This week was really good for me, last week and weekend I was starting to feel like China would really kill me off between the bugs and the heat. While I still have bug bites and I think I might be permanently scarred with giant red dots the bugs have been much better this week. Also, I took the remote to my AC and pushed buttons randomly to fix it and somehow it worked! I actually get a little cold at night sometimes now. I think I'll be able to make it, thank heaven! Supposedly, May is the rainy season but it's been so sunny so I'm not sure I completely believe that. We did have some rain Monday night and Tuesday morning but that's been it. I've been laughing about how much things have changed. When I first got to Yangzhong and the sun came out everyone got so happy and we'd go out and sit in the sunshine just because we can. When it was cloudy everyone sulked inside wondering why it wasn't ever sunny here. Now when it's sunny we sit inside and sulk with the AC on full blast and eat way more ice cream than can be considered healthy. Then when it's finally cloudy we venture outside. China has some really amazing ice cream. Now that it's warmer they have little coolers about every two feet and it's only 2 yuan for most of them. I have my favorites and lots of places that I frequent are probably are thinking that the stereotypes about Americans being fat is true.
In my classes I've started threatening my students a little bit. Since they're still okay with hitting students in China my threats really aren't that serious. When my students don't follow the rules with whatever game we're playing I tell them they must buy me ice cream. I've never actually enforced it but it's still funny and they get a kick out of. On Wednesday I was walking from the canteen to my office during lunch break so all the students were out in this little courtyard thing. It was really sunny so I was staring at the ground when suddenly I heard "Teacher! Teacher!" I looked up and my favorite student was running towards me. He came up to me and said "May I buy you ice cream?" I bet you can't guess what I said to that! I started laughing and told him that I would love for him to buy me ice cream. There's a little treat shop on campus that he ran to. I was expecting something small but he came over with a huge cup of vanilla ice cream with something purple and jelly like on it. It was delicious. I felt a little guilty about it but it's really a culture thing. I've had stuff like this happen multiple times and they always say that China is hosting me and it is their duty. And really, as I was enjoying the ice cream I wasn't feeling too guilty about it. Later, Andy was giving me crap about it, in a joking manner I'm sure, and one of the teachers in my office said "Your students don't give you things?" and she sounded quite shocked about it. Some of Andy's students were in the office at the time and she told them that they must buy Andy ice cream next time he taught class. That helped me feel less guilty about it.
I'm starting to lose enthusiasm and ideas for classes so this week wasn't as exciting as some other weeks. I taught them about storytelling. I told them the story of Cinderella and when my family went to Yellowstone last year. They really liked the picture of the buffalo that I showed them. Afterwards we played the story game. I wrote two different starting sentences on a piece of paper and then passed them around the room so each student could add a sentence to the story. That's where the suicidal frogs come in. One sentence I started with was "Once upon a time there was a frog who wanted to be a man." During the story he tried really hard but my students decided he was so depressed that he committed suicide. That was pleasant. But don't worry, after he killed himself he woke up and realized he was still alive and king of the country and lived a happy life. The Justin Beiber one was probably my favorite one though. The starting sentence was "The boy looked in the mirror and thought to himself "I am so handsome!"". Sadly, this handsome boy was killed in an accident but when he got to heaven he married Lady Gaga who I didn't know was dead. Must have missed that one... They had a little girl who fell in love with Justin Beiber who in their words is "A really handsome boy is very shy". Not the impression I was under but nobody asked me. He rudely decided he didn't love the girl and she went away. At the end Justin Beiber realized he did love the girl but she didn't love him anymore. Such is life. They are completely obsessed with Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga here. In fact, one expression that just makes me laugh everytime I hear it is "Oh my Lady Gaga!"
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