About Me

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Mail Time, Mail Time!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

A couple of things that I forgot to put in my post yesterday…. When I was filling out my insurance thingy Yuling told me that I had to put who would be my beneficiary in case I die (I admire her bluntness ;D), she said that because I am not married nor have any other family that I support I should put my parents, so mom and dad be not worried, if I should die you will be rich! And yesterday also while I was tutoring Mark what we were reading about was talking about what makes a good paragraph (I think that, that might have been one of my worst sentences ever but I don’t really feel like correcting it :D). Anyway I learned that one paragraph should stick to one topic and have no sentences that go off on a tangent, my point? It is a good thing that the authors of the book don’t read my blog! ;D

So all should be proud be proud of me, last night I went to bed earlier than midnight! (and not by just a few minutes either, it was a whole half hour :D). But it didn’t exactly help me, this morning I still got out the bed pretty tired and I didn’t wake up as fast as I normally do after a shower. But it was all good.

In my morning class today we were talking about patterns, if you will remember we talked about patterns a couple of weeks ago, but those were the kind that were like blue, yellow, blue, yellow, etc. but the patterns we were talking were kind of like they put in quilt squares, we used the blocks that come in many different colors and shapes. I let them take turns choosing which next piece we would put on our pattern and where we would place it. They seemed to like doing it, they kept on telling me as we were making the pattern that we were making was beautiful, even the guys seemed to like it (which was kind of funny as I started out with making a flower).

I am finding that my brake between my middle class goes way too quickly, I often feel like I just get upstairs when it is time to go back downstairs (particularly because I always try to be down there at least 5 minutes before the class is supposed to start so that I know that I am ready for class to start). So today I felt like I just had time to run upstairs, use the bathroom and grab the book that I was going to be using for my next class. Last night I had tried to make a phone call and then this morning Natalie had tried also (on the phone in our apartment) and it hadn’t worked for either of us, so when I went downstairs I still had a few minutes before class was supposed to start and so I asked Yuling about what we have to do to make a phone call. I guess the numbers that we were both trying to dial were long distance, Yuling explained to us that we don’t have long distance up here because long distance can be up to $12NT per minute and that cell phones count as long distance, I guess that some of the interns used to get on the phone and just talk-talk for awhile and then they would pretend that they didn’t know about the phone calls. I find it amazing sometimes that Yuling continues to trust people with some of the stories that she has told us. So as a note do not expect any phone calls from me besides through skype.

I had found a book called “Treats from Trees” and I began my middle class by reading that, it basically showed pictures of rubber balls, almonds, cherries, maple syrup, chocolate (the best one :D), and cinnamon and then talked a little bit about how each of these things come from a tree. That of course could never take up 30 minutes (dang!) so we had to play a game, it was good though, I wrote down the different things that were in the book and added a couple of other things that the kids know that come from a tree and circled each item. Then one kid at a time came to the front of a class and I would say something like “I would like almonds” and then I would ask them what tree they would come from, they would find the “tree” that was almonds and then try to hit it with a ball (hey rubber at that :D), if they were able to hit it their team got a point (they were all on one team- and we weren’t working towards anything), it was fun though and the kids seemed to enjoy it, the 5 year olds got so I didn’t even ask and they would just tell me which tree you would have to go to get what I had asked for.

Lunch time!! The best part of the day (besides nap time that is)! I think that I am fast becoming Wendy’s lunch buddy and whoever is quick enough to sit beside her. When class is over I generally take my stuff and put it away and then help bring stuff in from the kitchen, generally right as I walk in the door Wendy will look up and see me and then ask her to sit beside her, as she is the 1st to ask I will sit beside her. It is kind of cute/funny, she generally wants me to sit down beside her right that moment, but I feel bad and generally help Teacher Jane serve the kids their lunches, but because I will not sit down right beside her that moment every time I walk by her she reminds me that I am going to sit beside her. Anyway I think that kids are beginning to realize that I generally sit beside her because lately there has been a different person sitting beside her. Today for lunch we had fried rice, not quite the same as mommy made fried rice at home, it didn’t have any eggs (L), just rice with soy sauce and some cooked ham (I am just going to say it is ham in my head and so I don’t think about the possibility of it being something else :D). By the time that lunch was over I was more than ready for a nap. I came upstairs and put my ipod on (Natalie was on the phone with her family and our walls are not that thick) and fell to sleep very quickly, I didn’t even wake up until my alarm went off. The nap was very refreshing.

In my afternoon class we were talking about mailmen. We talked about what happens when we send our letters for awhile and then I reminded the kids that we had written letters yesterday and that in order to get them (we had “sent” them yesterday) we must have a mailbox for the letters to be delivered to, for our mailboxes we had brown lunch bags. For the rest of the class period we got to decorate our mailboxes and then at the end the letters were delivered to their mailboxes. It was pretty cute, while we were decorating our mailboxes in the 2nd class Charlie told me that my mailbox was pretty, and then Allie who was sitting next to me told me that no it was cute, Charlie and Allie then had an argument for about a minute about whether my mailbox was pretty or cute (meanwhile

My really cool/awesome and cute/pretty mailbox.

I was thinking to myself that they could have that argument about me any day of the week). Not only have the kids argued about whether something I did was pretty or cute, but generally at least one time a day I get told that I am beautiful (usually by May), usually I don’t know how to respond to this but it makes me feel pretty special! :D At the end of my afternoon class we had a little bit of extra time and so I pulled up the Wiggles song “fruit salad” off youtube, it has been a week and a half since I taught them the song and they still come into nearly every one of my classes singing it. I am so excited to finally be able to put my wiggles songs to good use, to have the kids like them and me not look like such a dork for knowing them :D.

When I was done with class I headed back upstairs, I looked at my computer for awhile and then was in the kitchen drinking some water, I opened up the window and was watching the kids. I said something to Teacher Stephanie and she pointed out to the kids that I was up there, they were all excited to see me (man you would have thought that it had been a long time since they had seen me), Leo especially, I think that he probably spent 5 minutes saying “Teacher Beth” and then of course saying something in Chinese that I could not understand. Wendy and Leslee had been playing in a different part and so hadn’t seen me, but when they did Wendy asked me if I would come downstairs (the kids are not allowed to come upstairs), I wasn’t really doing anything and so told her that I would come down. When I got down there they were racing and Wendy told me that she wanted to race me. Man those kids are fast, I even cheated and started before I said go and they still beat me (of course I wasn’t running full speed)! I think that we raced from one end of the playground to the other end at least 10 times, it was really cute to watch the kids all go full speed. I am not sure but I don’t think that past interns played that much with the kids in the afternoon or else they just seem to love the interns because they all got excited when I came downstairs, they were all playing different things but when I came they all moved to play with me. I played with the kids until they were all gone but then headed back upstairs. I haven’t done much else for the rest of the night, I cruised the internet for awhile and then have been writing my journal, but not much else.

Oh, kind of side note: I am beginning to appreciate even more that I made the decision to not get credit for doing this internship, first of all last semester Natalie had to take an extra class and do all of this extra work, second of all because she is getting credit for the class she has to pay tuition. I am very grateful that I do not have to do all the extra work and pay extra fees. I think that maybe Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways, that I didn’t find out that I could take the extra class and credit until it was too late to add the class.

I guess that I am done for tonight, be sure to check out my post with pictures of the kids! ~Betherd~

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