We did it!!! --Nina

Abby and I just finished our first semester. Finally. The month of January has been rough, but we made it through. Some of the issues that came up this month:

1) Never knowing when the semester would end. Our lovely school district is all about planning things last minute, so we didn't know how many classes we had left to prepare for the final, nor did we have a specific date to look forward to or buy plane tickets for. 

2) Four straight weeks of finals review. That means that the kids had to endure only their core classes (math, Chinese, and English) for eight periods everyday. That also meant that we were stuck teaching kids who were beginning to loathe school with a passion. Although we tried to play fun review games, mine often ended with angry, competitive boys handing in their materials and refusing to play anymore, since they decided my rules weren't fair. Also, the kids became very creative about the methods with which they distracted my classes. My favorite was when Paul hid a broken table leg in his desk and started banging it on whatever he could find. 

Usually I just confiscate little tops and other classes' homework. This month, it was things like this. 

Paul. He looks so cute, but...

2) Abby and I are monitoring a renovation project at our school. That meant that we were busy meeting with contractors discussing door colors and light brightness. It also meant that we were responsible for making sure the contractors did a good job cleaning up their messes, so that none of the kids got hurt. Unfortunately, this latter part was a struggle. One day, my 6th grade English class was interrupted by the discovery of industrial level spray glue. This story ends with the can exploding, Paul gluing his hands together, and four boys getting to use some of my lotion, since the glue made their skin peel off. Don't worry, no one sustained any injuries, and the four most poorly behaved boys and I got to bond over how "comfortable" lotion makes their hands feel. The contractors also left a shattered pane of glass in the library, which our 5th and 6th grade library monitors discovered and tried to scoop up themselves. Again, no injuries, thank goodness. 

3) Horrible, horrible pollution in Xi'an. Sometimes I appreciate only being in the city on the weekends. 

View from our apartment window on Sunday

For comparison purposes, this is our view on a (rare) good day. 

All of this being said, there were, of course, some great things that went on this month. I'm doing a penpal letter writing project with the 4th graders, and they wrote some awesome and adorable letters to their new American friends. Some memorable excerpts:

Cally: "If your mom says it's okay, you can come to China to play! Let's meet at the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, okay?"

Cally

John: (in response to a question about bowling) "Yes, we do have bowling in China, but it's not very common. The balls are too heavy for us to pick up."

Abe and John (right). John has the cutest personality and voice. I have trouble staying mad at him when he's being disruptive because he is so so cute. 

Nate: "I saw your picture, and I think you're very handsome!"

Erik and Nate (right)

Three of my 4th graders (Ella, Lisa, and Molly) wrote their letters entirely in English. They were able to introduce their school, family, and hobbies without a single word of Chinese.

Lisa

Ella

Molly

Our kids just finished their finals today. My biggest hope is that they were fair, grammatically correct and didn't frustrate our kids too much or make them dislike English. But, it would also be nice if they do well, so that our principal doesn't lecture us when we get back from break. Let's see if all those weeks of review hangman, tic tac toe, Jeopardy, soccer, and hot potato paid off...

I leave tomorrow to go visit some of my best Williams friends who are now studying at Cambridge, then I'm going to visit my sister in San Francisco, then home! Abby is going to Seoul for several days, then home. While it has been a rough month, having a four week break is a wonderful, wonderful thing.