weekends, tutoring & ktv...

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heyy, just figured I'd update with news from the the last few weeks...

First, I went to Fen Si Jia's house the past 2 weekends which was fun. The first weekend me and Candice went out to dinner with her family to a hotpot restaurant in Jianying, the city next to Zhangjiagang. I'm guessing we must have hotpot restaurants at home, and I've just never been to one, but if not..its kinda like fondue where there's a big pot in a hole in the table filled with broth and you cook all the food yourself. We got tons and tons of vegetables, some meat (which made me realize that at home i would have been soo grossed out by raw meat on the table but here i didn't care, lol), and some roll type bread things that you put in the broth so they get soggy, kinda interesting, lol. Then after dinner we went to a big supermarket near the restaurant that has a lot of foreign food, and i bought cheerios! haha, actually it's kinda weird that they don't really have cereal here cause everyone likes milk and kids are always drinking it. They didn't have any really good foreign food though, except olives, but they were rediculously expensive..

This past Saturday I tutored the 2 brothers which was fun. They asked me last time how much the gold from the World Cup trophy is worth, so I looked it up and they were excited, lol. (by the way it's about $103,017.36 ..haha) Then, after them I had lunch at Jenny & Daisy's house and "tutored" Daisy. Her mom made curry vegetables and kimchi pancake things..both soo good! The 2 other brothers that I usually tutor on Saturday's were at their friend's house so originally their mom had called and cancelled, but she then called back and told me to go see them at the friend's house. At first I thought that was kinda strange, well actually it still is, lol, but it ended up being a lot of fun cause the friend is actually one of my kids from school. He was so suprised and confused that I was at his house and that I knew his friends who go to a different school, haha. He's in 2nd grade and the brothers are in 1st and 3rd, they're all soo cute! i wish i had had my camera.. we played with blocks and cars and robots, and of course playstation 2, haha, while I tried to get them to talk to me in English. The one kid though, the friend, actually just came to Zhangjiagang in Jan. and used to go to an international school in Beijing so he can speak really well.

After their house I went to Fun Si Jia's again, I brought a cross stitch kit I had bought near her house once since I haven't been able to figure out how to do it right. We had dinner at her house, me, her and her mom (her dad was away for work) which was really good. We had a bean sprout dish, eggs & tomatoes, spicy chicken that was actually mostly white meat!, and some other vegetable dish..and rice of course. After dinner we went to the store to ask the lady there how to do the cross stitching. Then, while she was showing me, I heard a kid behind me say "hello, lee!" LOL, I was so suprised I probably jumped..haha, I was an hour away from school! It was one of my 4th grade boys who actually speaks English pretty good, at least compared to the other kids, lol, but he was so embarassed especially with his mom and sister standing there that he could hardly answer me when I asked him what he was buying , lol. I actually just had his class today though and he talked non-stop about how he saw me, and asked what was I doing all the way there near his house, and what did I buy, lol. I hadn't really thought about it before, but even though Zhangjiagang isn't a big city, it's pretty huge compared to a small city at home. Even though he lives in Zjg, it would take him an hour to get to school everyday, so he sleeps here all week and then goes home on the weekends. It's also really funny though cause I see my kids everywhere! and they always say "hello, lee!" (I'll have to take a video so you can really get the full effect of the innotantion they use, haha) I see them shopping, in the park, in restaurants, and on even on the bus, lol. I guess it makes sense though cause I actually teach over 600 kids, lol.

Anyway, when we got back to Fun Si Jia's house she asked me if I wanted to sleepover, so i did. We hung out and watched tv and stuff, some Tiawanese soap opera type show that had so much drama I could basically understand it without undertsanding a word, lol. In the morning her mom made us red bean soup which Fun Si Jia said she usually eats for breakfast and some bread type stuff, very good.. and then after watching tv and cross stitching for like 20 min..we had some of the stuff from the night before for lunch..it wasn't even 11am yet, lol..but whatev..lol We hung out at her house a little more and then they drove me back to school.

On Monday, while I was tutoring Hae Ji I got a text asking me if I could go to Jenny's house that night because she had a very important question for me. I said ok, and then thought about what it could possibly be for the next 2 hours, haha..I had no idea at all. Finally I went there and it turns out that she had just found out that she made to the next level of the English competition everyone here's been obsessed with lately, lol. She had to write a 1 min speech about "Defeat makes me___" and email it to them by midnight..and it was already 9:30! oh, and she had no idea what defeat means! lol, soo I was really nice and spent 2 hours with her trying to get her to think of the ideas and write the speech herself, it was kinda hard cause she's pretty much never been defeated! i mean she really wins everything, lol..but finally she did. It really is good though so I hope she does well 😊 Some of my 6th graders here are also going to the next part of the competition this weekend. I helped them last week, and again tonight with their speeches. The thing is, when I first heard them give their speeches I had to stop myself from laughing, lol, cause they sound soo fake, like they're acting! They practice their inntonation so much that they end up sounding rediculous, lol, but then when I'd say to maybe say a sentence a little more relaxed their English teacher would say that sounds to flat! lol, anyway, they needs tons of help with their pronounciation and some grammar and stuff in their speeches so I was able to help with all that. wish them all luck!

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hahaha, soo, I totally forgot that i had written this and never actually posted it..
but yesterday I went out to dinner with the 3 6th grade girls that went to the competition, and their Chinese English teacher and her son who I also teach, he's in 3rd grade. We went to a Sichuan restaurant nearby, and had lots of vegetable dishes and 3 different kinds of fish which they serve in a big bowl of broth like soup, but you don't drink the broth.. It was a lot of fun, and cool to actually be able to talk to some of my kids without other kids screaming in the backround, lol. I really think that the kids would get so much more out of having foreign teachers if they met with me in small groups, even if it was only once a month. After dinner, one of the girls mom's came to pick us up (she had dropped us off at the restaurant) and she suggested we go to ktv, haha..so we went! It was pretty random, and hilarious, lol. Just imagine me, 4 of my students, a teacher from school, and 2 of the girls' mom's in the KTV, and they all clapped and played the maracas and tambourine as I sang backstreet boys songs, LOL, hilarious. They sang a lot of songs and were shocked that I knew some of the chinese songs and singers..lol. and of course we sang heal the world, sailing, and some other random old american songs that they all knew. here's some pics, but i think it's easier to upload videos to youtube..
also, i'll gonna try to get some pics and videos from one of the girls' mom, so i'll post if i do 😊

wow, this is a long post about nothing really, haha. oh, and i just figured out the smiley!

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Photos

the group, and food..
2 moms, english teacher, and the 3 girls

and i'm not looking..
miss pu, tina, lucy, grace & me :)