Update 4

Hello friends,
The past several weeks have just flown by so quickly. It seems that I have been here for so long, that I have always been here.

This past Sunday I got to see 2 sisters get a "quick bath" in the dunk tank.Mt 28.19-20 It really was an incredible experience for me- it was absolutely amazing to see how precious everything was to them.

After English Corner on Thurs (which is a time that the English Major students can talk with the teacher's in an informal atmosphere) I got to talk with 2 of my students for about 5 hours. It was an incredibly time of connecting, honesty, sharing, and openness. The students names are Angelina and Astor, then I got to go with them today to Green Lake which is so beautiful and has many ethnic shops nearby. We had lunch and then looked around some more. We then went to the walking district which has many shops, some ethnic, some modern, some western. I got to talk again to my students- with them bringing up interesting topics. They also gave me some good ideas for getting students to communicate more in the classroom which has been a slight frustration, but it is partially due to culture and the language. The culture is that the student listens and doesn't speak at all, and with it not being their first language it is easy for them to think in Chinese and silently listen in English class.

It was so sad in one section of the market there were all sorts of animals for sale, black beatles,snakes, turtles, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, etc... all crammed into little cages...I felt rather sorry for them. I didn't have too much pity on the snakes, beatles, and the scorpions though--- ick!! It just makes my skin crawl!!!

On Wed I went down town with 2 of my roommates to buy somethings that we can't get at the village outside of school. We bought 2 jars of Peanut Butter to solve the creamy/crunchy solution. We also bought a jar of Strawberry Jelly, just as we reach the school bus (teachers can ride from the Yunnan Business school to the regular Yunnan school for free--vice verca) to go back home we hear a crack... we panicked thinking it was a gift we had just purchased... We all look back and our beautiful jar of jelly is lying in the road with the bottom and the top of the glass broken... unable to salvage it and in a hurry to reach the bus, we left it... by the time the bus left it was a goey mess---- we like to look at it as a gift to the homeless animals. We later discovered that the bag had split from the weight, and out rolled the jelly. :/
I have enjoyed getting to know students outside of class. I feel some times that I am too busy now to teach with my busy schedule! Monday was Teacher's day, and also our dept.'s turn to sponsor flag raising at the school. So 7:30 in the morning with our eye's partially closed the students presented the teachers with cakes, fruit baskets, donuts, flowers, and lavender sachet's. It was really sweet of them! Then our dept. had lunch together and then for dinner the school hosted a dinner for all the the teacher's. Every dept. was giving happy Teacher day speeches etc... our dean and vice dean were not present to make a speech so we were all laughing and talking about who should give a speech for our dept. Everyone was saying no, not me... then just kidding I was like ha ha I'll do it... and everyone one was like yeah, good idea... so um since sarcasm isn't so well known here--- I think I have learned when to joke around now... so I gave a speech in front of all th other teacher's... and then the president of the school came to our table and was like your speech was too short.... AcK!!! I just want to be an invisible teacher... :) I have a lesson plan to do now! I hope you all have a wonderful week. :)

PTL
Sarah Evans