The Fifth Roomate

I keep forcing my roommate Kent to catch him and chuck him out the window.

I don’t care how many potential bugs he’ll eat. You poop in my room and you’ve got to go. I’ve also been warned by a half Malaysian half Chinese man I met in Chengdu that I should never let this gecko pee in my mouth. Sound advice. He also showed me seven different ways he could kill me with a folded up paper yuan.  I’m pretty sure he was serious when he told me about the dangers of ingesting gecko pee (he was definitely serious about the paper yuan).

Reading Time

When I teach my older class, I usually give them some time to sit down and read each day before lunch. Today I looked over at one of the boys in my class while he was reading this book…

The title of this book is, “Why I am a Girl.” And the best part is how serious he looks reading it!

Hysterical Conversations with 4 year olds

So I realized that one of my favorite kids and I have been having conversations in which she says the funniest things. Here are a few excerpts:

1)

Her: Where are you going?

Me: Going home to eat some lunch.

Her: What, you don’t got any money?

2)

Her: How are you going to get home?

Me: I’m going to ride my bike home.

Her: What color is it?

Me: Blue.

Her: What, you don’t like pink?

 

 

I’ll keep you posted if she offers up any more conversational gems.

Classroom Photos

Here are some photos of one of my classrooms.

1. These are some pumpkins I made with the kids for Halloween:

 

2: This is the English Word Wall that I update weekly:

 

3: This is a shot of the rest of the room. It’s a little blurry though:

Here’s Johnny!

So for my English lessons, there is a little story book that goes along with the topic for each week. Here’s one of my favorites and how I think it should have ended:

…

…

…

…

To be honest, that’s how I always pretend it ends. But here’s the real ending:

Leshan

So one of our last big events in Chengdu was to head to the Giant Buddha at Leshan. We hopped in a van and drove two hours to the Giant Buddha that had been carved into the side of a cliff over looking a river. As is typical of Chinese National Holiday, the Chinese were out in hordes. Apparently Chinese people are supposed to climb some kind of mountain during this holiday in order to prepare themselves for good things in the new year. I could also be making that last part up, but it sounds true so let’s go with it.

If you’ve ever spent any time in China during a Holiday, you know how crowded a population of 1.3 billion can be. This is especially exciting when you climb mountains because you never know if you’ll be allowed to walk down the path or just shoved over the edge by two short old ladies who think you are walking too slow. Despite the aggresively pushy hordes of people, the mountain was beautiful and the Buddha was really quite impressive. Here are some pictures:

Click on the photos to see larger:

At the top getting ready to walk the stairs down to the base of the Buddha

About halfway down.

Travel buddies with the river behind us

At the base!

Partial view of the climb down

When Pandas Attack!

So one thing you have to do in Chengdu is check out the pandas. There is this beautiful breeding park that houses a large percentage of the worlds pandas. The park is massive and there are literally pandas everywhere. We woke up super early last Tuesday to beat the Chinese hordes, and it definitely served us well. We were able to enjoy the nice weather and looking at the pandas without feeling like we were going to be trampled by the National Holiday crowd.

On our way around the park we saw tons of pandas eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping… I think that’s all they do. But whether they are eating or sleeping, pandas are ridiculously awesome to look at for no other reason than, well, they’re pandas. We saw super tiny baby pandas who had actually been in the Shanghai news paper the week before. We saw tons of older pandas. And we even got to sit next to panda and take pictures with it! This literally could have been the entire trip and for me, it still would have been worth it.

Click photo to see larger.

OMG BABY PANDAS!

Panda eating…

Panda sleeping…

Panda eating…

Rare moment of movement

Me with pandas eating…

Panda eating…

Panda eating Amanda…

Getting the panda to eat something other than Amanda…

Me hugging an eating panda…

Travel buddies posing with eating panda…

Chengdu!

Last week was Chinese National Day. We had the week off, so we decided to head to Chengdu out in the Sichuan province. It’s located out west, near Tibet. It’s known for spicy food, pandas, and Sichuan Opera. If you’ve ever ordered anything with the word “Szechuan” of a Chinese menu, this is the place they’re talking about. Spicy. Spicy. Spicy. I loved it.

The first day there we picked up some spicy noodles, strolled around a monastery, and caught a showing of the opera!

Click on the pictures to make them bigger!

First meal in Sichuan

I literally dream about these noodles… but that could be due to the MSG levels.

There were so many turtles at the Monastery.

This looked like a school for monks at the monastery

These are the guys that “magically” switch their faces

These were done by one of the female dancers

National Day!

So Chinese National Day has come and gone. I’ve been to Chengdu and back. And I’m two days into a seven day work week. In China, they give with the right hand, and take a way with the left. So while we did get a full seven days off, we get to work seven days straight when we get back. But I’m not complaining. I did get to hold a panda after all (…but that’s a story for another post).

Remember when I told you my older kids where practicing marching and dancing? Well that was for Chinese National Day. My kids even won best march! Good thing all I had to do was take pictures and stay out of the way!

Waiting for it to begin!

My other class… the cheer squad!

More Cheer Squad

Good…

… Way Better

Marching… They are saying, “We are the best!” I’ll take credit for that awesome slogan.

Attention!

Let the Kung Fu Begin!

And now for morning Exercises!

There can never be enough marching!

Watch Out for the Mad House

Here are some pictures of my new amazing home! Click on them to view a larger image.

The sign at the entrance of our lane: that madhouse does sound like fun…

Living Room!

Amanda and Kent’s bathroom plus our washer/dryer that we have no idea how to work

Amanda’s sitting room

Amanda’s bedroom

Mine and Alice’s bathroom!

Alice’s room

Dining room

The beautiful kitchen

Kent’s room!

And that’s Sophie, but she doesn’t live in China.

I’m really not sure how these pictures got in here…

Next sunny day we get, I’ll take pictures of the lane outside and of my room with it’s garden view!