There are 3 kinds of people...

After church I ran into the supermarket to get some potatoes (which turned out to be potatoes, glass cleaner, 7 lb bag of rice, tofu and noodles) but any who and an old man found it very necessary to inform me of the following...Jenn, Mary and I were standing by the rice and he pointed at me and said in Chinese
" There are three kinds of people in the world- black people, white people and yellow people and we are all represented here!"
He was very happy about his statement and Mary said "well there are also red people because we have Indians" and he answered, this time counting on his finger "there are three kinds of people in the world- black people, white people and yellow people and we are all represented here!"
Sorry Indians...

Chinese National Day

A bit of history for you...

The National Day is a designated date on which celebrations mark the nationhood of a nation or non-sovereign country. Often the National Day will be a national holiday.

The National Day of the People's Republic of China (Guóqìng Jié) is October 1. It is a public holiday in the People's Republic of China to celebrate its national day.

While this is a celebration of the national day, people often get a longer vacation- in my case I am off from September 26th- October 5th

My take...

I'll take it, let's celebrate

I have the best of both worlds because the Chinese teachers don't get the American holidays we go but we get them plus all the Chinese holidays!

Congratulations Tashni and Dale!

Happy Birthday Marantha

Joyeux Anniversaire Mara!

Nos meilleurs voeux- Je t'aime mon amour!

Happy Birthday Camille

Big Up mi fren Camille, all who caan have birthday a bat! Fly weh- bet yu seh yu go Q2

Happy Birthday Love, I hope you will try to have a wonderful birthday- yes I understand it is hard to do this without me, thats why I said TRY- love you girl

6 truths in life

1. You cannot touch all your teeth with your tongue.



2. All idiots, after reading the first truth, will try it.



3. And discover that The first truth is a lie.



4. You're smiling now because you're an idiot.


5. You soon will forward (copy/paste and email) this to another idiot.



6. There's still a stupid smile on your face.


I apologize about this.

One idiot deserves another!!!

Happy Birthday Nadia!!!!!

Happy Birthday Nadia!!!!

And congratulations on your proposal!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm very excite lol!

Happy Birthday Janelle!!!!

I wish you a Happy Birthday JB!!!
zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè
祝 你 生日 快乐

I hope you have a FAB day-

You are such a great person and friend and you deserve the best so I wish you all the desires of your merry heart! Love you girl!

Happiness

Today was a very happy day for me, I'm not sure why- I have enjoyed every day since I've been here- I have had no bad or hard days however today was just exceptionally well.
I woke up as usual and took a shower, etc the usual and I said "something is going to happen so good that I don't even know about yet"

The weather was much cooler today- maybe about 75 as opposed to our normal 90ish... My first class was at 9am and I walked in my grade 8 class and they clapped and said "Rose!!!" and then started screaming "wooo" and a few random shouts of "beautiful" then I killed that by saying- today we will have an exam! and then they gave me sad faces and then smiled when I gave them a sad face. It was an oral exam and it went pretty well. After the exam, I reveiwed the questions with them and left.

So I have been doing a pilot test on a kid named Hezekiah, the first pop quiz he got 55% and I asked his mother permission to tutor him to see if it would make a diference. The first day I spent an hour on Chapter 1, gave him the same quiz and he got 95% but of course there are a few factors:

• maybe his short term memory is really good


• dude I just told you this you studied 2 mins before taking the exam


• its the same exam from 2 weeks a go

At this time I had not written the exam yet; so the next day I tutored him again for 30 mins on Chapter 2 and gave him a quiz and he got 1 wrong but understood the rationale. It was his class that got an exam today, I was very careful to purposely avoid any questions that would be on the quiz since by this time I already wrote it.

After I asked him how the exam was and he said "easy" and of course I wanted to scream but didn't, well maybe I did.

As soon as I get home, I search for his exam----he got 100%. I checked it like 3 times to see if maybe I was just so excited I overlooked it but he did well. I told his mother and she thanked me but I told her not to because it was his hard work.

So its the little things in life that really matter, for example I was so happy I had freshly squeezed orange juice! Now Dole is easily accessible here but I cannot explain how delighted I was to drink the orange juice that I made myself. You understand- whats better- your sister calling you and saying Happy Birthday or your niece singing Happy Birthday.

So in my previous story about Hezekiah, I just imagined this in the future- one day my husband comes home with diamond earrings and about 15 minutes later he hears me in the living room screaming and the conversation goes like this:

Boaz: babe whats the matter?

Me: my student just got 100% on his exam!

Boaz: babe, I JUST bought you diamond earrings and you said "thanks" and now you are screaming about some kid in your class :)!

No lets add some balance, of course I love diamonds, lets not lose sight of this! My kids just mean more to me than work- they are just on my mind constantly.

Anyways, back to the present, I was online and saw two of my friends and had the funniest conversations ever!

After my 9am class, I was free all afternoon, went to lunch at 12 with the girls- then back home because my last class was at 4 (I only have 2 classes on Wed). Lunch was delicious

Met with my grade 9 class - gave them an exam and then had them act out skits--seeing these kids act are the funniest thing ever.

Then after class I went to meet some kids to have them take/retake my exam; then rushed out to the first teachers meeting of the school year which was very productive- we will have English Week, the week before Christmas- so anything American (simon says and a plethora of activities); speech competition; singing contests, etc

I asked my supervisor to help me find a really poor school that needs help in English and money to buy school supplies for kids, etc- so she reported in the meeting that she is working on that and Mary decided to join me on the project! We will only do one school because we don't want to just hop around, we want to develop relationships.

Then after the productive meeting, we went to eat and had street side dining- literally- then we got ice cream and I am still extremely happy!

Grade 7 Kids

Background: There are 7 grade 7 classes; I teach 4 classes, one of the Chinese teachers told me that his students are not very happy because I did not visit them- so last week I went to see his class 705 and this week I visited 706. They had 15 minutes to completely interrogate me; here are common questions that I got:

1. Where are you from?
2. What is your email address?
3. What is your QQ number? (its Chinese IM)
4. Where do you live?
5. What is your phone number (to which I would say I am not telling you - any more questions then the next 3 questions would be - whats your phone number)
6. Do I have a boyfriend? To which the entire class goes crazy and scream "woooo"
7. What are my parents names?!
8. Do I like China? Yidu? Yidu Foreign Language School? Why?
9. Do I like Chinese food? What's my favorite?
10. What's my favorite sport?

Then they would always ask me how old I am; to which I say "a woman never tells her age!" and they just giggle.

Its always a shocker if they ask me a question and I answer n Chinese, they love that.

Girls Day Out

A few of the Chinese teachers came over to learn how to make brownies, we all met in Mary's house...

Then we played a Chinese card game which translates to "Fight the Landlord"

Rainbow and Cecilia are both expecting babies
We go out to a restaurant and Mary attempts to eat a duck head...

Conversation

Rose says to Judith- what is that? Judith responds "its a plant eat it, it makes your skin beautiful; I dont remember the English name"- I taste it and its delicious, looks like aloe/jello but its sweet. We look up the english term it turns out to be some plant that grows under swamp but at the end of the night we confirm that its aloe.

One of the Chinese teachers asks about one of the food items, Judith responds- just eat it, its a vegetable. Its good for you..so we start laughing at her because supposedly everything in China is good for you whether it be rice, a plant, a dead cooked animal, etc...

Then the potatoes come out and she says, oh have some Rose- its tomatoes, I said close but its potatoes...

Motorcycle Maven strikes again

Then we go dancing in the square park and have little children run up to us and point saying "waiguoren" meaning foreigner... Mary was playing with this little girl and motioned like she was screaming to scare her away- the little girl backed up and kicked in some karate move!

Happy Birthday Jenn

Today is the first anniversary of Jenn's 29th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Jenn

She got a cake....

And lunch with the Chinese teachers

There is a lot more food to come...
Then we had dinner...

Then played games

This is the Chinese replica of me...we are born a day apart and are so alike!

My Residence Card

My Chinese Visa will expire in a month so last week I went to Yichang with one of the Chinese teachers (her English name is Suzy) to get my residence card. We got on the bus and head out to the police department. The plan was show them my passport, physical exam records and take a photo then leave. Once there (10am) we were told that we should take the photo but I would have to do another physical because my records are from America; the second issue is that my photos all look different apparently. The photo in my foreign expert certificate looks Chinese and my face looks long, the pic on my medical records, my face looks round and in person I look like neither of them! So we take a photo and get in a taxi to go to the hospital.

We get to the hospital about 11am and there is a massive race against time because most places shut down between 12-2:30pm to sleep (including my school)! I go to one floor to have my blood drawn; go to the 3rd floor and the doctor motions me to lie on the bed. She then tells me to take off my shirt, so I sit up to do so and I am strapped with colorful strings on my ankles and leg, etc and I say "whoa"- picture a straight jacket effect with more colors (thats my guess at least I've never actually been in a straight jacket ward)- so anyway I take off my top and have on a tank top- I guess its EKG- 2 mins later I'm told to get up and we go into another room.

Suzy then says "first you take off the top now you take off the bottom"- I respond "ahh man" and take off my skirt, the doctor looks at me puzzled and says something and then I put my skirt back on. We both laugh, I lie down again- this time she has a handheld object that kinda looks like a pizza slicer only that it has rubber on the ends so it wouldn't hurt. She applies a cold gel and I start giggling- then she tells me not to breathe! The procedure is at least 3 mins and she expects me not to breathe! She then tells me to breathe alot, I guess that meant inhale and exhale- she does not speak a lick of English. Suzy then tries to explain the next instruction- she said "put up your back and put ypour stomach down"- I said "what?" and then she says "sleep on your belly" and I say "oh lie on my stomach"- so we do the same thing again no breathing then excessive breathing so she can check my lungs, etc.

Then we go to another room (because it would make too much sense to have the machines closer!)- I see an eye chart- I was expecting the ones you have at the DMV.... I see this

Now the instructions I got when Suzy translated was tell the doctor where her finger is going, so I have this big old spoon over one eye and I'm looking in a mirror and the chart is behind me. So she moves her finger up and I motion my finger up, she does a few things and I tell her which way her finger is going. After she declares me as blind, they explain again- what I was supposed to do is tell if the "E" she is pointing on is turned up (as in the regular way); flipped to the left or right or turned down in which case it would look like an "M"- I pass the test then she checks me for color blindness using a book with patterns that had numbers engrossed in it...

Suzy says ok one item left, and she is running so I start running then she tells me I don't have to run (confirmed: Chinese just like to run!)- I go to another doctor on the first floor and he tests my pressure- I did not eat because I wanted to be on time and I had just had blood drawn- my result was 100/60 but I was not worried (normal is 110-70 or 120/80 and thats what I usually get) plus I'd much rather be a bit low than being high...

So we go to measure me, and of course this is funny because I am way taller than the doctor, I take off my heels and gt measured. Then he weighs me, I weigh like 30 more kilos than Suzy so we laughed about that....we leave and I sigh relief then she says "ok now one more item"- this illusive one item thing is becoming one more item after completing the last one more item- hope I didn't lose you :)

I go into a room on the 2nd floor Iand the male doctor leads me into a big white room, with a smaller room to the far right- a huge machine that must have been featured in Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or at least Freddy! My two concerns- no one is using that machine on me and I am not removing my clothes. Suzy tells me to stand in front of the machine with my back against the board- the doctor writes some notes and leaves. He then reappears turns me to face the board- presses me into the board as if to flatten my nose and then goes into the smaller room, then he tells Suzy to come into the room too! I am nervous because I dont know what these machines do and why did he call her as if there was going to be some electricty striking or something. Then I realize he called her in there because he assumed that me being a waiguoren (foreigner) I did not speak Chinese which in this case was an accurate assumption but nevertheless- she tells me when to breathe - how fast etc and I guess that was an Xray for my chest.

Then we have one more item, she hands in some paperwork, pays for my exam and says "all done"- its now 11:45am and in 15 mins everyone is going "bye bye"

We walk to a restaurant, order some food, rest and then head back to the school. She will take in my info this week and then I will officially be a resident of China!

Wishes from my student

Noelle is one of my students and she sent me an email to wish me a good Mid Autumn Festival. This holiday was on Saturday but we get Monday off... I'm not sure what she is trying to say but like she said its sincere! Below is a screenshot of the email...

The text reads:

Dear Rosed: how aer you ? Tomorrow will be Mid-Autumn Festival, hoped that your Mid-Autumn Festival will be joyful! Chang E, you knew certainly that she is very attractive, is a female celestial, she to become an immortal, steals food the pill of immortality, the depth occupies " the Moon Palace " she to think of fondly the hometown very much, but does not dare to descend to earth, can only stare high, oh! She may be really bad luck! You miss homeland? My dear teacher ,Has not related, you have the student! Has Many students!We are keeping thinking about you! Hoped that you do not want lonelily! Chang E's story very miserable! My English is not good, this letter, depends entirely on English translation dictionary, but, is very sincere! Also asks you to forgive! o(∩_∩)o... All things are satisfactory!

I think she is trying to tell me that I don't have to miss my relatives in America because I have students -- alot of them; Chang E is in the picture above and she tells me the story of Mid Autumn Festival and she wishes that I am not lonely.

Day in Yichang

7am Meet at Mary's house to head out to Yichang..passed by the

store and

to meet this little chap
in McD for breakfast Here is his ba ba (dad)
... Justin climbing on the table Then we go to the couple's house: Clark and Eden- parents of Justin

Mary swings in this cool hammock chair while I lounge in their indoor hammock
Jinjing (Mira) strikes a pose...
Justin shows us how cool he is
then goes off to swing with his dad
We leave the house to meet some graduates from our middle school who have begun high school...this is Carol
and she doesn't have an English name because she didn't go to our school so I named her Cassie
We take them out to eat and then review the Creation with them then teach them about how Adam and Eve were disobedient

We stay in the restaurant for about an 1 1/2 hour and then take them out for dessert

Ok serious faces this time...
Then we go to the takeout section to order pizza at Pizza Hut and head home

Motorcycle Maven

So having people stare at me constantly gets boring after awhile, I have a need for speed- I'm going to learn how to ride a motorcycle! Mary and I head out to the field so I can learn how to ride...its pretty simple, the first time I went around in 1st gear;

the second time I went in 2nd and moved up to 3rd gear...
Jenn tried too in 1st gear

I went around a few times; the last time I was in 3rd gear turning the corner and I knew I couldn't control it, so I was like "oh snap oh snap oh snap"- there were a few different plans in my head but none were executable because they all contradicted each other and I had 15 seconds to make a decision...if I leaned to the left, I would fall, if I jumped off the bike would keep going and could fall on me, so I decided to do nothing lol...the bike raced over a bump, I flipped, bumped my head, fell in the grass and then the bike fell on the other side... Mary and Jenn were on the other side of the track and I jumped up, threw my hands in the air and said "I'm OK"

No skin was broken, I wasn't bleeding and I felt fine; even though I hit my head I had on a helmet so I went upstairs, took a shower, applied some neosporin just in case...met the girls 15 mins later ..went to a restaurant, did pedicures and then went to a basket store and supermarket...