goodbye friday

goodbye friday! "what happened last week? right, we had a typhoon. well, i was supposed to tell you last week, but i have a new job in america, so this is our last week together." not the ideal way to let my mostly-boys class i'm leaving them. but i don't think they cared tooo much.
cindy was the only one in there i really got close to. during break, she stands beside me and lets me listen to one earphone of her ipod and she plays her favorite songs for me. during class today, she made an improvised going away present.it's a pin, the best note a teacher can receive from a student, and some drawings she ripped out of her QA book. the bottom one is me.
cindy and shirley. shirley has TWO lazy eyes. that makes sticky ball games kind of difficult.

my second class had a demo tonight. we love our demo's in there. we've done 3 together. this is one of my faaavorite classes because the kids are super sweet, eager to learn, and elaine keeps them in line so i just get to be the fun one. don't tell anyone, but eunice, sally, vanessa, jessica, paul, ryan, joseph, kendrick and i used to speak chinese like crazy before class every day.sweet girls! every time they saw me they'd run up and say MEGANNN!! and we walked in a gaggle upstairs to discuss the previous week.
during our demo, they had to try not to blink. these are their 'non blinking' faces.
"wake up, billy! you are late for school!"
"there's no school today, mom! it's a holiday."
"LAAAAZYBONES!"
i couldn't pry them away from the snack table so i just hugged them from behind while they stuffed their faces with shrimp chips and cookies.
ryan, total teacher's pet (in the cutest possible way) made me a card :)
i subbed his brother's class literally a year ago in the first few weeks i was teaching, and he remembered me because we played spoons. they're really fluent in english so it was just like chatting with friends.. a welcome surprise when you're a new teacher.
i almost cried a million times during our demo, but i knew if i started, i probably wouldn't be able to stop. i'm going to miss that class so much. we would just laugh and play games and have fun the whole time. they always wanted to tell me about their lives and show me their new things and ask about my life at home. they're all super smart and just good-natured kids.

p.s. corey over at tongue in cheek wrote a really perfect description of what it's like to ride a scooter, or in her case, motorcycle. she and her french husband are currently on a tour of europe on their motorcycle. she lives in provence but she's an american. i love her writing and spirit.

if you cut it down, then you'll never know

these are some of jimmie's pictures of xiao wu lai that i stole from facebook :)
today was very quiet and slow but the funniest part was after our demo tonight during the parents meeting. i had to go around the room and give all of the parents my comments on their kid and after that, it was time for them to ask questions. the first thing one of the moms asked was 'is megan getting married?!' because a long time ago, i told carol the story of allen's girlfriend proposal with the little black box and my kids just saw me down on one knee and assumed i was getting married. the rumor never really died, and the moms wanted to know what the deal was.they brought a blow up dolphin. pretty fun.
balancing on a rock, which was much harder than it looks.the kids did so well though. their pronunciation was awesome, they remembered their stories, they were speaking loudly. when it was time for them to make sentences they could do it without any help. they were great. i have a special thing for this class because it's the first class i ever taught and they were little teeny babies then and they've grown up so much and done so well.

it's a long road we've been walking on

man i love rose milk tea. i like how it comes out of your pores all day after you drink it. it's just black tea with a whole bunch of milk and some rose syrup. yesterday i had a pot of it with a side of waffles for lunch at 'harwana cafe'.

allen and i went to lunch today at a place pretty close to where he works, so the whole time we were there, there was a steady parade of his 'work partners' walking past the plate glass window. i guess i've done that to people i've dated in the past. karma. the delicious dumplings were worth it. $2 lunches are amazing.
this is sherry and i. my beginners class had a demo tonight. ..they aren't dumb, but they aren't good. they're little parrots where they can repeat but they really can't think on their own. it's disappointing. even the ones who you think get it really don't get it when you try to talk to them before or after class.
they all memorized these 17 sentences. my first name is ____, my last name is ____. i want to visit ____. the taiwanese flag is red, white and blue. my favorite holiday is ______. every tuesday and friday i come here to learn english. there are 17 students in my english class. i study english for 30 minutes every day. every day i have to ____. i ____ to do it. i like to ____. i get ___ dollars pocket money each week. i am good at _____. thank you for listening.
at the end of the demo, one of the school administrators asked if any of the parents could do their kids self intro and she'd give their kid 150 stickers. nick's mom actually got up and did it. we were all amazed. she was so cute and nick just hid his face in his hands. good for her though. it's hard to get up in front of people and talk by yourself like that. especially in your second language (or third or whatever).
links of the day
courtesy of keith: greenissexy.org with simple ideas for being green.
and if you didn't watch Gio on OnBeing yesterday, go do it. seriously. it's so cute. archives (all the way to the right), page 3, the kid in the white and red stripes.
and sycamore street press is so cute.
[sycamore street press].

ok ONEEEE more link..
if you love craft projects or handmade anything, check out happy tape. it's the prettiest masking tape in the world. they have a 20 pack for $40 (with shipping) and you can use it for a miiiiillion things. last time i saw it on etsy i thought that was a liiiittle too much, but when it sold out i was kicking myself. add it to the pile of things that will be waiting on my bed when i get home.