The longest birthday I've ever had...

The birthday crew

Hello again everyone. A lot has happened since my last post, so I'll try to catch you up as much as possible!

Last week, I was about to leave my office when Molly (a Chinese English teacher) asked if I wanted to sit in on a class that she was about to teach. It's an extra class for students who are really interested in English. Quite a few of my students are in it, so I thought it would be fun to visit with them. Molly was subbing for another teacher, so I thought she just wanted me to come, so she could look good in front of the students that didn't know her. Even though the students are used to having us around. There's a "buzz" when we walk into a new class.

I sat down in the front row to watch. Then, just before the bell rung, Molly said "How about I teach the listening section and you do the speaking section?" In the past, this would have terrified me. After living here, I'm used to these surprises. Now I'm just nervous instead of terrified! I asked her a few questions about what she wanted me to teach, since I had no idea. It didn't seem too difficult, so I winged it for about 20 minutes. It went okay, and I think the students enjoyed being surprised by a foreigner.

I've really enjoyed getting to know some of my students better over the past few weeks. At the beginning of the year, most students were excited to listen to me, but scared to come talk with me. The last few weeks, I've had the chance to talk with some students about different issues.

Two girls, Sara and Leah, visited me in my office one day to talk about the politics and history of Tibet for a school project. This is a VERY touchy subject here, so I was nervous. I don't know a lot about this topic, and I didn't want to offend them. However, they were very interested in hearing what people outside of China thought. It was a great discussion, and they were very willing to discuss China's positives and negatives.

I also recently had a good conversation with Daisy, a student who is concerned with her weight. You probably already know, but Chinese people are extremely thin overall. It makes me feel at home! :) Daisy was telling me that she skipped meals quite a bit because she wanted to lose about 20 pounds! She is not big at all, but since she's not as naturally skinny as other girls, she said that some people were making fun of her for being fat. I told her to ignore those people and that skipping meals wasn't healthy. We've talked a lot on QQ (Chinese Facebook), and she really enjoys those times. I think she respects me quite a bit, so I'm hoping I can use that to influence her in a good way. I'm going to continue checking up on her over the next few months.

With Easter coming up, we have been able to talk about the real meaning of this holiday with our classes. It can be frustrating trying to communicate this story to students with the cultural and language barriers, but I do think most of them understand a little more about JC's life.

Grade 1 is having a basketball tournament, and I've been a "celebrity" spectator. Last Friday, I went out to watch, and just about every single one of my classes was playing. Most were playing each other. Each class was trying to persuade me to cheer for them over the others. It's fun to watch the students relax and have fun, even if the basketball is terrible. And I can't emphasize that enough: Most of them are awful! But they do play hard!

On Sunday, I turned 26 years old. I'm still not sure what is more weird: That I'm 26 or that I live in China. Ben, a foreign teacher at another school has the same birthday as me. Since we know most of the same people, we had a co-birthday party. First, we went to Papa John's for some pizza, which never gets old! Then we watched "Alice in Wonderland" in English at the movie theater. I thought the movie was pretty good. But I hardly ever get to see movies in the theater in English, so I might be biased!

With the 12-hour time difference, I had a 36-hour birthday. 12 in China only, 12 in both countries, and 12 in America! We also celebrated our birthday on Saturday instead of Sunday, so it felt like my birthday was all weekend, which is pretty cool I guess!

That's what I've been up to recently. Adam Carpenter arrived last night. We had lunch with him, and he sat in on one of my classes this afternoon. It's always good to see a friend from America. I'm looking forward to having him hang out with us this weekend.

Saturday is Cory and Lara's wedding. I think I'm going to be some kind of groomsmen. It's going to be a mix of American and Chinese traditions. I don't really know what to expect. All I know is that I might have to sing and do push-ups to help Cory get Lara out of the house and to the wedding. Needless to say, it'll be interesting....

That's all for now. Go Butler!