Exhausted

Today was my first day "teaching" I just got introduced to three classes then hung out in my liaison's classroom the rest of the time. Visiting the other classes was weird because some of them they wanted me to talk to the kids. Some wanted the kids to sing to me. One class made all the kids come up and hug me. A few of them literally ran away right after. It was kind of sad. I guess i look like a past teacher so that helps with some of them =)

I really don't teach a lot. I teach from like 9:45 to 10:45 then 2:10 to 3:00ish in the afternoon. My favorite part of the day was going back at 2:10. The kids all have long johns on under their mountain of clothes. The teachers make them take everything off but the long johns. We spent quite a bit of time helping all the students put back all of their layers. Some of the kids want me to help them and keep calling me to them. I taught them, "Teacher help!" haha. One little boy, Oscar, comes up and talks to me all the time though I have no idea what he is saying.

Sitting in my liaisons class for the first hour before I had to teach made me feel very overwhelmed. They learned some poem or something in Chinese. It was hard and I didn't understand anything at all and I couldn't ask questions. They did say Sit Up Straight! and a few other things. I got in trouble (haha) for crossing my legs. My liaison told me not to and said I was setting a bad example for the kids. She was very nice about it though.

Glory (my liaison) gave me and umbrella since it was raining all day and an extra blanket. I went back to the school and had no umbrella at the time. The guards (all the school gates are locked and they have "guards" whose job it is all day is to sit their and open them) felt bad for me so they told me in Chinese to take it and bring it back to them when I came. I am getting very good at figuring out what people are saying. Glory tells me I am very clever when I guess what she wants when she is struggling finding the English words for it.

Later, Bethany and I went to the store. It's a pretty hilarious experience all the time especially when we go upstairs. I need to take a video of it. There are ladies whose job it is to help you find what you need. They follow us around or they just come over to stare at us because they have nothing better to do. People will just stop what they are doing to watch us. It really is funny. I want to take a video to show you. They have these cool escalators that aren't stairs it's like a moving walkway on a tilt so that you can take your shopping cart upstairs. It makes me laugh.

Bethany let me shower in her room It was so much nicer! The water stayed hot longer and it didn't go all over the bathroom. I'm laying in bed with my new blanket feeling warmer already. I'm so happy =)

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~Cierra~