Stuck in School
So, I was going to just play around are read my friend page since it has been quite a while since I caught up on my friends lives via lj, but for one reason or another, I'm not allowed to read that page here! Here would be the primary school I teach at on Tuesdays. Have I mentioned that I teach MATH here? Quite frankly, I know that they are being as accomodating as possible, but the time table is borderline sucky... the school is over an hour and a half away by bus, so I really ought to be on the 724 by 8:45 am at the latest to make it here by 10:30. Let me tell you, that is not my idea of a good time when my alarm is going off at 7:45. But, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? I admit, I was a little late getting out to the bus stop today, but not excessively! It was a while before the bus arrived too, and long story short, I was late. Again. It seems like it should be nearly impossible to be late to work when work doesn't even START until 10:30, but I managed it. Boo.
Whenever it is a nice day out, the school decides to have the second grade classes combine and meet outside. This... is chaotic! It is not that there are ONLY the two classes of second graders out there... no, there is gym class going on at the same time... and we meet near the fence, so many people wandering by will come over to watch what we are doing out of curiosity. Plus... uh.. it's outside. And a MATH class with no chalk board. It's just this side of impossible to handle. Luckily for me I do have three or four Chinese teachers out there with me herding them together and such. It's quite helpful, sorta fun in an insane way, and about an hour.
Then, I'm usually shoved into the "art expert" room (for whatever reason, I'm no expert in art...) and left there. Alone. For almost TWO AND A HALF HOURS. In this time I'm always brought lunch, which is very tasty, no doubt, but quite full of meats that I pick around. The really scary one is when they bring me soup that has unavoidable meat. Please don't judge me veggies of the friend page - but it's my only food, and it is SO long before I get home that if I didn't eat something I'm quite sure I would expire! I always feel really bad because it seems like they bring me the choicest pieces of meat and they always sit in a little (okay, large) pile in my bowl. I've told Emily, my contact person, that I don't eat meat, plus she's eaten with me three or four times before, but she can't seem to remember it until I'm eating and pushing meat aside. I know she told the school that I don't eat meat, plus I've told two of the teachers, but hey. Sometimes you just have to deal with it right? Today, I'm not an art expert. Today, I'm in the mathematics teachers offices. It's kind of nice to be around people, but as usual I'm kind of a just a freak show in here. The teachers are trying to talk to me, and some of my second graders have come in to talk to me and tried to read what I was typing! They were talking about how they couldn't read it in Chinese and I was SO proud because I understood what they were saying! Then one of them started to go "I was..a..little...la..i...t." So I helped them out with that for a second, but then the other teachers in here yelled at them at told them to leave, but wait, they're back now! I think that they are really impressed that I'm still typing. Okay so about ten minutes later, I'm back! One of the math/english teachers was having them ask me how to read some sentences and then I was supposed to try and teach them the words to a song. It was..okay. But really, I just wanted to finish writing this and take my xiu xie (break). Luckily for me one of the other teachers in here just made them leave because it's I'm supposed to be resting now for my afternoon classes. That's really the crappy part of the situation, having class from about 11-12, then from 2:30-4:15 in the afternoon. It makes for a long day as I have another 1 1/2- 3/4 bus ride home when I'm done. If I didn't like the students so much (sooo cute) and didn't like the change of pace that comes with teaching math rather than oral english or writing so much, then I would just quit. It's so far away with SO much down time that it's rather annoying, but still, very rewarding.
In other news, today is Jones' birthday, and as most of us teach on Wednesday AND we have Chinese class tonight (and Andy and Lilia now teach night classes on Tuesday and Thursday) we couldn't celebrate today, so we went out yesterday night! We went BOWLING and it was amazingly fun! We were by FAR the loudest people in the place, and at first I think we were driving everyone else crazy, but then they started to think we were hilarious to watch. Mainly that's because somewhere during the second game we started doing synchronized bowling with the other person bowling in some sort of extreme fashion. Also, we were running low on time but we started a third game, so we did SPEED BOWLING, and it was perhaps the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. That, and speed bowling PLUS syncronized stepping made for a hilarious, though not particularly high scoring third fame. Speaking of scores... the first game my team, Andy, Flannery, Jones, and I kicked the other team, Fo Fo, Bson, KT, and Lils collective ASS. Andy and I were actually insulting each other and having a little competition of our own for highest score, and we TIED. It was fairly hilarious. After that we realized that Andy and my score combined beat the other team so I said (jokingly) that Jones was Surplus and Flannery was Excess (she got the lowest score on our side). After saying that the world went topsy turvy and Andy and I started to suck balls while Jones started to really do an amazing job! I think it was the addition of my smacking her ass every time she went to bowl that really did the job. Either Andy or I smacked Flannery's ass when she went to bowl as well, but not both of us as we realized that when we both did it, she actually bowled worse. Ironically, Andy and I tied the second game as well... I wonder how that happened! All I can say is that is was a really great night out...and it made me think of the fun I had bowling with SAI and the excessive ass smacking that ALWAYS went on then.... aww memories.
Also, the eight of us have been hanging out a lot lately because on Saturday we got together to dye Easter Eggs (which are still sitting in my fridge as I'm afraid to put them out since rats apparently like them...) and then on Sunday we had Easter feast together. We are ALWAYS impressive when we pool together our food making skills, but we really outdid ourselves today. Not only was everything delicious, it was also really really GOOD FOR YOU food. We had my penne pasta with artichokes and pesto, mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy that Lilia whipped up (mashed potatoes via Bson), an AMAZING fruit salad from FoFo, carrots and mixed veggies from Jones, green beans with crumbled hard boiled eggs and zucchini boats from Lilia, a shrimp and asparagus concoction from the Scotts, and brushetta and desserts or no bake oreo cupcakes and cheesecake from Katie. I supplied Mozart boozes and milk as our after dinner drink, and all in all it was just amazing food. Everyone has been thinking about what we will do on their birthdays since we have seven between today and June 30th plus one wedding anniversary, and I really think I'm going to ask that we cook a meal together...then drink a bunch. Lilia's birthday is Saturday and on Friday we are playing beer pong and flippy cup because only Lilia has ever played those and it's time we learn those college classics, then, on Saturday we are going to go to this big hill and slide down a CRAZY ass slide that looks like a bobsled run. Should be a good time.
Sorry that I made this as long as I did, but on the upside, I do only have an other hour before I will be teaching again now!
Whenever it is a nice day out, the school decides to have the second grade classes combine and meet outside. This... is chaotic! It is not that there are ONLY the two classes of second graders out there... no, there is gym class going on at the same time... and we meet near the fence, so many people wandering by will come over to watch what we are doing out of curiosity. Plus... uh.. it's outside. And a MATH class with no chalk board. It's just this side of impossible to handle. Luckily for me I do have three or four Chinese teachers out there with me herding them together and such. It's quite helpful, sorta fun in an insane way, and about an hour.
Then, I'm usually shoved into the "art expert" room (for whatever reason, I'm no expert in art...) and left there. Alone. For almost TWO AND A HALF HOURS. In this time I'm always brought lunch, which is very tasty, no doubt, but quite full of meats that I pick around. The really scary one is when they bring me soup that has unavoidable meat. Please don't judge me veggies of the friend page - but it's my only food, and it is SO long before I get home that if I didn't eat something I'm quite sure I would expire! I always feel really bad because it seems like they bring me the choicest pieces of meat and they always sit in a little (okay, large) pile in my bowl. I've told Emily, my contact person, that I don't eat meat, plus she's eaten with me three or four times before, but she can't seem to remember it until I'm eating and pushing meat aside. I know she told the school that I don't eat meat, plus I've told two of the teachers, but hey. Sometimes you just have to deal with it right? Today, I'm not an art expert. Today, I'm in the mathematics teachers offices. It's kind of nice to be around people, but as usual I'm kind of a just a freak show in here. The teachers are trying to talk to me, and some of my second graders have come in to talk to me and tried to read what I was typing! They were talking about how they couldn't read it in Chinese and I was SO proud because I understood what they were saying! Then one of them started to go "I was..a..little...la..i...t." So I helped them out with that for a second, but then the other teachers in here yelled at them at told them to leave, but wait, they're back now! I think that they are really impressed that I'm still typing. Okay so about ten minutes later, I'm back! One of the math/english teachers was having them ask me how to read some sentences and then I was supposed to try and teach them the words to a song. It was..okay. But really, I just wanted to finish writing this and take my xiu xie (break). Luckily for me one of the other teachers in here just made them leave because it's I'm supposed to be resting now for my afternoon classes. That's really the crappy part of the situation, having class from about 11-12, then from 2:30-4:15 in the afternoon. It makes for a long day as I have another 1 1/2- 3/4 bus ride home when I'm done. If I didn't like the students so much (sooo cute) and didn't like the change of pace that comes with teaching math rather than oral english or writing so much, then I would just quit. It's so far away with SO much down time that it's rather annoying, but still, very rewarding.
In other news, today is Jones' birthday, and as most of us teach on Wednesday AND we have Chinese class tonight (and Andy and Lilia now teach night classes on Tuesday and Thursday) we couldn't celebrate today, so we went out yesterday night! We went BOWLING and it was amazingly fun! We were by FAR the loudest people in the place, and at first I think we were driving everyone else crazy, but then they started to think we were hilarious to watch. Mainly that's because somewhere during the second game we started doing synchronized bowling with the other person bowling in some sort of extreme fashion. Also, we were running low on time but we started a third game, so we did SPEED BOWLING, and it was perhaps the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. That, and speed bowling PLUS syncronized stepping made for a hilarious, though not particularly high scoring third fame. Speaking of scores... the first game my team, Andy, Flannery, Jones, and I kicked the other team, Fo Fo, Bson, KT, and Lils collective ASS. Andy and I were actually insulting each other and having a little competition of our own for highest score, and we TIED. It was fairly hilarious. After that we realized that Andy and my score combined beat the other team so I said (jokingly) that Jones was Surplus and Flannery was Excess (she got the lowest score on our side). After saying that the world went topsy turvy and Andy and I started to suck balls while Jones started to really do an amazing job! I think it was the addition of my smacking her ass every time she went to bowl that really did the job. Either Andy or I smacked Flannery's ass when she went to bowl as well, but not both of us as we realized that when we both did it, she actually bowled worse. Ironically, Andy and I tied the second game as well... I wonder how that happened! All I can say is that is was a really great night out...and it made me think of the fun I had bowling with SAI and the excessive ass smacking that ALWAYS went on then.... aww memories.
Also, the eight of us have been hanging out a lot lately because on Saturday we got together to dye Easter Eggs (which are still sitting in my fridge as I'm afraid to put them out since rats apparently like them...) and then on Sunday we had Easter feast together. We are ALWAYS impressive when we pool together our food making skills, but we really outdid ourselves today. Not only was everything delicious, it was also really really GOOD FOR YOU food. We had my penne pasta with artichokes and pesto, mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy that Lilia whipped up (mashed potatoes via Bson), an AMAZING fruit salad from FoFo, carrots and mixed veggies from Jones, green beans with crumbled hard boiled eggs and zucchini boats from Lilia, a shrimp and asparagus concoction from the Scotts, and brushetta and desserts or no bake oreo cupcakes and cheesecake from Katie. I supplied Mozart boozes and milk as our after dinner drink, and all in all it was just amazing food. Everyone has been thinking about what we will do on their birthdays since we have seven between today and June 30th plus one wedding anniversary, and I really think I'm going to ask that we cook a meal together...then drink a bunch. Lilia's birthday is Saturday and on Friday we are playing beer pong and flippy cup because only Lilia has ever played those and it's time we learn those college classics, then, on Saturday we are going to go to this big hill and slide down a CRAZY ass slide that looks like a bobsled run. Should be a good time.
Sorry that I made this as long as I did, but on the upside, I do only have an other hour before I will be teaching again now!