Wacky Days

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Yesterday in one of Michael's classes a new student walked in. Michael asked the boy's name and the boy responded "Hitler." Michael was absolutely shocked and insisted that the boy could not be called by that name and if he wanted a German name he would give the boy something else. After class he had to do his best to explain to the boy why he couldn't have that name.

Today I gave my K8 class a map of the world and they looked at me absolutely dumbstruck. What were they looking at? "It's a map of the world." Where's China? China looks like a chicken, I don't see a chicken (they responded trying to turn the map upside down and sideways). I was shocked "Has no one ever seen a map of the world?" No. There's a map of the world in my classroom but it's really small and only the people sitting right next to it can see it. I sit beside them and so I can't see it. (One kid responded.)

On other notes besides the insanity of China and the Chinese. I finally went to play my first game of Mah Jongg at a real place just for Mah Jongg. They have their own Mah Jongg tables that are especially for the game. One of my friends - Allen - taught us how to play. We were really getting into it - it was really addictive. The tables were so cool. It was a green felt board with a wooden border around it. You pressed a button in the middle and a circle would pop out of the middle of the table - you then moved all the mah jongg tiles under the circle (so that they fell down into the table) and pressed the button again. There were rows in front of each player that would then open up with a fresh set of two rows of tiles on top of each other so you didn't have to organize the tiles like that every time you played. It was absolutely awesome. I totally want one of the tables.

I've been looking to play Taekwondo for a while now and have finally found two different places. I'm supposed to meet a friend of Michael's in half an hour and go to her Taekwondo class to see what it's like. I really want to start Taekwondo up again so I'm looking to see what the best place around here is. There's also another place next to HaoSha (my gym) that has Taekwondo with a Korean person teaching it. I may end up going to that one. We'll just have to see.

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