Saturday, April 12, 2008

Everybody is working for the weekend

It was a cold one here in Handan, and it just kept getting colder all day long until it finally started to rain a few hours ago. The crappy thing about rain here is it never seems to storm. We get light rain that lasts for hours or even days, but it never progresses to anything more than that. I would really love a good thunderstorm tomorrow, the kind that makes you glad to stay inside and watch a movie or curl up with a good book.

Anyway, I had two classes today and I just let the kids study because they have a big round of exams this weekend. It sucks that we didn't get to do anything in class, but I know how important these exams are to them and I know their other teachers don't give them the time they need to study.

After that I taught my private lesson where I've been working on the weather and seasons with my little ones. I had been getting frustrated with that class because all of the moms kept coming to class and because they are all teachers they all had their own ideas of how things should be done. Of course, they all decided to keep telling me what to do and none of their opinions agreed with one another. One week they told me to do only group activities, the next week I was berated for not spending enough one-on-one time with the kids. I played too many games, then not enough games. Finally I got really frustrated and told our headmaster that if they wanted me to keep teaching the class then only the one mother who translates for me would be allowed to sit in on the class. Apparently they wanted to keep me on as the teacher because today when the other mothers arrived my translating mom (who I really like) kicked them all out. Today's class went much better than the last two and I was glad I stood up for myself.

I came home from class and relaxed for a little bit and then headed over to Ross and Landy's for dinner. After we ate Amy and Landy told me they had to tell me something. Apparently the pork dish that I had enjoyed had come from the pig's face, which goes against my rule of "no eating face." The meat was really delicious though so I won't complain too much.

After dinner we just hung out and talked and play mahjong for a few hours and now I'm getting ready for bed. Amy and I are supposed to hang out and watch movies and talk tomorrow because it is supposed to rain all day. Then Sunday Amy, Landy and I are supposed to have a girls only day so it should be a pretty fun, low-key weekend.

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