The Classroom and Dancing

Naturally the most important update :)

My Classroom:
- One student grabbed my hand, pulled me over to the art table, pointed, and said, "Ewwww!" I could see eraser shavings sprinkled all over the table, so I grabbed a garbage can and helped her sweep them off the table. Then I showed her how the eraser, when used, will make the shavings. She took the eraser out of my hand and threw that in the garbage too!
- The nice thing about Chinese culture is that there isn't a personal space bubble, which is a blessing when I have little ninos that haven't quite figured out how to control their growing bodies and are constantly bumping into each other. But here, that's just normal life. There is such a problem of overcrowding that in the supermarket no one bothers to say excuse me, or sorry to bump into you, because you'd just be saying it all the time. Same goes in the classroom. Such a turnaround from last year when a light brush would turn into, "He hit me!". 
- I already said umbrellas are serious business. But seriously? We have a classroom set for both the early years and kindergarten. Each student got an umbrella to walk maybe 30 yards to the main building so we could watch the school production of Cinderella. On the way back, I skipped the umbrellas because it was only a drizzle. The kids complained to me in their respective languages and pointed to the rain drops on their clothing. My response? Deal with it. Then, one mom came to pick her kid up, she changed him into rainboots, put him in a full on ladybug poncho AND gave him an umbrella. My kids are either witches, or made of sugar.
- At first I used to take in every detail while I walk on the streets. But now, since I don't understand the Chinese characters, I've started to tune them out. I just realized I barely notice them anymore. My eyes just skip over them. So I'm really hoping that's not how my students feel about the English alphabet! I am teaching many lessons on the the letters, so hopefully that will be the difference!           
- For those of you who don't have facebook, I also posted this story: I'm not sure why, but all my little ELL's favorite word in English is angry. It cracks me up because they love the word so much, they're almost always smiling when they say it. So I shouldn't be suprised when I wished my class a very Happy Halloween this morning and one student replied, "No, Angry Halloween!"

Dancing:
- There are groups like "Swing Beijing" and "Shanghai Swings" but that's as close as I can get to the swing scene.
- I did find a ballroom in Ningbo, but when Ariana asked our taxi driver, he told us it's either a massage place, or a gentleman's club, so I'm glad I didn't go checking that out on my own.
- Ballroom Dancing, is apparently called Jiaoyiwu literally translating to “Friendship Exchange Dancing”
- The "ballroom" dancing they're talking about is actually more like zumba style, just different music. It's organized in public squares and parks. I actually have a good view from my 12th floor of the park across the river, I watch sometimes.
- My research on China's culture site revieled this fantastic quote: "Usually there is an organizer who brings along a huge ghetto-blaster, in goes a tape, and everyone is dancing under one or two good dancers' teaching or guidance."

Fun Tidbits:
- The two food items I have most difficulty tracking down are good chocolate and cheese.
- So you know all the gigantic streetsweeper vehicles play "It's a Small World After All" over the loud speaker? Today a man was trying to buzz into the apartment by calling one of the units. The ringtone was "Jingle Bells".