July 11, 2009

After dinner last night we went over to a women named Elise's home and she gave us the orientation for school. We were unable to go back to the school because we are still in quarantine and we would not be able to eat with our masks on so we just ate in our rooms and then went to Elise's. Elise and her husband are Chinese Americans and they are also believers. They were very hospitable to us and were both very helpful! Elise shared how to adjust to the new culture and what to expect. There are many similarities to China and the U.S., but there are a few differences she mentioned that could catch us off guard. For instance, some young children go to the bathroom outside just wherever they are. Also some bathrooms have squatty potties and don't have closed stalls so people might watch you go to the bathroom. Thankfully, at our school we have stalls and both squatty potties and regular toilets. Chinese signs might be humorous because the English translation is not completely accurate. For example our guide, Grace, shared with us that one time while in a building she read a sign that said in Chinese "Washroom for the disabled" and then the American translation below said "Washroom for deformed men." haha Grace and Elise both said we will probably run across a good number of those kinds of translations on signs. Elise caught me by surprise when she said Chinese children were not very respectful and actually behave worse than American children. Now I know why everyone has been telling us how important discipline is and making the rules clear to the children on the first day is. Elise was very helpful with sharing what to expect in teaching and also sightseeing. She also asked us about what we expected to get out of this experience and we all agreed how we wanted to grow spiritually, have opportunities to share the gospel and love on our students and T.A.s, learn about a new culture, and be able to relate to the people here. I really enjoyed talking and listening to Elise! She was very informative and helpful with all that she shared with us! After her presentation I asked Grace if she was going to go to kareoke (Grace usually goes to kareoke night on Fridays), but she said she didn't think so. I convinced her to sing for us and so she sang Amazing Grace and O Holy Night in Chinese and English while Elise played the piano. She has a very pretty voice and she is going to take us to kareoke one night. I'm excited for that! Grace told us that Christmas has actually gotten really popular in China. They decorate the malls here like they do in the U.S. with Christmas trees and decorations. They even hang angels made out of white tutus and play Christmas music. Even though they don't know what the songs are saying, they are hearing songs of praise which is awesome! I thought that was neat that they have started to celebrate Christmas here! That is one way we CAN share with our children, through the American culture, such as teaching the holidays (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving). There is no doubt they will be hearing the Word. I just pray that they will see His light through us!

Today we went straight to business. After breakfast we all got together to work on our lesson plans. We got a LOT done today! I'm so excited because tomorrow afternoon we get to meet our T.A.s and decorate our rooms! I am going to have kind of a car themed room. Maybe life is a highway? I have the supplies just not the theme name. I made a road out of construction paper for coming into the room and for discipline I made a stoplight. I cut out a green, yellow, and red circles and glued them on to manilla construction paper to make the stoplight and then I made a sign to put above the stoplight that says "Behavior Light." I cut out little cars and made little pockets out of them to put tickets in. Each child will start out at green light (worth 2 tickets) and if their behavior worsens they will move down to yellow (worth 1 ticket) and then red (worth 0 tickets). The tickets will be kept in the car pockets which will have their name on it and on Fridays they can use their tickets to buy prizes. Hopefully this will give them motivation for good behavior. I also made steering wheels for the front of each of their desks and head lights which will say "_____'s car." I have some more decorations that will go around the room such as word walls, weather, months of the year, and an alphabet wall decoration that I added construction paper to the bottom of each letter so as a class we could add words to our alphabet wall. I will be sure to take pictures because I know it's hard to visualize right now especially with my explanation. We won't have 30 kids on Monday and Tuesday anymore. They found substitutes for those two days while the other half of our team is finishing up their quarantine. We will be testing the first half of the day Monday now and although we will have 15 kids, they might not all stay in our class due to the results of the fluency tests. Tuesday will be the first day that we have our actual class. The school had workbooks delivered to our rooms today and those are going to be wonderful. Each of our students will get a workbook and Chinese/English dictionary workbook. I have both and also a teacher's workbook with an audio cd for story time. Since we don't know the fluency of our class yet we are unable to completely finalize our lesson plans, but we have a rough schedule of what our days will look like. I will have to wait on some of my decorations too since I don't have my student's names yet, but I'm so excited!!! Tomorrow is our last day in quarantine and then freedom!! I better get to bed. I need a good night sleep for a busy day ahead! Today, we were all pretty sleepy so we got silly, lots of laughter! It was fun! We watched the Emperor's New Groove as we made all our decorations. God is keeping us sane cooped up in hotel rooms and He is pouring so much into us. I am so ready to go out and pour into others! I just can't wait to see what He is going to do through us and in this city! We have been singing this song all day and I wanted to share the lyrics. The song is called "God of this city" and it is sung by Chris Tomlin:

"You're the God of this city, You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation, You are
You're the Light in this darkness, You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless, You are

There is no one like our God, there is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city

Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here."

Hope everyone has a wonderful start to the weekend!

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:22-23