Accidents Come in Multiples

Again I am glad to see the end of the day and week come, it was not such a good day for all around me. First of all as you know Yuling is out with her problems, I still do not know any new details- except that I think that Teacher Stephanie said that they might have taken some of her stitches out but I am not sure. 2^nd of all this afternoon Teacher Stephanie told me that last night when she went home she had a message on her phone, apparently a boy in our branch had been playing chase yesterday at school and somehow he fell down and cracked his head/skull. Teacher Stephanie was very worried and tried calling the family today but could not get in contact with the family, so I am adding the family to my prayer tonight, I know very much how that family feels and what they are going through. And then today in my middle class we were playing musical chairs and I had two different people fall down and hurt themselves-in two classes. The first one was Josii in the 3 year old class, they were running around and somehow she tripped and hit right under her nose on top of a chair. I felt really bad but Teacher Stephanie took her and got her some ice to put on it, she was ok for the rest of the day just was walking around with an ice pack for most of the day. Then in my next class the 4 year olds we were also playing musical chairs and when they were running around Little Alice tripped or something and hit her face against the kids cubbies, somehow she ended up with a cut above her eye and a cut below her eye- I felt so bad, she was crying pretty hard. Teacher Jan took her to the kitchen to get some ice, they were still there when class got over.

Oh and also I guess that we lost a student today (no he didn’t die), I guess all of the teachers were in their classrooms when Kevin (a 4 year old) showed up with his mom, she had him take his backpack into the classroom and then he came back out, there was no one outside (which makes sense, since all the kids play inside in the morning before school starts), the mom was not very happy that there was no teacher outside to greet her child, so she took Kevin and went home. When she got home she called the school and Teacher Jane had to go and talk with her on the phone (since she is the 4 year old teacher) and I guess the mom was not very happy or very nice. I think that, that is kind of stupid, I can’t really understand her overreacting like this, it’s kind of stupid, especially since he is not a new kid at the school she knows that her child is perfectly safe and that he is not going to run outside the gate and get hit by a car (which is what she was supposedly scared about). The teachers were all sad to lose him, I am kind of sad but if that is how his mom always acts I am not too sad to lose her!

Now that I have covered the bad news for the day I will move on to the rest of my day. :D

I woke up pretty good this morning though I did feel a little slow at first, it is definitely getting colder here, it took me forever to get in the water of my shower. For my breakfast this morning I had some toast, last night Natalie and I had talked about getting up earlier this morning and going out for breakfast but I think that we both stayed up a little bit later than we had meant to and so did not get up early this morning, what with my blog and tutoring it is hard to get to bed really early for me and so I sometimes struggle to roll out of the bed at 7:45 when I set my alarm for.

In my morning class this morning we were talking about graphs, I started out with the basic of just counting how many boys and girls there were in the class and then we graphed it. Once we had done that I would take a survey of peoples favorites (apple, banana, or grapes; star, triangle, or square; red, blue, green, or yellow; etc. ) and then we would graph each result. For the 4 year olds is worked pretty well, but with the 5 year olds they thought that it was the funniest thing to have everyone say the same answer and so I started having to add my own votes so that they could see the idea. They loved it when one answer would have 13 and then something else would only have 1 or 2 and it would go much, much higher than the other one. In the 3 year old class we just worked on counting (how many boys, girls, how many wearing shirts, how many sitting on a blue chair, things like that), I figured that it kind of corresponded with what I had done in the other classes.

During my break I came upstairs and was able to talk with Ben for awhile and with my friend Erin, it was good to be able to talk with both of them but I kind of had to cut both conversations short so that I could grab my stuff for my class and then run downstairs for my next class.

For my middle class I was talking about hanging up clothes (so my for my middle class I am supposed to be teaching about something that is everyday life/chores, I am kind of getting past all of the topics that have to do with clothing if anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it). Once again I started with hanging my clothes the wrong way, it was kind of cute- before I had even asked if someone would like to help me every time I had someone offering to help me hang it correctly. In my class I first had each kid take a turn hanging an item of clothing (it was kind of funny to see how many boys got stuck with hanging up my skirts :D) once they were done each having a turn we were going to play a game of musical chairs for the remaining time, the twist- if they got out they hung up a piece of clothing. You already know how that game turned out, I know that I shouldn’t feel totally to blame, kids get hurt all the time- but I still don’t like seeing kids tears and seeing them in pain so I feel really bad and have decided that we won’t play musical chairs for awhile. It was cute though in the 3 year olds class, when we played the first round of musical chairs Little Erik was just sitting on the side watching, but when we started the 2^nd round I looked up and watched him sit walk over and sit his water bottle on the table and then start running around the chairs too with a big smile on his face.

Because of Little Alice getting hurt in my last class lunch time was a bit crazy. Teacher Jane was helping take care of Little Alice and I have no clue where Teacher Stephanie was for the very beginning of class. I had already brought all the food to the classroom and was ready to get everything started when Teacher Michelle walked in and quickly dished out the food for the kids but then she left and I was left alone to lunch again. For some reason none of the kids wanted to eat the food, they all thought that it was disgusting, several kids came up to me and pointed at something saying “that is bleh!” and then use their thumbs to point them down. If I wasn’t supposed to be the teacher it would have been kind of funny seeing their different expressions, but I was the teacher and so I felt a little bad because Ali spends the whole day cooking and preparing the food. While the kids were eating I started setting out the beds, I was about half way done when Teacher Stephanie came in, she told the kids that we would be separating into two groups for naps and those who were done needed to take their stuff to the other classrooms, she then explained to me that Little Alice’s grandpa was coming to get her and was going to take her to the hospital to see if she needed stitches and Teacher Jane was going to go with him and that was why we needed to separate into two groups. It was about this time that Little Alice’s grandparents showed up, the grandma was there too and she said that Teacher Jane did not need to come, that they could take it from there- I hope that the school does not get in trouble because of this. Then because Teacher Jane did not have to go with Little Alice to the hospital they were going to split into the 3 nap groups again so all the kids had to bring their stuff back to our classroom.

It was really cute, Little Annie (3 year old) was picking up her stuff to carry it the other classroom when I looked up and I saw Ray (5 year old) walk over and pick up her stuff and carry it to the other classroom for her, he then ran back and got the rest of her stuff for her and took it over. It always makes me so happy to see the little kids do things like this for each other, Teacher Stephanie said that they are neighbors, I don’ t care if they were brother and sister, it is still very cute to see kids doing kind things for each other.

When the kids were done with their lunch they got to have fruit, yesterday they were having guava, two of the kids (Ray and Kristy) put it in the mouth and were pretending that it was their tongue or something like that and were going up to people and pretending to lick them. It would have been funny if half of the kids weren’t already having difficulty their lunches because they thought that they were disgusting and so that added distraction didn’t do much for helping them get their lunches eat faster. But finally with Teacher Stephanie in the classroom she was able to help the kids get done a little faster. As I was walking upstairs towards my apartment I again heard thunder and from upstairs I could hear the kids scream as loud as they could every time it crashed. For some reason it can be completely silent in the sky until it is nap time and then the skies open up with their music and sounds. I again took a nap, having no clue what I was going to be doing for my class when I woke up but trusted that I would figure out something.

I began my afternoon class by showing the kids the pictures that I had taken the day before of our mummies; they thought that they were very funny and cute. I then showed them a couple of pictures of Antarctica and talked about how it is complete ice and snow. To show them my point I pulled out a bowl of frozen water and walked around and let every kid feel it, it was very cute watching them all feel it- they would touch it and then jump and laugh and then say something in Chinese and laugh again. Because it was Friday and the kids had been really good it class all week and it had just been kind of a stressful week I wanted the movie that I showed in class to kind of be a fun movie, so I went to youtube and found a short clip from the movie “Happy Feet” (if you haven’t seen it, it is actually pretty cute), the kids loved it and laughed the whole way through it. Once the movie was done we finished the last page in our passports!! I think in a way the kids were probably relieved to be done and excited also, one we were done with everything I took a picture of the kids with their passports (see previous post), some of them were not too happy to be having me take their pictures but others were very excited and even wanted to jump into others. In the 2^nd class we had some extra time at the end of the class and so I let the kids take turns experiencing what it was like to “walk” on water, it was quite entertaining as some would barely touch the ice before they removed their foot whereas others would hold their foot on the ice and try to act tough. It was a bit disgusting though, I looked at the water when we were all done and the water was like black with dirt, kids feet are not very clean! The whole time we were touching the ice the kids kept on saying “Teacher, it’s cold,” and the whole time I kept on saying “I know, I’m holding it”- I don’t think that they ever understood that part :D.

I felt bad because I had the ice and the kids kept on wanting to touch it and feel it and then I needed to ask Teacher Stephanie a question I didn’t get out of the classroom until nearly 10 minutes after class was over and I am supposed to have a tutor student right after class. I felt bad about it because at 5 minutes till when we were supposed to be finishing the tutoring Kristy’s mom pulled up and we had not even started, we rushed upstairs and did our reading, she had to wait an extra 20 minutes and I was sorry about that.

This next week we are talking about birthday celebrations around the world and we talked about how we were going to make piñatas for our class on Friday, I thought that because I don’t have anywhere to be this weekend that I should probably get started on them. I asked Teacher Stephanie if she knew a place where I could get a bunch of newspapers, she looked around the school and couldn’t find any. She didn’t know where I could get any and so I had just planned on getting magazines, when I came down from tutoring Kristy Teacher Stephanie came over to me and said that she had been talking to Little Annie’s parents and they had run home to get me a bunch of newspapers. I guess that they have a ton and they got excited with what we were going to be doing, they got even more excited because they didn’t want to just throw away the newspapers and were happy that I could use it. So they ran home and brought back a huge pile of newspapers just for me, we have awesome parents here at the school!

One of the 5 year olds parent (Joy) is a teacher at a local high school in a cooking class. I guess that yesterday they made a whole bunch of mooncakes in their class, anyway when I came downstairs last night Teacher Stephanie handed me this fancy little tray with mooncakes on it for Natalie and I to share, Joy’s mom had brought a tray for each of the teachers- like I said we have some awesome parents. Oh and I am totally jealous of the cooking class part.

(side note: it is such a beautiful day and so I just came outside to type on my porch, it is kind of a hot day and so the breeze feels nice. I was actually on my way to the kitchen to write but decided that it sounded nice to sit out on the porch instead)

Last night I tutored the Chou family for the first time. I didn’t know where they lived so Yuling had arranged that the mom would come and pick me up last night to show me where they live and then in the future I will bike there. I was kind of nervous as because Yuling hadn’t been there in the past couple of days I wasn’t sure if the mom was still planning on picking me up and I didn’t have any clue who the person was, thankfully Teacher Stephanie was there and she knows the family (one of the sons is the same age as her daughter Eliza and they were in the same class at Owl). The mom was very nice and very welcoming. I found out that they are actually very close, they live above the dad’s dentist clinic and the clinic is right across the street from the bakery- strange how I have never noticed it before. There are 3 kids that I am tutoring- each for half an hour, Cammi (the oldest), Angelo, and Abby (there is also Alan who is only like 9 months old). I started out with Angelo, they get these calendars every month from somewhere that have stories in English and some Chinese in it too and then it has questions about what they just read, both Angelo and Cammi were reading those-except that Angelo is just practicing sounding out words and then Cammi is reading and then answering the questions and she is working on her sentence structure along with the tenses of the word. It was a little confusing for me as the mom didn’t really tell me what she wanted me to work with each of them on until I was done with them, so now that I know that hopefully next time will be a little better.

When I was done with all 3 of the kids the cook brought me in a plate of dinner, it was really yummy- I tried really hard to eat everything on my plate, but there were some mushrooms (I think probably shitake), mushrooms that are normal size I can’t eat, they make me sick, so these mushrooms that were nearly 3 inches across I could not eat. I hope that they don’t think that I am rude for not eating them but I didn’t feel like throwing up in their living room either. When I was done eating the mom said that she would take me home, it was funny as I was walking out I saw a bottle of Melaeuca aloe-vera, I just thought that it was funny, though I am glad that I had found out previously that Melaeuca was in Taiwan or I think that I might have been a little surprised.

I got home about 9pm and decided that since Natalie was not home and it was quite I would start my journal. Instead I got distracted with talking with my friend Annie who was in my ward last year, it was so nice to talk to her- we talked for nearly an hour and a half. I didn’t get much done in my journal but it was nice to be in contact with friends from home. Once I was done talking with Annie I did get about a page and a half done with my journal but then about that time Natalie came home and I went to talk to her for a little bit. The little bit probably turned into an hour, I was kind of sad to lose that time but it was nice to be able to talk with her and enjoy it (sorry). When we were done talking it was about 12:20, I went back to my room but was having some difficulty keeping my eyes open and so I decided that I would read for a little bit and then go to bed.

I have caught up with yesterday, now I am going to give some current statuses of the relationships in Owl Preschool:

· So ever since I have been here it has always been Anna and Buzz, they always are sitting beside each other and generally one person has their hand on the others leg. This past week Anna has been gone but Amy was back, a couple of days ago I looked over and saw Buzz and Amy holding hands, Teacher Michelle yelled at them to let go—all the while I was thinking what the heck happened, Anna is gone for one day and already Buzz moves onto another woman? I will update as I find out more about that status.

· Jared and Annie- so Annie arrived at Owl Preschool probably about two weeks ago and already she and Jared are the best of friends, they even have their own little jokes that they think are hilarious. Before Annie came Jared was starting to be semi-calm in class but now with his best friend Annie it never happens. It is kind of funny watching them sometimes, neither one will say anything but they will look at each other and then just start laughing all the time and Natalie said that they have some sentence that they say to each other every day back and forth to each other and they think that it is the most hilarious thing, laughing every day about it.

· Jimmy and Leslee- the cutest, I haven’t seen holding hands from them or anything but they always want to sit by each other in class and even if they are on different teams Jimmy wants to help Leslee- I continually try to explain to him that they are on different teams and that he doesn’t want to help her, but when you are in “love” you don’t understand :D

· Shawn and Sam- ok so not a boy and a girl but Shawn came to school last week and this week he and Sam were the best of friends. Yesterday when we were playing musical chairs whenever I would stop the music they would try and find seats beside each other, if there weren’t two seats beside each other in the circle they would go and sit down on chairs outside of the circle (in the 3 year old class you have a chair for every child).

· Little Erik- ok so I never saw this actually happen but Natalie was telling me about it and it just makes me laugh. Apparently this past week in class Little Erik has been running around trying to kiss people. The other kids had no clue what was happening and so they just stood there but Teacher Stephanie knew what was going on and kept on yelling at him to stop in Chinese. I guess Natalie hadn’t seen it either but finally Teacher Stephanie yelled in English and so she got what was going on. I don’t know why but that just makes me laugh, a little 3 year old running around trying to kiss everyone- if that doesn’t just make your day, I don’t know what can.

So I guess I am caught up for the day. I was going to add what has happened so far today, but already this post is getting pretty long, so I guess I will wait and add another post later. I love you all and hope that you are sleeping soundly! ;D ~Betherd~