not pictures, but I can't write any. And then, some days it seems to work perfectly fine as if there was never any problem. Oh, China. I finally saw your pictures from last week during my free time at school today. Benson looks very cool in his sunglasses, and Wheeler Peak looks lovely with all the snow. I also read your email from last week, and then I got a little teary-eyed. What's wrong with me? I miss you so much! The boring Saturdays seem so unbearable at home at times, but then I go away, and that's exactly the sort of thing I miss. That's not to say I'm not having a good time here, of course. Things are just as good as ever. Cute kids that swarm around me and jump up and down excitedly until one falls and bonks her head on the floor (true story). People who stare at me as if confused why the heck I'm not Asian. Old people who sell vegetables wearing cool hats. Oh, yeah, and the cute toy store across the street from my school where I like to go browse, and then the cute little girl whose family works there gives me free ice cream. It's pretty much awesome here. I can't think of anything particularly interesting to tell you about from last week, except fourth and fifth grades during English corner. There was much talk of tae kwon do and Chinese gongfu (known in English as "kung fu"). In fourth grade, the boys love tae kwon do and gongfu, especially Mike, an adorable and very energetic boy who's built about like Po from Kung Fu Panda. (He's a lot more hyper, though.) But the fourth grade girls aren't too interested. The fifth graders were even more interesting. On Friday they were so full of sass. The boys kept laughing and throwing playful insults at each other. There was also a girl who was just like a little gangster. She knew tae kwon do and gongfu, and she would threaten (jokingly) to go after the boys. ("She can Chinese gongfu!") It was all in good fun, but I have no doubt that she could have taken them on. Meanwhile, there were two girls who were not part of any of this, and just sat and behaved, and were probably as lost as I was. I wasn't sure if I should be concerned or not, but if you were there at the time, it was just a little bit funny. At least they were speaking English. On Friday night, Amelia and I went to try a Korean restaurant that I pass on the way to school, and then we carried out our plan of watching Kung Fu Panda 2. Amelia had never seen it, so that made it even more fun. The next day we had planned to go to Stone Lake, as I had been there before and wanted to go again, but it was raining quite hard, and Amelia wasn't up for it. (I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that likes rain. I need Ally, so I have someone to frolic with.) But, she had to go to her school and get some things from her office, and I wanted to go shopping, so we went out together, and had a lovely time in spite of the rain. On Sunday, I went to church again. I helped in the nursery. There are three kids, and there were three of us, so we were evenly matched. I got to play baby dolls with Jane, a tiny little blonde girl who speaks English but knows Chinese as if she was Chinese herself. In singing time/sharing time, they talked about the Resurrection. The kids said some really good comments. The teacher was telling about how Jesus' family was gathered around the cross, and the little boy who's usually hyper said, "But, we're all Jesus's family, so everyone should be at the cross." Those kids can have such a hard time sitting still, but they can also get really deep. The Swopes lent me their keyboard that they never use, so that I could be able to practice the Primary songs, and then President Okeson's driver gave me a ride home so I wouldn't have to carry it on the subway. That night, Amelia, Ellie, and Lola came and were so happy to see the keyboard. They had a little too much fun with it. I wanted to send a picture or something to Elder Swope, but he doesn't answer his WeChat, so it would have done no good. I also can now practice my songs that Miss Peng, the music teacher, let me borrow. One of them is the theme from Castle in the Sky. It's funny that you said you watched that movie, because the music from it is literally everywhere here. (They're really big on Studio Ghibli.) On Monday I went on an outing with Grade 5 to the "ninth Horticultural Exposition of Jiangsu Province" thingy. It was at a park by Tai Hu that I think I've been to parts of before. I was put with Miss Tang, who I vaguely knew as one of the English teachers whose classes I teach. By the end of the day, she and I became friends. It was raining when we got off the bus, and some people were selling rainbow-colored umbrellas that you wear on your head like a hat, and a nice little boy gave me one. It's not a fashion statement, but it was such a nice gesture, and it's also a little bit awesome. We looked at some flowers, and then we went into the Museum of Intangible Culture, or whatever it was called. It was a really cool museum, full of things that showed what life was like in the old days. Miss Tang and I took our time looking at everything, and we got separated from the rest of the group. It was so worth it, though! Museums are fun! Then we had to find where everyone had gone for lunch. After we'd eaten (after everyone else had already finished, of course), Miss Tang said we didn't need to stay with the class, since they had the guide, so we went off walking. It's such a big park, full of such nice things. We went in one of the little gardens and saw some pretty little trees. The kind that make me think, "Bonsai!" Then we went to meet with a couple other teachers at a restaurant next to the Yixi Teahouse, where we pretty much just sat and talked. Well, they talked in Chinese. We made it back to the bus with our class, and went back to school, where I got going on the lesson planning that I'd missed out on that day. That night, at our weekly Chinese lesson, I got to show off my snazzy rainbow umbrella hat to the other interns. That brings me to today. The fourth graders liked the book I'd made of "Little Red Riding Hood", which is good, because it took a lot of time to make it. The teachers who saw it also appreciated it. Miss Huang confirmed that next week is a three-day weekend, because of Labor Day, which is the first of May. The others are deliberating going to Shanghai or Wuxi or wherever, but I don't know that I'll go traveling. I think I'll have an adventure here in Suzhou. I'd like to track down some more Buddhist temples or something fun like that. Well, that's about it. If you have any specific questions, I would love to answer them, but that's all I have to say for now. Sorry for another long email that will probably take forever to read. I hope all is well with you. From your email, it sounds like you're doing fine. I miss you more than words can say, but I'm doing well and loving China. I love you all! Wo ai nimen! Love, Chelsey<3