Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 3rd

Day 6 – June 3^rd

I think I ate fried chicken today. I also butchered the word for eggplant but I got some in the end. 

:D 

I later hit up the Lotte Mart, which I first got lost in before I managed to find my way upstairs. I bought a fruit cup, peppero, and chips ahoy with raisins in ‘em. The fruit cup was actually pretty good, something I may not be able to say of the questionable meat/tofu thing I got at SWJ (another fast food place). The texture is beyond words for me right now. I honestly have a suspicion that I may have been eating intestines/nut sack filled with the grease and sauces covering the outsides and some other unexplainable edibles.

Blargh, I must venture out but sometimes I am very terrified to do so. Now I at least know I don’t care for whatever that meat was. I asked one of the Chinese teachers and she said we had a similar dish though she had made hers/brought it from home. She first said it was meat then said it was like tofu or something. I think she may have been lying or just plain confused as well. Kind of concerns me but oh well.

Taught Sunny’s class for about 40 ish minutes. The girls Gemma and Della are very quick on their feet though I believe Della really preferred to speak in Chinese/English through her friend to me. Sometimes she would talk on her own but usually relied on the other.

No one seems to understand the words understand and questions. Just blank stares. I really need to work on that.

But the girls were great. We sprinted through the material and I didn’t really know what else to do with them because I still wasn’t sure of their ability. They may have thought I was talking down to them, which I really hope I didn’t come off that way. Ended up talking at length about animals, particularly pets. This eventually got them asking questions about my cat as Della really likes cats but Gemma really likes dogs. It was nice to make them smile. Though I think they were more than aware that I was unsure of myself after we went through the exercises. Gah.

Later on I taught Susan’s class with 6 kids. I think they were at least 4^th grade. One was a Korean boy named John. This class also had the odd little humping boy Steven. I learned about him from J.C. and Zack. Apparently he really likes the boys. Really took a liking to Zack, though it seems everyone likes him. My first meeting with Steven was with J.C. in the teacher’s offices. Steven came in with my awareness but not J.C.’s so Steven sneakily stuck his finger in J.C.’s crack. Not that it was showing (though of this I’m not sure I was facing J.C. and figured he was aware of Steven poking his head in and out of the door). Yea… He’s definitely an odd one. He certainly behaved better than I expected. Though that expectation was that he would be humping things or legs. Ugh.

The Korean boy John was a sweetheart. I think the other kids may have tormented him, likely because he’s Korean. I’ve learned that the Chinese really hate the Japanese but are seemingly okay with Koreans. I can’t say for sure but I guess it’s not exactly the case. Once you know someone’s different it just sticks. I wish I could help him. I didn’t really get to introduce myself to the class nor did we have much time to chat for fun. Most of the class was spent doing the work which took a while because everyone was so loud and rambunctious that I couldn’t really hear everything going on. I ended up just asking them to repeat one by one. I know that likely wasted time but it was easier to manage that way. The two girls in the class seemed sweet as well. Always the girls are so well mannered. Hmm…. Gender role socialization at work? Pfft.

Dear god I would kill for some cereal. Like Captain Crunch. I’m going to go apeshit on some frosted flakes when I get back home. I might be able to find some in grocery stores/supermarkets in Hangzhou but we’ll see.

When I first walked into the class everyone kept saying WOOOOOOOOOAAAAH, OH MY LADY GAGA! That has to be the best catch phrase I have ever heard. I am totally taking that back to the states. :D I certainly stand out, even more so when I take pride in my poof. One boy said I have very pretty hair, then continued to say oh my lady gaga about it/me. It was really cute. A lot of the kids kept saying woooooow over and over. I don’t know if they ever met/seen a mixed person such as myself. I always figured I was different. I guess I’m more different than the other foreign teachers who are white. I wonder how they would react if they got a black male for a teacher. Or anyone darker than me at least.

Oh and the hamster isn’t dead yet. When I left it seemed to be still kicking/breathing. Yaay for it not being dead. Boo for it being left to die in the office.

I showed a cab driver the address and didn’t need to say a thing. He dropped me off waaaay too early though seeing as he left me off a little after exiting the tunnels. I wasn’t thinking when I said okay and nodded after he gestured and said something signaling he was letting me off unless I said otherwise. Thank god I had walked around the whole block and then some of the area because for about 10 mins I was really confused as to where the hell I was. I eventually found a familiar corner store (isn’t that a shocker seeing as they all look very similar) and managed to speed walk my way back to A Yi’s. Upon getting to the door I also managed to open it quite successfully and before A Yi came running over to let me in. She’s watching t.v. on the computer now.