Edited. New and Improved!

I wanted to add a story or two to my last blog post. But then the stories piled up. So here's a whole new post!

Soccer:
This weekend we had a soccer surprise! Joseph normally arranges our games, but he is now moving back to Hong Kong. He told Enrique the he had a soccer surprise for us this last Sunday. When we showed up on Sunday, we found that our opponents were the select best players from the last 5 teams that we played. Oy! When we play in Beilun, we're undefeated, so they were just waiting for an opportunity to beat the foreigners. And they did! And for the second time (other than the Ningbo tournament) I discovered that our team members don't always have the best sportsmanship! Easy to be a good sport when you win :)

TIC . This.Is.China.

TIC @ School:
Snoopy. Everything has to be fun in China. There are no normal pencil sharpeners here, they are all in some fun shape, usually an animal. I kept borrowing cows from Beth. And then when Line asked, "Can you fix my ladybug?" I knew it was the pencil sharpener without hesitation. So I bought a snoopy dog house and a frog.

This morning while I was writing math problems on the board, my Taiwanese elf asked offhandedly if I could write the problem in Chinese. While he was focusing on solving the problem, I did write the Chinese characters on the board. When he looked up, it was just shock and awe. In his little voice he asked me to read them. When I did, he stared at me in wonder and said, "Miss Lanham, you are soooooo strong!!"

In science we're learning about living things and doing experiments with plants. We already have a plant named Fred from three teachers ago. Now we have two new plants. I like the names.

I had to sub in 6th grade science today. !$#)=(#"$(/)"#! The dreaded sub job that I NEVER took in Bellingham. Oh you would like me to sub for middle school science? *click, hangs up phone* But here I can't hang up the phone if I don't want the sub job.
In the middle of class, one student asked me, "Who created the periodic table?" Oh shoot ... don't panic. Think. Keep your cool. Oooooooh yeah! "Mendeleev" *said calmly and with confidence* ... Phew! Dodged a bullet. I am still the all-powerful, all-knowing teacher figure that I should be.


Spacing is important. She's supposed to write, "Ms. Carney is exctied." But that is not what I read..

Correct sound/letter association is important too. I believe that is supposed to say, "for the week"

TIC out-and-about:
I know that the Chinese don't drink a lot of milk, but just in case ... here is the recipe for eating cereal:
1. Pour cereal.
2. Pour milk.
3. Add spoon.
4. Smile with your mom.

Matt and Julie were in Shanghai this weekend for a baby doctor appointment (So excited! Twin boys are on the way this November!!) and because of this visit, they were able to visit some western grocery stores. They kindly replaced the brownie box that I had ruined with some extra instructions:

And a good trip to the not-western grocery store reminds me of all the excellent forms of meat there are to buy:

Also, in case any of you have the desire to be good listeners to some excellent ranting, I have a few stories about parents that I can share. But not here :)