Level C graduation

psycho sean

Dong xi

So what if I bring the store with me!?

Mad dirty
More building shots:
Adidas track jacket
New p coat

Training update

I ran 15K tonight. That's 9.3 miles.. 1hr 20 minutes..not the fastest, but I'm gettin it done..

pics

Back in Business

Dumplings on the block.

yup yup
This is my building complex

Who has next?
This is my SPOT. They know me in here and everything. The soup is the jump off. These in the photo aren't bad either :)

These poles are used to hang wet laundry fresh out of the washer. There are no dryers in China so everything is hung to dry.

Seats anyone?
Sky's the limit

Stickers

Dreams where my teeth fall out always make me nervous.  I can never remember if it means I'm going to loose all my money, die, or I'm going to become rich. I don't know why I would think that having a dream about loosing all your teeth would make you think you would become rich, but for some reason I always feel like that is a legitimate option for the meaning of that dream. Like I'm so rich I don't even need teeth anymore. Everything I eat will be in a pill that isn't available to the public that I will be able to swallow with a nice cup of water. I walked out of my apartment complex last Friday and watched a chicken get its head chopped off and then its organs pulled out. I've never not missed a bacon, egg and cheese so much in my life. Rise and Shine!

 I put the clamps down on my classes so hard this week. They were getting out of hand. We were having a lot of fun but the kids were bugging out. I had to flip it back into, I'm the boss, we need to learn, I'm from NYC, now sit down! My second class of the evening tonight I laid into really badly. I told them that no one was getting any stickers at the end of class. The only way they could get stickers is if they had a total of ten stars next to their name at the end of the class. Kids like stars here like ants like sugar. They can't get enough of them. I told them if they had eight starts, too bad. Seven stars? NOPE. Five stars? NO WAY. One little girl said, Nine? - -NO! only TEN! Things got serious real quickly then.  

Class went a lot smoother. I hit kids with stars when they deserved them, but I wasn't giving any freebees out. No one had more than 5 by the end of class. My supervisor is all about finding the intrinsic motivation for the children's learning. OK. but I'm still giving stars to get my kids quiet.  It worked like a charm. I made a few other changes during class that caught the kids off guard as well. Gave them less time to answer questions. Told kids to sit down. Real teacher shit. Less day care shit. We got through a lot of material and everyone focused lovely.  Success.

I lined the kids up at the door. I reminded them about the stars. No one had more than five. Let's make that better next week I urged them. I walked over to the fresh sticker sheet. Not one sticker was missing. It's like looking at that new purchase in your living room that you haven't even taken out of the box. It still smells like store. You're so excited it's yours that you don't want to ruin the feeling by taking it into your room and putting it in the closet,or the drawer or wherever it should go in your home. You marvel at it because it's yours now. Except this wasn't.  I held up the sticker sheet. Little bunnies and bears, all so happy and smiling. Balloons! Lollipops! Oh me Oh my. Now class say goodbye Michelle! - Say, goodbye Nathan! Say: goodbye stickers! Overwhelmed with desire, they reached and pointed at the glistening, satiating, endorphin inducing sticker sheet! NO! TEN STARS!  Pausing, the small children, no bigger than my thighs, my knees even, got back in line. They understood and walked out of the classroom in single file.

Slacking

Update this week. I promise!

travel

My next stop in China is:

Lijiang City

I'm headed there April 3rd - 6th for a weekend away with some friends. It has one of the best preserved ancient cities in China. I'll post more information about it when I have a little more time. (I'm at work) If you want to find any info on your own just copy and paste Lijiang City into your google browser

morning part 1

     I looked out the window and saw more rain. The seventh straight day. 10am feels like 5pm. 8pm feels like midnight. It's all the same. Clouds and darkness. Wind and rain. The alarm on my pink Nokia phone went off. My blankets covered my body. Only my eyes went uncovered. I pushed my head out of the down sheet that was on top of me. Exhaling heavily I could see my breath. My room was cold.  Early morning decisions were always hard. Should I let the alarm keep ringing and lay under my deliciously warm blankets? Should I risk sticking my hand out in the frigidness of my room to grab the remote for the electric heater on the wall? Should I push off all my blankets, grab my bathrobe that was sloppily draped on the old wooden chair next to my bed, put on my slippers and quickly start to get dressed? I decided against all three. Keeping my blankets close to my body I leaned out over the foot of my bed, grabbed my phone and unplugged it from the charger. No work today means my morning didn't have to be rushed like it is every Friday. I shut off the alarm and hugged my blankets tighter. 

    Morning was the worst. My mind raced. Uncontrollably. Everything and anything entered my mind. Maybe I would throw up. My legs and feet started to feel dirty. My chest hurt. My blankets didn't fit the bed right. How could I ever be comfortable? I thought about getting a haircut and a shave. I thought about when I lost my keys at the park in 5th grade and how upset it made me. I remembered when I left my favorite hat in the P.S. 122 playground at lunch and never found it. James had asked me how I kept my brim so straight and that he wish his hat looked like mine. So stupid of me to loose that hat! I looked to the left and wondered if my laundry had dried. I only have five shirts and three were hanging on hangers in front of the window. I really didn't want to wear the grey one again. Harry had a sneezing fit last night at work and the poor kid must have infected everyone in the room. No way I was putting that shirt back on today. I really hoped my clothes were dry. 

    I wasn't sure if not having curtains bothered me or not. Morning light used to drive me insane. Now I just stared into it wondering how much light was going into other peoples apartments. I wondered how many people had their curtains pulled open at that very moment. I grabbed the remote and turned on the electric heater. My Chinese book was on the floor to my left. I grabbed that too. Ni hao ma? Ni zai na li gong zuo? Ni zhu zai na li?  Ni shi na li ren?