Jam-Packed and Dragging

You know it's the end of the school year when you're more exhausted than rested on Monday mornings... for more than 3 consecutive weeks. There's just a lot going on over the weekends that require much energy, and starve the body of sleep.

This weekend was packed with a number of events. I'll explain briefly, but mostly just share media to do the describing for me.

The "weekend" started early, with a late night out on Thursday, for a girls night out after watching the week's episode of SYTYCD. Woo hoo! 

Setting up the projector outdoors to show
on the sheet tied to the tennis court fence

Friday night, I was booked for two places at once, splitting my time between chaperoning at the HS lock in (another one; two weeks ago was the Guerrilla Film Festival Lock-In, during which students created movies during a 24-hour period). I took charge of setting up an outdoor movie. The students were camping out in tents around campus, and I climbed up the fence of the tennis courts to tie up a big sheet, onto which we projected a movie. Finding enough extension cords and power strips was an undertaking, in order to supply the projector cart with necessary electricity (from the guard house, which was over 10 meters away) to power all the technology. But it was a good time. They watched Whip It from inside their mosquito netting. 

Simultaneously on Friday night, the "Hasta Luego" fiesta was being thrown by some of our closest Chilean friends, in honor of several of us who are leaving the AIAN/Beilun international community at the end of the school year. Good food (complete with my fave dessert, tres leches, made by Chilean host Francisca!!!), fun games, rockin' music, and fantastic socialization! 

Beilun International "Family Portrait"
Despedida (going away) Party on Friday night.

After the gathering ended, I went back to the school to clean up movie stuff (high schoolers were already conked out in their tents just around midnight). Since I was still up and about, I met up with some friends for some dancing, getting in around 2am.

Saturday morning, early, I headed back to school to oversee breakfast and chaperone the HS trip that took students into Ningbo to visit museums and key city locations for a service-learning project that they've been working on in conjunction with a local school for the children of migrant workers. 

Saturday morning. The HS students were zonked before
the excursion really even began!

At the Ningbo Planning/Development Historical Museum

One of the many models and displays of the city of Ningbo,
in the At the Ningbo Planning/Development Historical Museum

Checking out landmarks of Ningbo on the model.

At the Ningbo Arts Museum

Ningbo Arts Museum

The youngest daughter of one of our Mandarin teachers,
who came along on the field trip and peeked through this sculpture

In juxtaposition to the topic of their work-service trip,
which involved volunteering in the migrant worker community in Ningbo,
we took the students to a new, fancy mall for lunch,
and to observe the contrast in classes within their city.

The last part of the trip was to the Ningbo Railway Station,
which is a hub through which many migrant workers reach the city of Ningbo.
They were to observe, photograph/film, and document their reflections
as if through the eyes of arriving migrant workers at this location.

Returning from Ningbo that (Saturday) afternoon, I packed up some food and supplies, and headed out to meet up with about a dozen friends, to camp in a bamboo forest that is about a half hour's drive away. Pictures are worth oh-so-many words:

Jett was excited on the car ride out.
Fresh air! Head out the window!

So this was funny...
Shortly after putting up the tents, a couple Chinese ladies from the village below
came up to investigate the ruckus we were making in setting up camp. 

They had never seen a tent before, apparently...

Kate and I explained and demonstrated how the tents worked.
I suggested that Kate go inside to show them what "sleeping" inside would look like.
They were floored and astonished, and kept playing with the zippers.

Dana, Kate, Kari, and I, all wearing our bright tanks.

Setting up camp in the middle of a bamboo forest, on what appeared to be terraces
that trees are repeatedly harvested and replanted on (these trees were about 3-4 weeks old),
on the (German) Hape Toy Company's property, from which they make wooden toys.
We're friends with the company's manager and a Chinese family who helps run the operation.
They graciously allowed us to access and camp on the property,
which borders a clean lake and reservoir behind a nearby dam.

Hammock time!

Misty mountains that surround the lake/reservoir.
It was somewhat humid and warm, but without precipitation!

It's a bit blurry, but that's us swimming in a body of water in China...
Scary? (I eased my own mind with the excuse that it's clean(er) mountain water,
rain/bamboo forest runoff, and nothing to be concerned about behind the dam.)

This is our Chinese friend, Andi, roasting rice sticks
(similar to roasting marshmallows?)
TIC.

Hobo stew dinners

Kari plays guitar while we gathered 'round the campfire.
We had a couple guitarists accompany
a round of campfire songs. Also, camp chants participated
in by some enthusiastic campers (Kate, Erich, Kari)

Breakfast on Sunday next morning 

Jett surveys the newly-explored territory of the reservoir and bamboo forest.
He loves camping.

Beetles and millipedes, creepy crawlers galore in the bamboo forest.
Bamboo grows so quickly that we even had some shoots spring up overnight
 beneath the tent, under our backs, and poking into our sides as we slept!

Hiking, swimming, cooking, singing, laughing, and enjoying each other's company for a weekend camp trip. Fun, fun, fun!

Packing up in the later morning on Sunday, and then getting home around noon, I just wanted to sleep. We did very little sleeping the night before, and the ground had rocks and bamboo shoots literally springing up over night and relentlessly poking us in our sleeping bags. At home, after bathing the pupperz (who thoroughly enjoyed his first overnight camping experience, and was dirty and all pooped out!), doing laundry, getting stuff put away and showering, I took some Tylenol for my knee that was swollen and in pain (because I'm allergic to ibuprofen and all related anti-inflammatory painkillers). Apparently, I'm allergic to Tylenol as well. I had to shoot myself with an epipen to breathe more easily. Resultingly, I zonked out, sleeping hard for about an hour, until some friends came over, waking me with Jett's barking at their arrival at the front door. Handprint on my face. Cheek imprinted with pillow lines. So out of it.

While I was pulling myself together, our Chinese friends, Alice and Shelley, cooked a traditional Chinese dinner. Kate came over too, and we shared some a meal together in celebration of Shelley's birthday.

Chinese birthday dinner for Shelley
Top L-R: Kate, Kari, me, Alice (cooking), birthday girl Shelley

Shelley and Alice with the Chinese feast they prepared
at our apartment... while Kari and I slept haha.

This is the birthday girl Shelley with the cute little panda and mouse(?)
mini cakes that Kate found at a local bakery.
The chocolate-flavor had raspberry and mousse cap/filling.
The vanilla-flavor had some sort of berry filling too, and a marshmallow cap.

Mmm! All five of us at our girls' celebration birthday dinner for Shelley.

Kari, Shelley, and I pose

with the playbill boards

outside the Ningbo Grand Theatre

After dinner, we went into Ningbo's Grand Theatre to watch a dance show. The performance, in the style of Chinese modern ballet, told the story of the traditions of marriage in China, especially the culture of Ningbo area. This show has traveled China in the last couple years, having been performed in the National Theater in Beijing, and was introduced in Europe, Taiwan, and Hong Kong areas, gaining great success. It was beautiful and entertaining--the music, the story, and the dance. Alice and Shelley explained the storyline that was projected in Mandarin on a screen between acts and transitions.  All of us, Shelley and Alice included, were intrigued to learn of old marriage customs and how they've developed and changed in the context of modern-day culture (especially since Alice is getting married this November, and many of the traditions of match-making, courtship, family meetings, and ceremonial arrangements are very pertinent in her life today).  

Images of the show!

So, as I am sleep-deprived, I apologize if this entry is random or parts might not make sense.

Crossword counting letters

We were doing crossword puzzles with vocab words and definitions, and one of the strategies in filling the clues is counting the number of letters in the words to see if they'll satisfy the appropriate number of boxes in the puzzle. So they were on a roll with counting letters by the end of the class. When it came time to line up, they were still in the letter-counting mode...

One of my elves tried changing his name (the spelling of his name, at least), in order to get further up to the front during line up, since, per his suggestion, they were lining up according to the total number of letters they have in their whole name (given and family names). Initially, his rule determined that they were to line up from the most letters to the least, and he ended up having the least. But obviously, upon realizing he only had 8 letters, and the others had 9, 10, and 11, he wanted to extend his name by a few extra vowels smattered in here and there. Cute.

#lineupstories

Up Against a Firing Squad

...at Games Day, that is. I'll hold you in suspense to tell you about that situation later...

(It's a longer Weekend Update post, but the photos are worth it!)

The Korean moms selling kimbap!

This last Saturday (May 18), our school hosted a games day/yard sale. At the yard sale in the morning, I was able to get rid of a few things I'd purchased (shelving, storage containers, my electric blanket), but most of it I still require daily use of up until the day I pack up and leave (which is July 2). So I took photos of everything I hope to sell off, created a document with info about each item, and had people sign up with their contact details if they were interested. I'll get a hold of them during the last week of June when I'm packing up to arrange for sale and transfer of the items such as drying rack, shelving, drawers, kitchen supplies, and appliances. Those are things didn't bring with me and had to buy (between the various moves and settling into the LiRen and the ShiMao apartments in the last year). Ugh. Stuff. Can't live without it, but can't take it with you (I'm talking about the essentials to make a meager, humble home complete... for organizational purposes, cooking, and utility musts). Anyway, about half of my stuff has been spoken for, so at least I'm not losing a ton of money that I invested in the things that filled/made my home here for the last (school) year. Whatever's left over will be donated to friends and incoming teachers. I'm hoping that passing along the essential stuff (especially laundry and kitchen supplies) will benefit incoming teachers so they won't have as many expenses as I did in settling in. 

The RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) Club had a corner on the market in their diversity of wares
and activities to fund-raise, amongst them were their homemade,
Pinterest-style cutesy "Loppie Lupps" snacks,
which was their creative (and naive, ELL-style), and oblivious, way of spelling "Loopy Loops"

Matt and Julie's twins, Huginn and Munnin,
were also a hit attraction during their brief appearance :)

Bean-bag toss that I designed and invented, last-minute
with our PE teacher and Curriculum Coordinator.
Problem-solving spatial skills. 

Face painting toddlers is easiest when the child is out-cold asleep.

This was the water balloon catapult that the RAK Club
invented, tested thoroughly, and presented for its debut in the humid weather.
It was a hit-activity amongst the elementary schoolers, for sure!

Some of our StuCo (Student Council) members at the ticket booth,
selling yearbooks and raising funds.

Sweet little Lana with the nerf gun.

In the afternoon, I helped set up for and participated in putting on the annual AIAN Games Day. This is typically a very well attended event by all of our Beilun/Ningbo families, local community, and staff.  As AIAN faculty, we usually supply a large amount of volunteers for running games/booths and helping set up/clean up the event. It's a fundraiser for the PTA. While setting up, the morning was hot and muggy. While we were playing an early-afternoon game of teachers vs. students VB (teachers won, 21-15, but it took us a while to get warmed up and going; Kari trained a good student VB team last fall!), the gray, hazy skies filled with more than just the usual pollution. While game stations were set up inside (carnival-style, tickets for each activity/game, and prizes awarded at each booth), the heavens let loose full-force during the afternoon, filling our campus with puddles, slippery walkways, and optimal weather for getting even MORE WET. In the typical (not-always-so-friendly) Water Balloon Toss-at-your-Teacher station, all students, Pre-K through HS turned out in full brigade strength, bombarding me and Matt (HS Lang Arts teacher) full force. (See photo series below; a picture's worth a thousand words.) Matt had asked me last minute (that morning) to join him in the voluntary representation of the AIAN teaching staff. I was thanked profusely by a number of my colleagues for volunteering, as they were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of being the target of hundreds of exploding water bombs. I know a number of my kids loved getting the opportunity to pelt me/us.

Get him!

Deflecting

Crowd gathering...

Despite his build and comfort level in the water (he's a swimmer), Matt's a little sissy.

Catching. Pro-status.

Throwing them right back at the kiddos after catching them.

Water balloons flew at us from all angles; the 2-foot PK kids at our feet, MS students from the trees and surrounding bushes, and oh boy did the teenage students have a serious arm! I was wearing Chile's Colo-Colo futbol jersey, and we have a number of Chileans in our AIAN community who hate that team (they're on the Universidad de Chile's side). So I suffered the double-whammy, as los Chilenos sought their vengeance.

At one point, a few MS girls opened that window above our heads, fisting water balloons, poised and ready to fire upon us from above. I looked up, boldly asserting myself, not even cowering (since at that point I was already drenched and had even become quite adept and skilled in the art of catching them and throwing the unpopped balloons right back at the firing squad). Hesitantly, they asked, "Is it okay if we throw them from up here?" To which, I replied, "Of course not! You yourself might get hit standing up there!" (Silly excuse.) Only our AIAN students would ASK for permission instead of just surprise-attacking!

All that during the day, followed by baking a cobbler and going to the pig roast. 

Neighbors brought peaches and nectarines (still hard),
picked off the trees in their parents' orchard.

My wrist is still sore, two days after paring
two dozen tiny peaches and nectarines.
What a workout!

Cobbler... Ready to go in the oven!
(I used jello gelatin since I couldn't get my hands on cornstarch.)
#expatproblems.

Consuming cobbler at the Pig Roast that evening.

Of course I gave some of the product back to the neighbors.
Thanking them for their peaches that made a tasty dessert!

Erich carves the roasted pig, by cell phone light.

It had been raining so much, for so long,
that the puddles spread into ponds, and they had to stand on bricks
to avoid the rising waters around the brick oven

Good weekend.

Warm, muggy, humid days have arrived in Beilun!

Today's weather forecast (for the Ningbo area;
Beilun's weather is always slightly different because
we're closer to the coast/port; so we get more fog/humidity)

In the last week, temps have been rising (constantly above 70ºF now, even at night; average of high 70s-mid 80s in the last few days), which isn't especially hot, but the muggy weather is setting in. So the air feels thick and the winds are warmer (thankfully there usually is a breeze, though right now it is rather still outside, as a storm is approaching). It's pretty muggy when it's raining, or right after it's rained, obviously.

Anyway,  I have had my classroom windows open in the last couple weeks as weather's been warming up (which doesn't keep the gnats or flies or construction noises or rain or smells of pesticides out). Being on the top floor of the building (heat rises!), my room is usually one of the warmer ones on campus (and the colder, less insulated one in the winter, but I've already been over that). For a room that is made of windows--nearly 1/3 of my classroom "walls" are actually glass windows--it is a shame that only two of the smaller ones open, and the "window screens" don't fit, or have holes in them, completely defeating the purpose of keeping out insects. TIC. The little ventilation provided from the open windows does almost zilch, even when my classroom door is open to create a cross breeze.

AirCon unit that my Elves labeled when we
had a sight-word vocab contest a while back.
(EVERYTHING in my classroom is now labeled)

Therefore, as my first period class of third-grade Elves came in today, literally dripping with sweat, mopping their brows with tissues, I decided it was finally time to turn on the AirCon unit (the one that doubles as a "heater" during the winter, when the temps were below freezing for weeks on end, and I needed to give out handwarmers to my students then...). I set it to 24ºC (which would theoretically cool the room to 75ºF). The kids loved the almost-instantaneous ice box, as we pulled the window shades down and worked on our "words with silent letters" projected-activities on the whiteboard. (Honestly, I've been loving the warmer, more humid environment in my classroom, and have protested using the-box-of-filtered-air for over the last month, with the exception of maybe a cold, rainy morning or two at the start of April.

At the end of class when it was time to line up, I had them order themselves by most number of tissues used to least; Elf #1: six tissues (very active, normally sweaty little munchkin), Elf #2: four tissues (very tall, active, and frequently sweaty munchkin), Elf #3: two tissues (munchkin with sneezy allergies and sweaty), Elf #4: zero tissues (a petite little Korean munchkin who I don't think I've ever seen so much of a glisten or a bead of sweat from).

I'm sure you wanted to know those details. But such is life in the encroaching season of Humidity...

Happy Mother's Day!

I've sent this to my mother, and I'm hoping that she will have viewed it by now. If not, then hopefully you're seeing it here on my blog, Moo-Ma! 

It's "Untitled" because this is my first "Prezi" and I didn't know how to go back and rename it (or even name it to begin with, for that matter). But really, it should be something obvious, such as, "Happy Mother's Day 2013, from your Eldest Progeny" or of a similar nature.

Lining up

Each time my grade 3 elves (how Kari and I affectionately refer to our ELL students) walk to/from their home room classroom to my ELL room (a walk from the second to third floors of our main ed building), I have the four of them order themselves in line by some creative patterning. By instructing them to line up in a specific order, we eliminate the issue of unfairness, pushiness, or favoritism when deciding who gets to stand in whatever position he/she desires on any given day. Furthermore, I also use the line up time as an opportunity to either get their sillies out, exercise their creativity, or also practice new vocabulary and critical thinking skills for ordering and organizational patterns (what's length, height, alphabetical order, and how do we determine degrees of distinguishing placement or position in the 4-person line?). Sometimes I think of a line-up rule, and some days I let the kids invent the ordering pattern. 

So far, we gave tried arrangements by: height, alphabetical order, birthdate, ROYGBIV rainbow-color-order based on any particular item of clothing, length of hair, scale of shiny to dull shoes (on a day when we had been studying the -SH- digraph (sound pronunciation) and shiny shoes were key vocabulary words in a read aloud acidity we had been working on), and the list goes on. 

Today we were trying and trying to think of something, and talking about what to measure (part of their geometry unit), so we lined up by length of nose. (See photo.) The elf with the shortest nose stood in front, sequentially progressing up to the elf with the longest nose. Though my nose length was not recorded, because they insist I march alongside them (which ultimately is good for monitoring behavioral issues anyway), I am certain I would have been at the back of the line, probably registering over 5cm in length. (5cm is a long nose for a very short elf!)

Whiteboard quick list for line up

Jetterz

Our dog is so entertaining. So I wanted to share. Enjoy.

If the embedded YouTube video doesn't play for some reason, here's the link. (I had to upload it to YouTube because the vid was too big to embed directly into my blogpost.)