MY Descendants

Whenever people see me, they would say in chinese "foreigner"- after a while you either get used to it or get utterly annoyed that they haven't gotten used to you being here. I went to a primary school to see some children and a few ran by calling me a foreigner and running away.
One girl was so afraid because all she has ever seen for her 9 or so years of existence- Chinese people. So I started speaking to her in chinese and that made her more in awe. I said to her, I am a real person, really. I asked her if she agreed, she didnt know. So she started walking around me in circles checking me out. So I stretched out my hand and she touched it, then she touched the other hand. Then I bent down so we could see each other eye to eye and she touched my cheek, then my hair then rubbed my face. I said to her, am I real? She nodded her head assuredly. Later I went to talk to some of the students. She mumbled something as if she wanted to tell me a secret and I bent down and she kissed me on my cheek.

A while later two came beside me, pointed to me and said "African" and ran away. So I called them and a group of children swarmed around Jingjing and I and we explained that in America, there are white people, black people and yellow people (chinese); some of them were like "ohhh" but those two boys insisted I was an african. I was cracking up I thought it was so funny. I mean what can I say, they see me in their history and social studies book. In fact, their books say africans are black, americans are white, chinese are yellow and some say that indians are red, others, yellow!

The next day I saw that same girl who thought I wasnt a real person and she pushed through everyone to come and give me a hug. These children warm my heart.

Mary, Jennifer, Jinjing, Erica and a new Chinese English speaking student teacher (Sally) came to my house to ring in the new year. We ate Mexican food; decorated sugar cookies, watched a Bollywood flick Bride and Prejudice. I laughed so much, there were just random comments and silly faces.

Vacation
I have time on my hands; China does vacation right! I was off for Christmas break; then taught Mon-Wed (Wed I only had one class so finished at 10am). I will be off until Jan 4; my students will take their exam on the 4th; we will grade papers on the 4th and 5th. Then I will be off from January 6- Feb 12th for Chinese New Year which is on January 26th. So I will pretty much be off from Dec 30-Feb 12th! Gotta love China!