Another school, another Adventure!

I thought for sure, going to the other school would just be a pain.
Some more work for us to do and something we could possibly negotiate
for things we would want from Tim. Mostly because of the way he is
deceitful and the way it always starts. It always starts with us being
oblivious to when we are actually going to be doing something. We
thought this trip would be made on Saturday but instead we would be
leaving Wednesday morning. When did we find this out? Tuesday night
after performing in Mayflora's Children Day Program. We sang 'The Star
Spangled Banner' and then while Lindey sang 'My Heart Will Go On' and
Raza, the foreign teacher from Pakistan, sang a Chinese song, Ashley,
Nicole, and I painted some flowers. It had been alright. We did not
crash and burn. Afterwords, Bill told me all about how Wednesday was
Children's Day and what they would be doing. He got excited and told
me, "It's MY day!" and we chanted that it was his day, Bill's day,
together. I walked with him and his class (which was made up of all
our ILP students)  to the corner where we would split to go to our
rooms. We had a short time of waiting at the corner for his teacher.
While we were waiting, he told me, "Tomorrow, want to play game with
you." In his raspy Bill voice. He managed to say in his broken English
and pointing that I should come over in the morning to Grade 3 and
play games with them. I was so sad to have to tell him we would
probably be leaving before that time and would be gone for a couple of
days. It took him a minute to register the English but he understood
and just looked disappointed. I asked him what time, just in case we
weren't leaving. I could come over if we were leaving later in the day
but alas, we left at 7 am. It was much too early to see my kids.
 
 Tuesday night, we got to go over to some of our kids' rooms. We were
going to read them books! They loved it! I brought books but I did not
read one. I had several little boys just take off with them, switching
and looking at all the pictures. I had a very enjoyable time. My baby,
sweet Charlie, was adorable. He does not know very much English but he
was excited to have us there. He made letters with his glow sticks and
I guessed what letters. Then he would say random words in English. He
slipped into his covers and motioned for me to sit down on the bed at
one point. It was just the cutest thing ever. If you can imagine a
little boy with shorts and mayflora uniform shirt, with a funny little
attitude, trying to motion and talk to you in hushed tones. Mostly
making noises and jumping around, that would be him. He would say, "I
drinkded the water." haha and then he would whisper to me random
things. He came back to water and motioned the he washed his face and
brushed his teeth. He motioned that he washed his body and he used
quite good English to say it too. Oh I wish I could explain how
thrilled I was. I just wanted to stay there and tuck him in like my
own kid. I wanted to fold him up and put him in my pocket. At about
10:30pm, we left so that they could sleep. I returned to my apartment
in time to skype the designer for my wedding dress. It went over
swimmingly! I fell in love with my dress all over again! I just hope
that it turns out close to what we talked about. = ) Then I took a
shower and wrote myself a list of things I needed to pack for this
small trip. It was about 2 am when I went to bed.
 
I automatically assumed going to this other school was not going to be
a good time. Everything added up to a negative in my mind. When we got
to the other school, we were herded into classrooms to play games with
kids. We took pictures with all these kids we had just met for few
seconds and we just had to figure out what it was we had to do in each
class with broken English and hand gestures. The first game I played
was a marble game. I raced with a little kid to get as many marbles as
i could into a bowl. The best part was I had to use metal chopsticks.
I must say, I dominated that game. I have skill. I really think I will
come back home and use chopsticks for as long as I can. = )
 
When we were done, we were swarmed with kids. Most of them wanted to
have our autograph. Talk about feeling like a star...I tried to write
nice little messages with my name so that they would have a little
something special but sometimes their were just too many so i would
write Desi B. We finally got to go to lunch. We went through the
cafeteria and I was just thinking, "Great. More Chinese Cafeteria
food.' Instead, we were lead into a room with the lazy suzane in the
middle. We knew we would get a nice lunch as soon as we saw the
table. We were stuffed. Then we went to see some of the sites. We went
to a pagota temple and the stairs were really cool. It was pretty fun
with buzzed Raza and Tim. They both drank beer at lunch. Then we went
to the lotus fields. Tim showed us how to tell which ones to dig up
for the lotus roots. He called the mud, mood. We had fun making jokes
about it. Tim had no idea what we thought was so funny. Then he said,
"I have to take off my clothes to get in the mood." BAHAHAHA It just
went crazy from there. Raza convinced him that he did need to get in
the mud and pick the lotus root. We were all scared. He took off his
pants. Oh my goodness...It was quite hilarious but he got down in the
mud and pulled up lotus root for us to try. By the end, Bryndi,
Nicole, Kim, and I had gotten into the mud but we just rolled up our
pants. I barely got in with my feet. They sunk into the mud but it
felt good. I didnt really pull anything up that was good enough to
eat. We washed up and headed out. At our hotel, we took a nice nap.
Then we headed back to the school and had another big meal. The
headmaster took us to his office and he gave us a present. He gave us
fans that were 1 meter long. They are HUGE! We are hoping that we can
bring them home...Then we were taken out to the stage and track where
people were gathering for their Children's Day Program. They sat us
close to the front in chairs with back support. At this point, I felt
like they truly treated us better than our own school. At our own
school, we sat on foot stools. Other teachers at our school did too of
course, we werent being singled out. Then the program started and they
had an English translation for the principal's speech and the first
part. That was amazing! There was an English skit by some of the
young students. We were quite happy. Then we performed the same way we
did the night before at Mayflora. Only this time, for painting we had
to fake it even more. Ashley was the only one who really painted a
flower that night. It was the same painting we used to practice on.
The headmaster had us run up on stage while another guy was singing
and give him flowers and balloons. When Lindey did, she gave him a
kiss on the cheek. It was a great time! We had kids still asking us to
write our names on their books and papers. We had random people trying
to talk to us and welcome us. One kid reminded me of a mix of some of
our ILP students. They were being crazy but adorable.
 
After the program, we went to a small local restraunt. We had two
tables with headmasters and others from the school we were visiting.
We did not eat much but we toasted with everyone repeatedly (as is a
tradition in China). We 'Gombayed' with many. (It means, 'empty the
glass' so we downed drinks.) Everyone was drinking beer, except the 6
ILP teachers. We were drinking a milk juice drink and water.
 
Oh the memories of that dinner will be engraven in my mind. They had
us singing and they were singing. While we sang 'My Heart Will Go On',
the headmaster guy stood up with Tim and did the famous balcony scene
from the Titanic. I cannot even explain how hilarious and how great
that was. Every time i hear that song, I will imagine those Chinese
men. We had people busting out in song for a while. We convinced them
that we needed to go to KTV-which was our plan in the first place but
it was getting late. We dragged all the drunks to this karaoke party.
Tim is so much nicer when he is drunk. We have a good time with him.
We sang on and off with Chinese people for 2 hours. The smoke was
bound to kill me but I made it through. I danced with Tim once. He was 

pretty friendly by that point. I was a little nervous but I just
laughed it off. Bryndi and I sang "Baby" by Justin Beiber and that was
the funnest thing. We went crazy. = ) We were all very tired by 2 am.
We went back to the hotel and passed out.
 
At 7:30 am, we had to be to breakfast. I ate lots of food. It was
awesome to have salted peanuts. That is rare in China. Just normal,
salted peanuts. I put them in my rice porridge. Our last thing before
we went to Mayflora was to go back to that school and take pictures
with EVERY class. We were tired and felt like just advertisement. It
is a strange feeling. Everytime a group would come up, take pictures,
and start leaving I would say, "Go. Fight. Win." They would just look
at me funny but still in awe like, 'she is talking to us!' haha then i
would say goodbye and they all understood that and said it back.
 
I had a great time! Those are memories worth keeping!! <3