So I know it has been a long time...I have gotten many reminders from my mother that I need to update my blog, so here it goes.
This one is all about my students. Recently, Les and I have gotten to spend some of our free time hanging out with our students. They had a holiday called Qingming Festival, which translates into Tomb Sweeping Day, where they remember their ancestors who have passed away. They got a few days off of school, so we immediately had several invitations to hang out with our students.
We went with two of our students to a DIY baking store in Huangshi. It was so neat! You can bake cookies, cakes, or chocolates. We chose cookies.
The two girl's English names are Cherish Missy and Kristen. They both used to be Lesley's students, but now Kristen is my student because all of our kid's changed classes.
Sidenote: During students first year in high school, they have to pick a major either science or history. So about a month ago, all of our students took a big exam and then depending on what major they chose switched classes. Unfortunately, this meant that some of my students are now Lesley's and vice versa.
Kristen mixing the cookie dough.
We put the cookie dough in a bag and then got to make letters and shapes with it.
I spelled my initials.
Our cookie creations before baking.
Kristen and Cherish Missy~aren't they adorable!
At the bakery waiting for our cookies.
Posing with our cookies!
The next day, six of my Grade 2 students asked me to go bike riding with them. Little did I know, this would turn out to be a 4 hour bike ride!!!! I haven't ridden a bike in a very long time, much less for 4 hours. For those of you who know Huangshi, we rode out to the location where they are building our new school. Yes, I rode all they way through the tunnel and back! I felt like a mother hen with all my little chicks worrying about them getting hit by a car. When people ride bikes in China they just weave in and out of traffic, so I was scared to death most of the trip, but it was fun!
My Grade 2 kiddos taking a break from riding bikes.
Phyllistal, Random, Nicholas, me, Anna, Kathy, and Cindy Lee
We also had two of our students over for lunch at our apartment. You would not believe how thrilled they got about this. I made a Western meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. These two girls are so sweet and we had an awesome time hanging out with them.
Loura, Cici Smith and Lesley
Lesley and I temporarily lost our minds and thought it would be fun for our Grade 2 students to perform skits. We broke each class up into 8 groups and gave them two class periods to work on any skit of their choice, the only guidelines were that it had to be all in English and no inappropriate topics. Some students were thrilled about it, others were not so happy. I told each of my classes that Lesley would be judging them and whoever the winner was would get to go to lunch with me, my treat! The prize was definitely and incentive to be more enthusiastic about the performances.
We let them perform outside because we needed more room for both of our classes to fit.
I finished the skits for one of my classes, so I took the winning group to New York Pizza. The pizza is the best in Huangshi! All my kiddos were so excited! haha And it was very entertaining for me to watch them eat with a fork and knife!
From bottom left clockwise: Carter, Vickers, Steve, me, No Way, Spark, Bunny and Random
Their skit was about Tomb Sweeping Day and was very humorous as they would say!
