Sick again :(
I've been a little bit under the weather lately. I could feel it all weekend. My energy just wasn't quite there I was just waiting to get sick. Well on Monday Wendi came to talk to me and said, "Are you feeling okay? Your eye looks swollen and infected!" I was having a difficulty keeping my eyes more than half open ... but swollen and infected? From that point on during our discussion, all I could think of was the movie Hitch and my eye swelling shut and puffing up like Will Smith's. I could feel it happening. But when I went to check the mirror .. nothing. When I was leaving school, I spotted a very trusted mother, and asked her just how she thought I looked. Her diagnosis is a mild sinus infection with some swelling under my eyes ... a far cry from swollen shut and infected! Either way, I've been unusually cold, so when I went to Mandarin last night, I wore my snuggie across the lobby complete with Dana's fantastic warm scarf and bundled in a hood, with knitting in hand and a steaming cup of coffee. Now typically, whenever in the company of Chinese, maybe I'm paranoid, but I just FEEL like they're talking about me. That night in the elevator, yes I looked ridiculous, but I caught them! Ha! I heard the words "drinking coffee" with a little giggle.
Mandarin Class:
- You may remember the FU from the New Year, typically wishing good fortune and prosperity, but to all of us, it's a big "eff you". We've been learning Chinese characters lately and fu came up. Shelley explained to us that people usually hang the character upside down on the door. Now how did I go through the whole New Year season without noticing the character was upside down?
- "A" fourth tone means "scream". So we were asking does this mean the verb to scream? Or is it an onomonopia? Does this mean that whenver I scream I have to make sure that I pronounce my scream in the fourth tone?
- Dana caught me jotting a mental note for later on my hand and gave me a look. I think she thought I was writing the characters on my hand for studying. Which got me thinking ... that's why people should get tattoos of Chinese characters. We can just tattoo all the characters that we're studying on our arms :) Great idea, right?
Teacher Fail:
- We were looking at the calendar today, and predicting the name of the following month when Alice quickly whispered in my ear. It's a leap year! Whoops. Sorry kids, actually we have two more days in February!
- The PTA got us outdoor play baskets. Among many popular items are these light weight soccer balls. We got them last Friday, and Wendi has been waiting for one of the kids to kick it over the fence into the river. Let me just say that it wasn't a kid who kicked it over the fence :( At first the kids were in shock. But I admitted fault and promised the 3 boys I was playing flyers up with that I would get the classroom a new ball. The ball I lost was pink, so they were excitedly telling me about all the super hero designs I could get, the most popular being Ultraman.
- We were looking at the calendar today, and predicting the name of the following month when Alice quickly whispered in my ear. It's a leap year! Whoops. Sorry kids, actually we have two more days in February!
- The PTA got us outdoor play baskets. Among many popular items are these light weight soccer balls. We got them last Friday, and Wendi has been waiting for one of the kids to kick it over the fence into the river. Let me just say that it wasn't a kid who kicked it over the fence :( At first the kids were in shock. But I admitted fault and promised the 3 boys I was playing flyers up with that I would get the classroom a new ball. The ball I lost was pink, so they were excitedly telling me about all the super hero designs I could get, the most popular being Ultraman.
Other at School-ness:
- Wendi's class had a sub today, our PTA president actually. At lunch she was practicing some basic phrases that she has been learning in her Mandarin class, when my little only native Mandarin speaking elf turned to her and said sweetly, "Speak English please." I almost toppled off my chair in shock. Maybe it was just this kiddo's personality.
- Ever watched a kid walk with a full bowl of soup in his hands? Imagine how carefully that kid would walk if he had a bowl of soup in his hands at all times. I want to instate a rule in the class. Anytime you want to walk anywhere, make sure you have your bowl of soup! No more accidentally skipping into door handles or bouncing into desk corners or bumping into Alice while she's holding a cup of hot water (very popular thing to do in China to warm the hands).
- One of my elves had a REALLY rough day. He collided with another elf at recess, bit his lip. And he was just uber sensitive. I finally took him to the nap room about 2 hours early to calm down. Once the hiccuping sobs were about 20 seconds apart, he was able to talk to me. He felt the other elf had hurt him on purpose and so we talked about what an accident is. After several more hiccuping sobs, he seemed to accept this explanation and started to smile. The first thing he said to me was, "Then, the sun come out." What a perceptive little 3 year old! Talking about new beginnings and things getting better, and they always associate the sun with happy.... But then he started to continue and I realized that he had gotten totally distracted and started singing a song about planting seeds.
- I have one elf who started out life in an orphanage, so she has a tendency to horde food. This makes the other elves upset, since the food she is generally hording is everyone else's snack. So we've been really working on that.
Elf 1: "[Elf 2], where is your snack?"
Elf 2: *picks up her own snack container* "Here."
Elf 1: *gives Elf 2 the thumbs up* "Good!"
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