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Published: February 22nd 2016
Watching
Parents of new first grade students making sure they're settled inToday at work, I asked one of my teachers if there was anything interesting in the newspaper he was reading.
"Not really, it's yesterday's. The most interesting thing is the article about Ronaldo winning the award."
"Ah, okay. Why is he making such a stupid face in the photo?"
"I have no idea. You're right, it's not a good expression."
A quiet teacher in the corner spoke up:
"He's single, you know, Kris."
As I was walking to the beach a group of middle/high school boys yelled hello, smiled and waved. On my way back up, they said hello again and asked if I'd take a photo with them. I sighed, not really in the mood.
"Okay, " I said. All 7 of them let out a whoop and a "YES!"
Glad I changed my mind.
Pro tip: if your coffee drink is stolen by monkeys make sure the McDonald's staff sees and they will offer you a free one.
Every Monday there's morning assembly, ie 30 minutes where the students stand, the teachers sit, and we stare at each other outside while we sing the
national anthem and listen to speeches. I'd commented as we were settling in that it had briefly rained during my drive in, maybe it would again. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a few drops were felt and I heard some very excited cheering. From the teachers.
My schools have implemented an exercise program for students one morning a week. I was asking how I could help out.
"Well," one teacher suggested, "You could do aerobic exercises with the students."
"Hahahahaha, no. I don't want to smell all day."
"Ha, this is true. But it's easy. You won't even break a sweat."
"Uh-huh."
"No, really, it's like cheerleading. 'Give me a C give me a K,' like that."
I had to ask. "What are you spelling?" To me, it looked like he'd forgotten how to spell my name.
After a long pause he replied.
"Come, Kris!"
Well done, sir.
Today, during the Headmaster's retirement celebration, there were a number of very long speeches and I'm pretty sure some of the students fell asleep.. His was about 30 minutes long. Towards the end, he
suddenly looked up at me (I was in the VIP section) and said, "Hello Kris! How are you?" Shocked, I tried to look like I'd been paying attention and wasn't surprised, "I'm great!" He smiled and then continued to talk about me in Malay. Everyone laughed several times and kept looking at me. I later found out he told everyone he had to say hi in English because I don't speak Malay. And that I'm single.
Today I went to the tax office to file my taxes. The women who helped me asked me questions and filled out the forms since they're in Malay. One of the questions, of course, asked about marital status.
Her: Are you single, married, or divorced?
Me: Single.
Her: Oh, good for you!
"An omelet with vegetables," doesn't always mean "an omelet with vegetables in it," even if that's how you always order it. And that is how I ended up with three plates of food in front of me and lots of confused looks from other diners.
I always go to a family owned Chinese place in town. Today, at my table
was a family friend and frequent customer. Nice guy who spoke very little English, but we still chatted a bit. Without telling me, he bought me my lunch and then told me on his way out.
Today one of my teachers was attempting to explain what the word "clean" means to a group of first grade students:
"You know, like, shiny, bling-bling!"
Yep, I'm sure that cleared it right up.
One of my classes was going over phonics today, the "or" sound in particular. The problem being, they're a little weak on their pronunciation, and it comes out more like a short "u" sound. It wasn't a big problem, really, though, until they got to the word fork. And, naturally, one boy was extremely excited to shout this word as loudly as possible.
Today we were back to phonics, with emphasis on the letter X. We were doing just fine until we came to the word, "fox," which suddenly seemed to sound a lot like "fork" did last week.
And just like last week, the same kid was really excited to yell it.
Today I was in class and one of the students decided that mimicking every action I did was a great source of fun. After a few minutes of the basic move arms/touch face/pretend to look at things, I let loose with every Jon Travolta dance move I could think of.
The kid handled Vincent Vega and disco very well.
It's common for the students to greet me when I enter a class. This morning was no exception. But year three has a new class monitor who was a little nervous. Class monitor: Good morning sir!Class: Good morning sir!Teacher: Good morning class.Class monitor: Good morning Kris Miss!
Class: Good morning Christmas!
Today I was talking with one of my teachers about his colleague.
Him: Yeah, she has 12 or 13 kids!
Me: 12? Seriously?
Him: Yeah, she's quite productive.
Learning to shred coconut
She was worried I'd injure myself. Teacher: Class, look at these words. What is this letter?
Class: L!
Teacher: Great! How about this one? This one? This one?
Class: L! L! L!
Teacher: Good job! What letter do you think we're going to learn about today?
Student: 5.
A big thank you to the bank security guard who chased me down across a parking lot and around a corner on a motorcycle to return my atm card after I left it in the atm. Quite a shock to have him tapping on my car window and waving the card!
Today I went to the bank, and as I was leaving I noticed a new bakery had opened across the street! Of course, I went in... and discovered they sell egg tarts, Portuguese egg tarts, and cheesecake tarts were on special.
After spending all my money on egg tarts, I went outside to discover another new bakery across the street.
I've never liked banking so much.
This morning I walked into the canteen and was greeted by the lady who runs it.
"Kris, we're having
Learning to shred coconut
Ta-da!
Okay, so I only did a little. Details. a special meal today, since we start fasting tomorrow. A feast! And it's free!"
"Wow, that's great!" I said.
"Yes, but since it's not for a few hours, have some homemade chocolate cake for breakfast."
All Wednesdays should be like this.
Teacher (in English): Here are some new words for the story. Does anyone know what "die" means?
Student (in Malay): hair dye.
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