A New Week Has Begun

A new week has begun, and I am continuing to dominate the kindergarten. Phillip is struggling and perhaps has given up, he didn't prepare anything for his classes today and there was a pretty big meeting about it followed by him getting a stern private talking to. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I think everyone on campus could hear the tone through the walls and knew what was going on. The only thing he did was hand out whistles to his first class, which if you know anything about kindergarten and preschool aged kids is a terrible idea. He said he realized this after it backfired and didn't give any out to his next classes, but needless to say he isn't on good terms with the whistle classes teachers now.

The kids and I have been getting along well. They are baffled by my body hair and think it is amazing. All the previously shy students are all opening up to me, and they are learning so fast it is amazing. The job takes so much preparation but is so rewarding.

I went and bought Dr. Suess after the insane success of reading Hop on Pop to my classes. I prefaced it by telling them Dr. Suess was what my mom used to read to me, and they were so mystified and excited that I was sharing it with them. I also think I'm going to keep my copies instead of trying to get reimbursed and giving them to the school. The books come with Chinese translations at the bottom along with a short Chinese bio about Dr. Suess, and I think these are definitely worth collecting. The books that the local big book store didn't have I have ordered to complete my collection. I am needless to say very excited.

More exciting and heartwarming was the local vendor who stopped me on the way back. He runs a cigarette store, but he is the place right outside our gate and I always drop by to buy water from him and do a bit of talking. He was a gruff guy at first, but he is really nice and I've enjoyed making him open up and be nice to me. He saw my books when I stopped to get water, and asked me if they were for my classes. He was intrigued about the Chinese written on the page to help with learning the English. He told me his daughter was only 3 and had just started school, and that her English was bad. Then he proceeded to ask if I had any good books for alphabet learning. I pulled out Dr. Suess's ABC book, one of my favorites, and he asked me how much it was. I told him they were all 18 RMB, and he without hesitation pulled a 20 out of his pocket and gave it to me. I told him not to worry about paying me, but he was too proud and wouldn't take the money back. He flipped through the new book so happy that he had a gift to give to his daughter, and he was so involved with being happy with his new acquisition that when I asked him if he had anyone to read it to her he didn't hear me at first. He responded that he did not, and I offered to stop by during my break in the afternoon and read it with her. I thought he was going to cry, he was so overwhelmed that a foreign English teacher from the best kindergarten in Hangzhou was offering to read to his daughter, the daughter of a cigarette store owner who doesn't look to make much money. I didn't think about it that way until after, so his reaction caught me a bit off guard, but I assured him that I would come and read it to her. The whole experience was really heart warming.

Work has been going well, and tomorrow I am scheduled to go get internet hooked up and get a bus card made. I am excited, this means more convenient internet and more frequent updates.

I also bought about 50 of the best English movies from a local movie store 3 days ago. My friend has just gotten out of the hospital with appendicitis, and his request during recovery was to watch my favorite English movies with me. We have already watched countless Chinese movies, so I decided to go overboard and stock up with my favorite from every genre. I have an exciting week of movies ahead of me, along with a trip on Friday to a wine tasting and dinner party. I have to find a date. Oh dear.