Silly things at work. (from Kelly)

I FINALLY taught today!

....well, kind of.

There were two classes scheduled today that I was supposed to teach. Of course I spend all this time preparing and making sure everything's right, and ONE (1) kid shows up. So, I begin teaching my lesson to Youyou (said like yo-yo), and she is much more interested in the little mat I gave her to sit on. And my Chinese assistant. So, in an act of desperate improvisation I give her some pom-poms and turn on the World Cup Song (so good!) and we dance around the room. Sweet. I may not have taught any profound concept, but at least she had a blast.

Ok, so that was semi-successful. So then my boss, Liony, and our Principal come in to talk about the schedule and whatnot, and they're talking in Chinese and Kristen and I can only comprehend "Kelly" being said many times. So Liony turns to me and is like, "Big Boss is happy that the students like you, because we were worried that they would be afraid of you."

Oh, good. So I'm like, "Oh, because I'm a new face?"
"No, because your hair is different. We were worried they would be afraid since it is curly and a different color the kids would be afraid."
Awesome. Gingers can't even get slack in countries where the derogatory term has not even been introduced.
This conversation took place right before my next class, which also had one kid in it (usually there are about 5-6, sometimes like 10 or more...). The girl looked exactly like the Monsters Inc girl. I'm having a good ol' time making her laugh before starting class, and then I turn around and she has started WAILING. Somehow in the span of two seconds I managed to scare her away so that she wouldn't leave her mom's side until my Chinese assistant took the class.

So all in all a great first day, right? I'm told that every new teacher gets that because the kids are so little and just aren't used to new faces. But still, not a lot of teachers have made 50% of their students cry in one day.

Now on to the awesome stuff. Kristen found this group online that plays pickup frisbee on lighted fields every week. We went tonight, and it was SO fun! Everyone else was reeeeally good but we did fine and had a great time. Plus playing on a field and looking out at all the lit up buildings around you is pret-ty cool.

Now if you know Kristen or me, you've probably seen us put down obscene amounts of food on occasion. Yes, we love food more than just about anything. So Kristen and I got this SWEET gig (Thanks Will!). We are going to be Mystery Shoppers. You may have heard of Secret Shoppers back in the States, who get paid to eat at restaurants and review them. Yep, we're doing it, Beijing style! They are going to pay us to go to restaurants and eat their food, or sometimes even to have food delivered right to us. It's like I just died and went to heaven.

Anyways, that's all for now. Pictures coming soon (hopefully)!