Luckily for me and the rest of Xian I finally started teaching this week. If you remember the school I’m supposed to teach at had been closed due to H1N1, but for right now it’s open. This means I have my first week of teaching in the books, YES! (Followed by a fist pump) It was a great week with some highs and lows… and some interesting discoveries about Chinese school that we don’t have in the States. Come with me on a magical tour of my first week. (Followed by a warm smile)
So the first day of teaching went great, it was the same age I had sat in on a couple weeks ago so I had some games ready and a general idea of what to expect. I was a little confused when, just before my last class was going to start, all the kids in unison started rubbing their eyes to some soothing music played over the intercom system. My assistant told me it’s because the kids here go to school all day (which is true, I’ve never seen kids go to school this much in my life). When we were about to start the class my assistant told me to wait, because the kids can’t start class until five minutes after their eye exercises. That made me chuckle.
The second day also brought an unusual discovery. When I arrived at the school there were a couple classes singing songs to music playing over the intercom. Kinda like us Americans singing the National anthem. Assuming it to be only this I didn’t ask any questions. My assistant however informed me that the song they were singing was written by Jackie Chan. And you know what, if I was a Chinese student I would love to start the day off singing a Jackie Chan song… well him or Yao Ming. It was funny though when they were still singing like four minutes later and I asked my assistant “Is this still the Jackie Chan song?” to which she replied “Yes”. I guess whatever Jackie had to write about he couldn’t fit it into two minutes.
So my third day brought my lowest point of the week. I was informed upon arrival that I would be teaching 1st, 2nd and 5th grade classes that day. I thought nothing of it until I showed up to my first grade class and discovered that the things I had prepared were a bit too difficult for them. So it was a chaotic half an hour to say the least. My assistant told me I should sing a song, I told her I didn’t know any, and she suggested “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. I then proceeded to stumble through a version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, that can only be described as sad. My second grade class was slightly better. I found out that the next day I would have the same setup. This time I was prepared with many a song and sang them with utter delight. I can’t sing. I shouldn’t sing. I feel bad for these kids hearing me sing.
The rest of the week went great and in the end I had a blast! Now that I’ve gone through a week I know what my schedule is, which is nice. For all of you readers at home I teach 14 half hour classes of 50 or so students each. The classes range from 1st grade to 6th grade and I look forward to growing and learning more. 700 students a week… Unreal.
With hope and joy,
The Petersons.
September 28, 2009
September 21, 2009
H1N1 We Hate Thee, Birthday Party and Quotes
Another week and it’s the same story. I still haven’t begun teaching due to schools closing, because of H1N1. Tomorrow will be my first day though as I’ve talked with my boss and he assured me that I will start. YAY! But if my next post only contains jumbled words (more so then normal) and I utter H1N1 over and over you will know I haven’t started yet. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Besides the teaching mess, Heather and I are easing into our schedules again. Heather has resumed meeting with her tutor and her Chinese has never been better (which a close Chinese friend just remind the both of us that her Chinese is better than mine). I (Matt) have also found two tutors to continue my own studies and am happy with the new arrangement.
Our little girls are doing great these days. Aubrey is getting bigger all the time, but still is on the thin side. I’m not kidding when I say this, her Chinese is better than her English. Don’t worry it will even out sometime in the next 20 or so years (that’s a joke.) Whenever we’re outside and we see a dog she will say “Gou” (which is Chinese for dog) over and over again, with the perfect tone and all! Pretty crazy. She has also been eating books left and right. If you dare set a book down in her presence it is usually consumed within 3.7 seconds (give or take). Sydney has had her usual quotes which I will put at the end of this post.
I would like to briefly tell you all that I had one of my greatest Chinese moments yesterday. It was our good friend Lawrence’s birthday this week and we had the privilege of celebrating it with him. As I’ve mentioned on here before, Lawrence has become a close friend here and we’ve spent a lot of time discussing tons of different things. So it was fun to show him a bit of American culture in how we do Birthdays. To celebrate his Birthday we (Lawrence and I) went out to dinner together, Beijing Roast Duck… which was unbelievably good. Afterwards we went back to our place which was decorated for him, ate cake, opened a present and chatted a bit. It was wonderful to get to have such a good time and will be one of those memories I carry with me for a very long time. I could tell Lawrence was touched by all of this and am glad that he knows our family’s love for him.
So Sydney and Heather play this game where they run around throwing balls at each other and then hiding and what not (luckily no one has gotten hurt yet). Heather was hiding tonight and as Sydney was approaching Heathers hiding spot she said “What… have… we… got… here… A LITTLE GIRL!” and then hurled the ball at Heather. To be fair I’m sure Heather yells this a lot when they play this game.
Last one, so Sydney asked me to get her a glass of water which I said I would and when I returned with her water she said “You’re my hero”. Wow that’s all it took! Here’s some cake too!
'Till next time,
Matt, Heather, Sydney and little Aubrey
Our little girls are doing great these days. Aubrey is getting bigger all the time, but still is on the thin side. I’m not kidding when I say this, her Chinese is better than her English. Don’t worry it will even out sometime in the next 20 or so years (that’s a joke.) Whenever we’re outside and we see a dog she will say “Gou” (which is Chinese for dog) over and over again, with the perfect tone and all! Pretty crazy. She has also been eating books left and right. If you dare set a book down in her presence it is usually consumed within 3.7 seconds (give or take). Sydney has had her usual quotes which I will put at the end of this post.
I would like to briefly tell you all that I had one of my greatest Chinese moments yesterday. It was our good friend Lawrence’s birthday this week and we had the privilege of celebrating it with him. As I’ve mentioned on here before, Lawrence has become a close friend here and we’ve spent a lot of time discussing tons of different things. So it was fun to show him a bit of American culture in how we do Birthdays. To celebrate his Birthday we (Lawrence and I) went out to dinner together, Beijing Roast Duck… which was unbelievably good. Afterwards we went back to our place which was decorated for him, ate cake, opened a present and chatted a bit. It was wonderful to get to have such a good time and will be one of those memories I carry with me for a very long time. I could tell Lawrence was touched by all of this and am glad that he knows our family’s love for him.
So Sydney and Heather play this game where they run around throwing balls at each other and then hiding and what not (luckily no one has gotten hurt yet). Heather was hiding tonight and as Sydney was approaching Heathers hiding spot she said “What… have… we… got… here… A LITTLE GIRL!” and then hurled the ball at Heather. To be fair I’m sure Heather yells this a lot when they play this game.
Last one, so Sydney asked me to get her a glass of water which I said I would and when I returned with her water she said “You’re my hero”. Wow that’s all it took! Here’s some cake too!
'Till next time,
Matt, Heather, Sydney and little Aubrey
September 11, 2009
Teaching, Tutoring and Transformers
Well I expected to be writing this post with a week of teaching under my belt, but instead I’m writing this post with a few extra pounds under my belt. I blame brownies and Coke… but that’s not the point of this post. With this past Monday being the first day I was supposed to teach I was surprised to hear from my boss that I would not be needed till next Monday. What I now suspect is that the school I’m supposed to be teaching in has been shut down for the week, because of H1N1. This is my guess because my boss told me, in Chinese, about my school situation, saying a lot that I didn’t understand and then saying H1N1 in the middle of it. So I will keep you posted.
In other news I will be tutoring a girl once a week for a couple hours. Which I started last Saturday and had a blast! It was fun to sit down with her (Lily) and help her with her English. I’m hoping to continue to do this a couple hours every Saturday morning for a while. It was funny when I sat down with her parents to talk with them about what they wanted me to teach and what not. It was funny because her mom at one point was telling me what she wanted me to teach her daughter and she said something I didn’t understand at all. I looked over at the daughter’s aunt who was helping with some translation stuff and she said “she wants you to teach her daughter the Transformers names”. Ummmm ok, I guess I can do that. So the next week when they came she hands me a 3 PAGE PRINTOUT! of every Transformer name ever created, imagined or made up. I’m studying the list and she better expect a test soon. That’s a joke.
So although I didn’t teach this week I did get to sit in on a class to get a feel for the flow and what not. It was a lot of fun to see what 60 eight to ten year olds are like. At one point I was sat next to a kid and I asked him in Chinese if he had an English name. His classmate was quick to inform me that he didn’t. The student however corrected him and told him he had one. I asked again and the student not wanting to share with his nosy classmate reached into his backpack and tore off a small piece of paper and scribbled something on it. He then proceeded to crumple it into a small ball and then handed it to me. I unwrapped the small note, anticipation was building with each passing second. I looked down to discover his name on the paper, “Shark”. Yep he gave himself the English name of Shark. I (also not wanting his nosy classmate to discover the truth) gently rolled the paper back into its original ball and slide the ball back to him as if to say “Shark, your secret is safe with me”. I guess I would say that the day was a giant success.
With Hope,
Matt, Heather, Sydney, Shark and little Aubrey
In other news I will be tutoring a girl once a week for a couple hours. Which I started last Saturday and had a blast! It was fun to sit down with her (Lily) and help her with her English. I’m hoping to continue to do this a couple hours every Saturday morning for a while. It was funny when I sat down with her parents to talk with them about what they wanted me to teach and what not. It was funny because her mom at one point was telling me what she wanted me to teach her daughter and she said something I didn’t understand at all. I looked over at the daughter’s aunt who was helping with some translation stuff and she said “she wants you to teach her daughter the Transformers names”. Ummmm ok, I guess I can do that. So the next week when they came she hands me a 3 PAGE PRINTOUT! of every Transformer name ever created, imagined or made up. I’m studying the list and she better expect a test soon. That’s a joke.
So although I didn’t teach this week I did get to sit in on a class to get a feel for the flow and what not. It was a lot of fun to see what 60 eight to ten year olds are like. At one point I was sat next to a kid and I asked him in Chinese if he had an English name. His classmate was quick to inform me that he didn’t. The student however corrected him and told him he had one. I asked again and the student not wanting to share with his nosy classmate reached into his backpack and tore off a small piece of paper and scribbled something on it. He then proceeded to crumple it into a small ball and then handed it to me. I unwrapped the small note, anticipation was building with each passing second. I looked down to discover his name on the paper, “Shark”. Yep he gave himself the English name of Shark. I (also not wanting his nosy classmate to discover the truth) gently rolled the paper back into its original ball and slide the ball back to him as if to say “Shark, your secret is safe with me”. I guess I would say that the day was a giant success.
With Hope,
Matt, Heather, Sydney, Shark and little Aubrey
September 2, 2009
Water Park, Frog Legs and A Sydney Quote
Well it has been a very eventful week or so since getting back to Xian. We have been catching up with are friends and spending time with people nearly every day, which has been a blessing. One event was Sydney and I going to the water park here with our friends Joshua and his Dad Chris. It was a BLAST! I had never been there before, but when we got there it turned out to be awesome. It’s indoors and we were like the only people there. This park has two massive water slides which are nothing short of incredible. My conservative guess is that we had 5 near death experiences, but with kids and water parks that’s expected, right? We kept running around yelling “This is the best day ever!!!” which got even better when we went back the next day and my buddy Chris yelled “This is the second best day ever!!!”. It was tons of fun and I’m glad we got to do it. They are now closed for the season so we will have to wait till next year to enjoy some more near death experiences at the water park.
I wanted to write about this also. So one night it was about an hour till Aubrey’s bedtime and I put her in the stroller and took her for a walk in our neighborhood. Well one of our neighbors who absolutely loves Aubrey saw me and came up and picked Aubrey up took her to her house. She didn’t really ask me, but it’s China so what are you gonna do? Anyways, we got to her apartment and found that it was packed with her relatives. One of them was cooking and when I walked in to see what he was cooking I realized that his pot on the stove was filled with frogs…. And yes they asked if I wanted any. I felt up to the challenge so I ate a couple and to be honest they were really good. When Aubrey and I were leaving they asked if Heather would want any, to which I replied “maybe 2 or 3”. And what they gave me was a bowl filled to the brim. When I got home Sydney asked what was in the bowl and I didn’t have the heart to tell her so I told her it was chicken. She then told me she was hungry and without telling her what they were (she couldn’t see into the bowl, I made sure of it) we together ate the entire bowl. Ahhhh China life.
I will end with one of the best quotes from Sydney. One morning Sydney was poking Aubrey and pestering her and I said to her “Aubrey is not here for you to pick on”, which she replied “yes she is”. So I picked Aubrey up and walked to the other room and Sydney points at me and yells “Give me that child!” and then again a couple more times. I laughed so hard and still have no idea where that came from. I was scared of her though and decided it best to give Aubrey back to her. That’s a joke.
Best Wishes,
Matt, Heather, Sydney and little Aubrey
I wanted to write about this also. So one night it was about an hour till Aubrey’s bedtime and I put her in the stroller and took her for a walk in our neighborhood. Well one of our neighbors who absolutely loves Aubrey saw me and came up and picked Aubrey up took her to her house. She didn’t really ask me, but it’s China so what are you gonna do? Anyways, we got to her apartment and found that it was packed with her relatives. One of them was cooking and when I walked in to see what he was cooking I realized that his pot on the stove was filled with frogs…. And yes they asked if I wanted any. I felt up to the challenge so I ate a couple and to be honest they were really good. When Aubrey and I were leaving they asked if Heather would want any, to which I replied “maybe 2 or 3”. And what they gave me was a bowl filled to the brim. When I got home Sydney asked what was in the bowl and I didn’t have the heart to tell her so I told her it was chicken. She then told me she was hungry and without telling her what they were (she couldn’t see into the bowl, I made sure of it) we together ate the entire bowl. Ahhhh China life.
I will end with one of the best quotes from Sydney. One morning Sydney was poking Aubrey and pestering her and I said to her “Aubrey is not here for you to pick on”, which she replied “yes she is”. So I picked Aubrey up and walked to the other room and Sydney points at me and yells “Give me that child!” and then again a couple more times. I laughed so hard and still have no idea where that came from. I was scared of her though and decided it best to give Aubrey back to her. That’s a joke.
Best Wishes,
Matt, Heather, Sydney and little Aubrey
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