“No.”
“Oh, well, they are changing the overnight camp to next week, so you will need to teach all day on Thursday instead of having the day off.”
I’m proud to say that everyone responded well! We revised the rotation in the next half hour and went to lunch. That change meant that instead of doing crafts yesterday afternoon, we split the kids up and went to activities outside the school – Pizza Hut, the new Tom Cruise movie, and a video game arcade. Piers and I were assigned to Pizza Hut with 70 first graders. FUN! The rest of our team went to the movie with second and third graders.
As a result of the change, Bridger will come back over from Macau to pinch hit for me so that I can go to Doumen on Thursday to observe some of our team who are completing their TESOL practicum. Actually, this trip includes five TESOL practicum students, two intercultural internships, and a student receiving grad credit for a course in teaching, learning and motivation.
The week is going well. We’re learning, again, to be flexible.
Oh, another thing I learned after all these years. Chinese don’t do most fruits for breakfast. There were some bananas on Jumbo’s table last weekend when we sat down for breakfast. Jumbo asked me to move them to a counter. I told him I thought we might enjoy them with our breakfast. Jumbo looked surprised, but agreed. As we began eating, the bananas were quickly grabbed one by one by the American team. Jumbo’s wife walked over from where she was making tea to express concern. She looked at Jana and said, “Aren’t you afraid to eat that? Shouldn’t you eat something else first?” She was quite concerned that we’d all have stomach aches or headaches later in the day.
Hmm? How did I miss that all these years?
Luke
Photos of the Pizza Hut field trip.
