Kicking kids out, public urination and new coats.

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This week has been pretty laidback, as we got back from Hong Kong Sunday evening and are heading to Hangzhou early Thursday morning. Lucky Martin ended up only having 1 class this entire week to teach! I, on the other hand, taught two of my most challenging classes- the students are less advanced, know that they're probably not making it into a good university, and really don't care about English. So, what do they do? Yell things in Chinese, pass notes, talk when I'm talking, sleep in class, do their Chinese homework, etc. It's nowhere near as bad as some American high school classrooms are, but it's still exhausting. If I let them walk all over me, I'll never gain control of the class. Many of them think "Oh, foreign teacher. She doesn't know what to do. She can't communicate with our head teacher (in Chinese) to complain about us, so we can get away with anything." Oh no you didn't, little 15 year old brats. I slammed my notebook down, yelled, stood up a little straighter, looked kids right in the eye (my family certainly knows that evil look I am capable of) and ended up kicking a kid out of class for the first time. That worked wonders. The rest of the class, scared shitless, hung on my every word for the remainder of the class. 😊

Other than teaching, we've been doing the usual- watching movies, reading (we're both reading "My Life" by Bill Clinton-fascinating), talking with family/friends back home, cooking and just relaxing together. During lunch on Monday, we ate with Shaka and Harry, as we usually do, and talked about life. I mentioned that we'd taken a Chinese test the previous Friday in our class, and immediately Martin joked "Yeah, but I failed. I know I did." They'd previously remarked that my Chinese was much better than Martin's (there's no beating around the bush with Chinese speakers of English- "Staci is better. Yeah, I think so. Much.") so it was no surprise to either of them that Martin felt that he didn't do as well, but they still of course tried to console him. Harry immediately launched into telling Martin how it's been proven that women learn languages quicker than males, and so he shouldn't feel bad because I should be better than him, just by the nature of my sex. I laughed and said "Yeah. Plus us women are just smarter in general, Harry." Luckily both Harry and Shaka know more than enough English to understand sarcasm and appreciate jokes like that- I'm appreciative of the fact that I can sit at lunch with three men and say things like that. The follow-up? We did get our exams back, and I did do much better than Martin. However, he recently got praised by the program for being an 'outstanding teacher'...so I'm better at Chinese and he's better at teaching. It works out nicely. 😊

Also during that lunch, Shaka turned to us and said "Will you climb the mountain with us this afternoon?" Will we? As if we were supposed to know that people were climbing the mountain? Oh yeah, of course. It's the Double Ninth Festival. Nobody can really explain what that is, but it has something to do with climbing mountains, and all the teachers at school are required to. Except the foreigners of course. Only if we want to. Will we? My foot has been giving me a lot of pain, so I opted out, but Martin joined in on the hour-long hike and had a good time impressing the teachers & leaders. I also got out of teaching my last class of the day, apparently because of said Festival. Yay Nowism! 😊

Tuesday we left campus at lunch time and ventured once again to Ikea & Decathalon. We ate lunch at Ikea (they had pasta with a vegetarian sauce!) and bought jackets at Decathalon, which was very exciting. They're very pretty. On the way home, I witnessed a small child peeing on the bus. Yeah, no big deal. It's an everyday sight here in China, kids peeing and pooping wherever they please...and adults, for that matter. Martin and I had just been talking about the weirdness that is the slit pants on children in China (they just have a big gap so everything hangs out) and wondering what parents do if their kids have to go on the bus. Yep, they just let it happen and bust out a roll of toilet paper. Naturally. Thank god I wasn't sitting next to that kid.

Today we went to Chinese class in the city and then grabbed dinner and beer with Elyse, Pete, Kris and Kelly. Always a good time. We're off to Hangzhou early in the morning and will have many stories/pictures to share upon our return Sunday. 😊 Off to pack and go to bed now!

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