Highlights of the Week (10/13)

Saturday, October 18. Today would have been my mother's birthday. I still miss her. It's amazing how often I wish I could talk to her and my father.

Highlights of the week:

Tuesday: First Chinese tutoring session with Tyler Tao (one of the Senior School English teachers). I'm desperate to learn a little more Chinese.

Wednesday: Got a round of applause from students for acting out "heart attack" as an illustration of "emergency."

Thursday: In another class, got applause for saying "good afternoon" in Chinese!

Dinner with almost all of the ZZ World Teach volunteer teachers. We had "street food" at Yandi Square, right under the big "space needle." Every evening, big red tents come out and many, many food stands are set up. You pick out what you want to eat from what is on display. It's fantastic and fresh and cheap!

The weather has been gorgeous: sunny, and warm but not humid. One day, apparently, it was in the low 80s but it doesn't feel at all hot! Great biking and walking weather.


Friday: English Corner with 11 of my better students. I teach them other ways to say "hello" (hey there, howdy, yo, hola, aloha etc) and "good-bye" (cheerio, toodle-oo, ta-ta, ciao, see you later alligator etc), and responses to "How are you?" other than "I'm fine" such as "I'm awesome, terrific, splendid, groovy, peachy, cool, so-so, fair-to-middling, blah, crummy, melancholy etc."

Saturday: Finish lesson plan and take over to Senior School to have it printed. Try to have photocopies made but copy center is closed. Dinner with Tiffany, David, Suzanne, Anthony (another WT volunteer in ZZ for the weekend), Eric (Chinese teacher from Orientation in Changsha), and Allen (Eric's cousin). Go back to great dumpling restaurant. I'm holding one with chopsticks and manage to drop it into the little dish with soy sauce/vinegar/garlic, and it splatters all over me. I swear I'm going to start wearing an apron to dinner.

Afterwards, walk to Yandi Square for iced mocha coffee. Stop at DVD store. Buy lots of DVDs! Some to watch with students in English Corner. The films are in English with both English and Chinese subtitles. I want students to watch in English with English subtitles to improve listening ability. Some DVDs are just for me! Most cost 5 yuan (about $.75). Two cost 15 yuan (Sweeney Todd and DaVinci Code), or about $2.25. You can't rent a movie in the US for that! I think the cheaper ones may be pirated. Not legal here either but generally ignored.