Here are some random stories since the last post.
Sunday was Teacher Appreciation Day. We were to "perform" for the other teachers of the school. We only had a few days notice, and they didn't have a piano, or any other sort of "normal" instrument. And none of us really know how to sing. So we ended up deciding on Cotton Eyed Joe, since we're not really the best dancers either.
Well, long story short, the act before ours was teachers performing Kung Fu (so that's how they keep the kids in check!). We turned to Daisy and made sure she was aware, "You brought us to China to teach... just so you know. Not to perform!" She assured us we'd do great. Well, we got up there and danced our little hearts out. Monday, the school gym teacher came to our office to learn the dance and today, Thursday, I saw kids dancing to it in the gym. Yep. We brought good ol' Cotton Eyed Joe to China. They wanted an easier routine, so we introduced the Macarena, but they didn't like that one.
Two boys in my class today cried. The ... whole ... time! Well, at least the whole first ten minutes until I just couldn't take their disrupting my entire class of first graders anymore and made them go outside. Fortunately, another teacher was out there and she took care of them. They missed their moms. I wasn't really hard on them at all because it's hard to be a six year old taken away from mommy for five days a week! (This is a boarding school -- remember?) I felt terrible for them, but really, I didn't have any control whatsoever of the class when they were in there, basically.
I also had a girl in my class eat her ink pen. Yep, you read that right. She ATE her pen! I just looked over and she had blue all over her face and dripping out of her mouth. What the heck!? I'm aware ink is supposed to be poisonous, but I also know that I ate ink when I was in second grade and I'm still alive. Although it did scare me at the time when I finally did learn it was poisonous. The girl is still alive too, for the record.
We wanted to go to Pizza Hut last night, but were too embarrassed to ask Daisy for the address since this would have been our third time in two weeks. So we resorted to asking the 13 year old students to write down "Pizza Hut" in Chinese on a piece of paper so we could give it to the cab driver who would, hopefully, take us there. We trusted that the students translated it accurately (and didn't play a practical joke on us!) -- and apparently they were good, because we made it there all by ourselves. Yep, we're basically awesome!
I love that the Google Chrome browser has a "translate" button. I think that alone has converted me to Chrome as my browser.
Due to the squatters here... I've had more conversations on bathroom habits in the last few weeks than I think I've ever had in my entire life! (Hint: squatters aren't people who live where they shouldn't... squatting has to do with the fact that bathrooms here don't have toilets, but rather have a single drain hole in the middle of the bathroom's tile floor. Squatting. Enough said.)
But still, I've learned a lot comparing the way I use these toilets compared to how others get along with them. Again, enough said.
Other cultural "shocks" that aren't shocking to me anymore:
Random explosions on the street are basically normal here. For real.
So are groups of random policemen marching around randomly and practicing their formations or whatever it is they do.
We've also seen all kind of kites on the square in the city, and at night they're decorated with lights. Just beautiful!
People honk their horns all the time and are just generally loud.
Old people sit around and play card and board games in the streets.
People go on walks in the morning, clapping their hands together every few steps. I have no clue what they're doing.
There's this one guy who stands outside all day (at least, he's there in the morning on my way to school, and he's always there at night when I come home) playing with this yellow "juggling' type thing. It's like a yellow disc on a string that he swings around. Kind of a horizontal yo-yo I guess.
The weird things about this place are beginning to feel normal.
The only thing that isn't is the food. It's only gotten worse. It is getting harder and harder to put things in my mouth that my body says, "Uh, no, that doesn't go in here. Keep it out!" Not only do I not recognize the PARTS of the animals I'm eating, I don't even recognize what kind of animal it is that the parts came from.
Except that we had chicken legs for dinner tonight! The first familiar thing I've had since I arrived! And I ate six (6!) of them. I would have eaten even more, but I felt like people were already staring.
Don't get me wrong, though. I love it here. I really, really do!
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