Last night, Robin asked me if I would cover her afternoon class so that she could go to the conventional market. She would cover my morning class and I would cover hers; I agreed. I like having the opportunity to meet new kids—like when we switched kids with the 3rd Floor teachers, everyone complained that it just messed things up, but I appreciated it and enjoyed it because now I know so many more cute kids that all say hi to me when they see me.
Because the afternoon classes don’t start until 1:30, I was able to sleep in this morning. It was wonderful; it felt so great being able to catch up on sleep. When I awoke, I choreographed my dance to Justin Bieber’s “Baby” for the DaGuangHua karaoke competition on the 25th of November. I will dress up as Bieber and Kaylee, Kelli, Maren, Krisan, Ivy, and Kylee will be my backup dancers. It’s so random but will be so awesome; my first time as the star in a performance (besides violin solos) and I perform Bieber. My life is so great. Wo ai shengming.
Since today is Monday, the morning teachers get Muslim food for Muslim Monday. I love this tradition and joined them, since I technically am a morning teacher. I got Chow Mein, which is delicious. The tomato and egg dish is my favorite, but I like to try new things.
I bought ice cream bars from a small convenience store for 1 yuan each: that’s about 20 cents for a good-sized ice cream bar. I bought eight to store. There is one that is completely fudge and it’s delicious—it’s like a chocolate bar but so much cheaper! The fudge isn’t quite like American fudge, but it’s still tasty, especially since we get so few sweet things here.
Teaching the afternoon kids was alright. They’re a bit older than my kids (my age average is seven years old; the afternoon kid average age is about 10) and much cheekier. I like my kids a lot better—maybe because I know them and I know how to work with them, but I also like younger kids better. I’m difficult that way. I don’t feel like I bonded with those kids like I did with the 3rd floor little kids.
For dinner tonight, there was everyone’s favorite tomato and egg dish. It’s different than the Muslim dish, but still delicious. Oh, so very delicious! I like Muslim better, but the cafeteria tomato and egg dish is such a welcome change to the normal oily, bland cafeteria Chinese food. It always makes my tummy happy. I went back for seconds last time they had it, so this time the guy loaded me up with it. He’s usually very stingy with food, so I appreciated this act of generosity.
Krisan, Ivy, and Kylee invited us to play games with them that night. Me moving in Krisan was probably the best thing that could have happened to our ILP group—it has opened doors that otherwise would have remained closed. Having spent more time with those three, I’ve discovered that they’re not exclusive: they’re sweet and funny. They’re friends so they stick together.
Kelli and I joined them in their room and we played the Monkey Game, where one person gets in the middle of the circle and acts like a monkey in an attempt to get someone else to laugh. It is the funniest game ever! We were all laughing so hard and acting like complete fools. Friendships were made tonight.
Afterward, I joined the three of them in the common room for a dance party: we simply danced to songs on Krisan’s iPod. It was random but fun.
I had a lot of fun with them. I like the changes that have occurred these last few days.
I’m not sure if I’ve even mentioned this, but I switched rooms with Brittany. I am now rooming with Krisan, and Britt is with Abi. I have to be quiet in the morning so I don’t wake up Krisan, since she teaches in the afternoon and can sleep in, but other than that I get the room mostly to myself. She doesn’t have a computer so the internet is all mine. When we do see each other, we’re very congenial. We’ve even stayed up late talking about life, college, and boys. Mostly boys: we’re both boy crazy and have lots of stories to share. I adore her, actually.
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