Happy Chinese New Year!


Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Here's to the D, O, double G! 

Back to the 1st grade


"Me teaching" by Shalaya

I can't believe that it has only been one week...honestly, I feel like it's been weeks! Those 1st graders take a lot out of you! I have such crazy hours now and absolutely no free personal time. I miss vegging out in front of the TV and sleep. I know, that's really sad on my part. I got to be the "Queen for the Day" and they interviewed me and created a book for me. I wanted to put all the story pages on here but that would have been a lot. It was really cute though!

During this week, I also went to observe classrooms of different grades. I saw another 1st grade, 3rd, and 5th. What a difference in the classroom dynamics! Like for 3rd and 5th, I didn't see any behavior issues and their tasks were for longer periods of time. In my classroom, we're constantly switching subjects and activities. The time flies by quick just because you're jumping around so much but it's exhausting as well.

I've had so many students ask me: how long I've been in China, if I lived in ChinaTown, etc., those types of questions. One of the boys Adam tried to be slick and said, "Oh konichiwa!" Haha, I was like that's Japanese. The girls love complimenting you on your outfits and accessories. Oh man, I swear, you will become so sick of hearing your last name being called. Literally like every 5 seconds, your name is being called from left and right! I definitely have rough crowd of students but they're still very cute. It's strange because I have 23 and the other classroom only has 14, I really don't understand how they split the classrooms.

I had to go to a Saturday morning workshop today. In case anyone was wondering, it really is a workshop and is pretty intense. I always pictured them just sitting there and lounging around. There were a few other teachers from my school there too and they thought I was insane for showing up. They were like, "I only came because I get paid. You don't, why are you here?"

I feel like I have a million things to talk about but I'll post more later on. Oh yeah, I have to relearn how to write my letters of the alphabet. Since they're taught a certain way, I need to model it correctly as well. I was looking at the sheet...man, my letters are so different looking.

"Me and a koala" by Adam 

"Me playing tennis" by Connor 

Ready, set, bake!


Cooling off

Yep, there's 24 of them...your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. I had a little factory going on today, all the ingredients lined up for the next batches. Since I don't own one of those timers, I had to rely on jotting down the times on paper. With the way I normally like to do things, the organization felt a bit weird.

Price check?


Victim of my mom's laziness (stickers from the baking pans)

Tomorrow I have to bake 21 cakes for the restaurants. Why? Well, my mom was going to but then unexpectedly she now has to take my grandma to the doctor so she won't have time to do them. Do I know what I'm baking? Nope. In fact, it's a chinese recipe for something I've never done before. It's actually quite interesting...the end product comes out cake-like on the outside but the inside resembles mochi. Hopefully they'll all come out, good luck to me!

Sicko

I was flipping through one of the HK magazines when I came across an article that really upset me. Apparently, there has been some f'ed up man that has been abusing homeless dogs and cats. He breaks all of their arms and legs, and he jabs holes into their bodies. It was so difficult looking at the pictures of the animals that were rescued and being treated in the hospitals. It just really disgusts me that someone would go and do something like that.

Feel good movies

I can't believe I watched 2 movies this weekend. First, I went to see The Last Holiday with Jess. It was just one of those movies that we decided to watch on the spur of the moment. I liked it, in all honesty, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Queen Latifah was gorgeous in the movie, especially in that red dress. I know it's one of those ridiculous happy ending movies, but I like seeing that. I like coming out of theaters feeling all squishy inside. It does send a nice message that you shouldn't live life so safely and that you should turn possibilities into realities.

I was very excited to see Hoodwinked just because I saw the trailer where the hyper squirrel lit a dynamite stick thinking it was a candle. Plus, Little Red Riding Hood appealed to me because she could kick the crap out of you and I've always wanted to be her for Halloween. Maybe it's the hood, I dunno. The movie was cute. It was a bit repetitive with everyone retelling their side of the story but it was funny seeing how different the intepretations were. If you liked reading Jon Scieszka stories, you'd enjoy this movie. I was glad that the running time was kept short or I think the movie would have dragged.

I just recently saw the trailer for When A Stranger Calls, I can't believe they're remaking that movie! I remember watching that with the girls during one of our high school sleepovers. It totally freaked us out (granted it was made in 1979 and it was a bit cheesy, but the whole idea was creepy). This of course caused a year of heckling from one another. I'd get creepy phone calls of "Have you checked the children?" and shady notes in the mail. I can just see this opening up the floodgates for that to happen again.

Queen of the mountain


So pretty at night with all the lights!

I went snowboarding for the first time this past Thursday! Actually, it was the first time I've ever done any winter sport. Sadly to say, I've never even been skiing before. I was excited during the entire drive there. The thought of a snowy covered mountain was bringing smiles to my face already. Well, the fact that my hat matched my snowpants was pretty awesome too, I'm such a girl.

So how was it? Fun but painful. I was pretty freaked out by the ski lifts, somehow I always thought they came to a complete stop for you to get on and get off. Uhm no, you have to jump on and jump off. That's a difficult concept for me. I never realized how quickly you zoomed down the mountain, it's really scary actually. Especially when it's just you on a board the whole way down. I don't even remember how many times I fell...on my butt, on my face, tumbling, you name it, I did it. But in all honesty, it was all worth it. Such a rush! Oh yeah, I was pretty stoked because I accomplished my 3 goals: not fall immediately off the ski lift, go down the mountain without falling, and weave. Granted they may have only happened once, but that's enough for me!

It's funny that you don't realize how tired and sore you are in the midst of all of it. When we were ready to leave, the walk back to return the board was so painful! I wanted to just leave it there. Then, we had to walk down stairs....that's when I was like, "Holy crap, my legs!!" I was pretty sore that night but that was nothing compared to the next day. I was sore all over, muscles were killing me everywhere! Even my abs, it felt like I did 1000 situps. It even hurt to laugh! I was literally crawling and dragging myself everywhere the following day. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, but just not the next day.

Heart lesson

Maybe I'm weird but anytime I hear the word surgery, I associate it as a huge and serious matter. I always assumed that after surgery, you'd need to stay in the hospital for quite some time before you'd be allowed to go home. I mean come on, they are slicing you open! Well, that's not always the case. Apparently most surgeries for pace-makers aren't deemed as "major". Also, people often go home the next day, if not even on the same day!

Turn-ons

The cashier at Staples was quite amusing today. To me, he looked like he was still in highschool. As he was working, he was also talking to his friend on the side. I guess they were on the topic of things that they bought during black Friday shopping. Well, cashier boy starts gushing over the monitor he bought. Seriously, no joke, as he discussed his "17-inch flat screen" he was totally moaning over it. His eyes looked like they were rolling into the back of his head and he was getting ready to bust a nut or something! I just find it so hilarious how excited people get over certain things. I think it's perfectly fine to be really excited but it's a little much when you get too into things. If I had a video clip of the sounds and facial expressions he was making, you'd all think it was a clip in a porno.

Strength

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything,
but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.

A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her,
but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face,
but a woman of strength wears grace.

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey,
but a woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become strong.