sort of a crappy picture of HappylandYes, I actually went to a place called "Happyland". Guess what? Not all that happy. Instead of school on Friday, the whole school went up to Penglai (about an hour and a half away) to this new "amusement park" called Happyland. Clearly these people have never been to a Six Flags, or even the Taste of Glen Ellyn for that matter.
Mark, Leo, Alexis, Carrie
However, the kids had fun, and we were able to create some fun of our own. I'm definitely not complaining as it was far superior to working. The kids all enjoyed karoake before running off to do whatever is was they did in Happyland. We basically ran around and took pictures of ourselves. Mark inside the bucket balanced on the girl's feet being ridden by a small Chinese boy
The rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful. I went out with friends on Friday night. On Sunday my landlord called me (at 10:15AM - the nerve!) and said he wanted to have lunch at 11. So I dragged myself out of bed and had hotpot with him. He speaks very little English, and I speak very little Chinese. It's like one long game of charades. I asked him what we were eating and he put his fingers on his head, which I took to meaning I am definitely eating an animal with either horns or ears. I also ate sheep. But to be honest, once you dip the meat in the oh so delicious peanut sauce, it pretty much all tastes the same.
Outside of the restaurant was 2 wedding celebrations. The celebrations here involve lots and lots of fireworks. Therefore every weekend it's insanely loud. It was pretty cool to see the festivities up close. The bride wears white, but changes frequently throughout the day. At some point she will wear the traditional red dress of China.
After lunch I promptly went back to bed and then just took it easy Saturday night. On Sunday I began teaching a University class. The students are amazing! They are all college freshman and can speak English decently well. They are very excited to speak with a real live American girl and hung on every word I said. So different than the Korean students I teach on a daily basis. Since these Chinese students are not English majors they do not have the opportunity to have a native English teacher. They paid extra to take the class I'm teaching (oh no!). They were great though, and very very nice. They all said that they are taking this class to improve their oral English skills and to make new friends. It is 3 hours every Sunday so I must start planning something interesting. My first lesson: all about Chicago :)
Outside of the restaurant was 2 wedding celebrations. The celebrations here involve lots and lots of fireworks. Therefore every weekend it's insanely loud. It was pretty cool to see the festivities up close. The bride wears white, but changes frequently throughout the day. At some point she will wear the traditional red dress of China.
After lunch I promptly went back to bed and then just took it easy Saturday night. On Sunday I began teaching a University class. The students are amazing! They are all college freshman and can speak English decently well. They are very excited to speak with a real live American girl and hung on every word I said. So different than the Korean students I teach on a daily basis. Since these Chinese students are not English majors they do not have the opportunity to have a native English teacher. They paid extra to take the class I'm teaching (oh no!). They were great though, and very very nice. They all said that they are taking this class to improve their oral English skills and to make new friends. It is 3 hours every Sunday so I must start planning something interesting. My first lesson: all about Chicago :)
2 comments:
Happyland looks cute. It actually looks better than I thought it would look.
Oh, boy. When you're comparing things to the Taste of Glen Ellyn, you know it's bad. I think the last time we went to the TOG (as i'll now call it) we went with Mike Voss and Dan Heise! Ha!
BTW, Facebook? Now my new enemy. I have avoided 99.95% of the people we went to high school with for a reason. Hello.... I haven't talked to you in a decade. I do not want to be your "friend". Ugh.
Okay, that was a tangent.
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