China Trip 6- Class Begins, Sort-Of

Monday-
Today was the first day of (Barb’s) class. After breakfast Fong Fong (Kaytin) came to get us and walk us to the school.

We went into a big room where all the important guys were again. He talked to the 100 students and we had an interpreter for the first part. But not the second part, the guy just talked to the teachers (students). Barb gave a short speech. It was wonderful, and she did a great job.
The American teachers were told they had to administer a test and separate the students. But after they spent all night making a test and administering it, they didn’t stay put anyways. On Tuesday, all the students were switched to their grade levels of teaching, which is almost how it was anyway. Fong Fong said she “insisted” they didn’t switch it, but they did anyways. So no one got a choice.

Either way, Barb and I got most of the same students. They’re fun. They obviously think I am very young to have a baby. Their eyes almost pop out of their head. Of course, they must wait until they’re at least 22-30 after school, a long engagement, and marriage (psh.).

During lunch I went to get some things our group needed. I went with Kaytin and Blake, and Rebecca met us there. It was HUGE! Unbelievable. They needed weird things, like: batteries, an adapter, a power cord, an iron, laundry soap, umbrellas, etc. We went all over the store, several stories. They had Flat escalators that you could put the carts on and ride to different levels. It was like a flea market (because you pay in each “store”)/mall (because there are so many stores, but not separate doors to get in each one. Eventually we got everything we needed. At one point, I had 5 Chinese store clerks (there are a lot in the store) standing around me trying to help me pick out an adapter and tell me if they would work or not. Rebecca was calling her dad, too. Lol. The worst part is that I didn’t know what it was even for, because it wasn’t for me. I had a package that the teacher had gotten one in, but that didn’t seem to help. Chinese fire drill, anyone?

School seemed to go well.

After school we went to this place called “Coffee Folk” and got some ice cream cappuccinos. They were delicious. At least mine was. Barb’s had these weird gelatin things in it I couldn’t get used to. We sat on big couches facing each other and had sunflower seeds. What a good way to end the day!

Then we went shopping back at the “supermarket” I went to earlier in the day. We decided we didn’t want to do dinner together, and I couldn’t find anything I was hungry for. We stopped at a fruit stand and got some bananas and grapes (very sour grapes!). Mmmmm!