Nov. 12, 2016
11:30 pm
Beijing, China
Ugh, Saturday.
I never thought that phrase would ever come out of my mouth. But I’ve decided that Saturday’s are the worst. You sleep in on Friday because you don’t have to work until 2. Then you drink coffee and stay up late for work. The next morning, though, you have to be up and moving at 7am. Then you have a full day of work. It’s exhausting. And I don’t even have my own classes on Saturdays, yet!
That being said, today was actually quite fun. That’s what I love about this job, so far, I really enjoy it. I haven’t had a day where I’ve come from work upset. I am aware that I’ve only been really working for a little over a week, so I know that may change. But, I love it so far.
So today I went in at 8:15 and spent the morning planning. After lunch, I co-taught Gretchen’s 2-hour Trail Blazer class. I didn’t think it went well, but she said I did a pretty good job. There were only a few pointers that she gave and they were fixable. I have my own Trail Blazer class that I start teaching next week and I’m glad I got the chance to practice today. Nicole has them tomorrow, so I’m going to try to observe. It’s a lot harder to teach Trail Blazers than Small Stars. They’re harder to motivate and it’s much more bookwork. Also, I’m not sure how to grade my language. We’re supposed to do their level plus 1. I’m just not sure what their level is and I don’t want to talk down to them.
After work today I headed to Gretchen’s apartment for a “girl’s night” with some of her friends from her ch—ch. Unfortunately, the ch—ch had a big thing today that Gretchen wasn’t aware of, so most of the girls couldn’t come. Instead, it was just Gretchen, her friend Janel, and me. We ordered food from Annie’s, an Italian restaurant (I know, more Italian food in China). We were planning to watch a movie, but I had to head home before we had time. Instead, we had a great conversation about international adoption. Apparently Janel has been thinking about adopting for years, even though she isn’t going to have any kids (biological or not) for a few more years still. When she found out I had two adopted sisters she decided to grill me on the process. It was an interesting conversation and I enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, I’d been fighting a pretty bad headache most of the afternoon and it got the better of me. Plus, I had to leave around 9:30 if I wanted to get back to Yizhuang at a good hour. So I headed out not too long after we finished dinner. It was a nice long walk to the subway and then a long subway ride back. Luckily, I could spend most of that trip writing this blog.
Now I’m back in my apartment. I’ve taken ibuprofen and have drunk lots of water. I’m hoping that the headache is just from lack of sleep. For that reason, I will say goodnight.
Bless,
Kristen
