Nov. 28, 2016
11:00 pm
Beijing, China
So once again you get a two-fer. Sorry about that, but last night I was pretty busy.
See, yesterday was a bit crazy. My day started early when I woke up to take family Christmas photos. Yes, you read that right. I did say “family” photos. Those of you who receive our Christmas card every year will know that our family photos tend to be a bit different. We always try to do something special, even if it’s just wearing a certain type of shirt or doing a weird pose, and it often reflects what’s been going on in our family’s life recently. I don’t remember what we did for last year’s photo, but I remember some of the others (like our Unioto jerseys during my senior year and the “Fingers Crossed” one from a few years ago). I must say that this year’s idea is pretty cool. I’m not going to tell you exactly what we’re doing, because I don’t want to ruin the surprise for those of you who get the letters. For those who don’t get our Christmas letter, every year my dad writes a short story (or devotional last year) and sends it out as our family’s Christmas mailing. Inside each book is a newsletter about what’s been going on with our family this year and a Christmas photo. After the letters are sent out–so, in about a week–I will put up a post about our photo and with a copy of our “newsletter“. The link is here. Additionally, if you’re interested in reading the story that is going out, it will be available on Kindle for free for 5 days after it’s sent out and then $3.00 after that (the link is here). And, shameless plug, if you’d like to read more of my dad’s stories you can get a few on Kindle here or order them from here.
After our morning shenanigans I went to work and taught a couple of classes that went well. The picture below is of my Small Star B class (5-year-olds) that I share with Brian. They are really great kids and pretty smart. There are definitely some that are at a higher level than others. A couple of the students are high level, know the vocabulary, and can answer most questions while a couple of others struggle a bit and are extremely quiet. I really like teaching this class and I’m actually sad that I don’t get to have them every week.
I also had my first PA Life Club yesterday! A PA Life Club is an extra class that students can sign up to take. They happen every week, but most kids only come once in a while. Because they’re extra classes, the material is not stuff that’s usually covered in course books. Instead, it’s extra stuff that is usually cool and let’s them learn more of the English language. If there’s something big that’s happening, like a holiday, the Life Club will normally revolve around that. That said, during this Life Club we talked about Thanksgiving. During a Life Club, you normally teach for half the class and then do a big craft. PA Life Clubs are specific because EF actually spends money on the class.
In this class I had 5 boys and we learned food vocabulary words and words like “Thanksgiving” and “mouthful” (I don’t really know why we had the latter one, but we did) and played a couple of games to practice. Then we started our craft, which were Indian headbands that Brian had designed. We laid our strips of paper on the table and colored the band for decoration. I had printed off “feathers” onto colored paper and gave everyone 8 that we had to cut out and glue to the band. Then the TA and I fit them to the boy’s heads. They did a good job with it and created some fun pieces. All during the craft we watched “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” which they absolutely loved. After our craft it was time for dinner, which is where the money came it. We had chicken and apples (again, don’t ask me why). Overall, we had a lot of fun and a good time.
Today was another normal Monday. I had to get a few things done around the house before heading into work. I actually ended up being two minutes late because I was working on something and missed the bus, so I had to wait an extra 7 minutes for the next one. It wasn’t a huge deal and no one really cared, but I felt bad. Luckily, the new teachers didn’t see my lack of punctuality. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that there are now 15 teachers working at my school. Our two newest teachers, Marcio and Candace, started working at our center today. Needless to say, the Teacher’s Room has become pretty crowded now. Getting work done today was a little rough just because of all the noise and constant movement. As such, I did not get much of anything done today. I spent most of the day working on a single lesson because I just could not concentrate. This is going to be harder when I actually have a full schedule. Thank goodness I had the sense to bring stuff home to work on this “weekend.”
Words to Remember: 2 John 4-6 (Read all of 2 John if you can. It’s not long.)
Challenge: Imagine being a member of this ch–ch and receiving this letter. How would you feel? Are you one of the members “living out the Truth”? John says “Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.” Love is the basis of our relationships, both with Abba and all others. Remember to love and live in His truth.
Challenge 2: Please say p–yers for the students, staff, and others who live around The Ohio State University. For those who are unaware, there is/was a shooter on campus. Although the scene is contained, ask God to be with the victims as they recover from their injuries and people in the area on lockdown. Also, I ask for p–yers for the family of the shooter who was killed by police officers. Although his/her death came because of a terrible, horrible decision on his/her part, the family will still be mourning and I p–y that Abba’s peace will be with them.
Before you go, I have a couple quick notes:
- It was recently brought to my attention that I did not have anywhere that allowed for easy subscription to my blog. If you would like to receive notifications about when I post, please subscribe. In the menu on the left-hand side (just click on the peach/pink button at the top left to get the menu to come up) there is a place to enter your email underneath the heading “GET NOTIFICATIONS OF NEW POSTS.” Notifications will be sent straight to your email each time I post a blog. If you’d rather not receive emails, which I totally understand, feel free to just keep checking in or following the links on Facebook.
- I want to give a quick shout out and thank you to my Mama Tracy. She bought me a 5-year memory book for my high school graduation. I’ve never used it before this trip, but I now use it every day. Thank you, Tracy, it’s such a great gift to have. It’ll be nice to look back on how my life has changed a year from now.
- The featured picture is of a new restaurant that Brian, Ashlee, and I tried for lunch. It was really nice and quite pretty. I’ll post other pics on the Pictures page tomorrow.
Anyway, I hope you all have a great day!
Bless,
Kristen
