July 20, 2011
It’s been a couple of busy days!
My classroom was one of half the school which one at the mystery night, but I have yet to see the prize from it. Hopefully the kids got it! My kids had the correct suspect in room three, and they wanted it to be her from the moment they talked to her. They are a little funny in that they don’t realize that the teachers they have all the time were playing a part. The theif “isn’t actually that shy” and the old man “isn’t really that old” so he couldn’t have done it whereas the thief had to have. They were excited when I announced their winning the next day.
I had to get a medical test done the afternoon we found out about our win. Lisa took over my kids time and I went to the clinic with Kalyn, John and Chance. We had to pee in a cup (it was a tiny cup, and a squatting toilet – not my idea of fun at all! Kalyn and I both peed all over our hand.) They don’t actually test the pee- you put a stick in the cup after you are done, and they test the stick for whatever. Kalyn and I were different colours on the stick – not sure what that means! After we peed, we had chest x-rays done. It was pretty crazy! No smock, just stand on this metal thing which moves and they have a portable xray where they look at our chests as we stand there. We were all TB free. Next was the ECG where they monitored our heart rates. My next stop was where they listened to our breathing. The doctor here also seemed to check us for deformities, so I was glad he ran his hand down my left leg! My right leg might have got me sent home! We had to have two vials of blood taken, we were weighed and measured. I was waiting for them to tell me I was overweight and had to go home. They didn’t make us to the eye testing though, so that was nice! I hate those things! We had to fast for the testing, so we stopped at a great noodle place and had dinner before we came home. We were home just in time for bingo night. I didn’t play bingo this time, so I didn’t get any candy!
Yesterday we were off, and most of us went to Nanjing for the day. Nanjing was once the southern capital of China, and has a city wall that is 33 km long – the longest city wall in China. We went to a memorial site for the founder of modern China – the guy who ended Dynasties before Communism came. It was monsooning, so the view was diminished big time, but it was an interesting walk. Sadly, there was no pcitures allowed in the memorial site itself, and it was so rainy, I am not sure how good my pictures are. We also went to the Nanjing market where a lot of us did some shopping. I found that prices were cheaper in Yangzhou, so I didn’t buy a lot, but I did buy some. We got home in time for dinner and then Marcia and I went into town to finish our shopping at the Yangzhou market we had seen on our first day here. Over the course of the day, I spent over 800 yuan, but I think Christmas is ready! I also bought decorations for my room since it is so boring.
Today we had class as usual in the morning, but my class played with the parachute and then sang some songs and played some games. After lunch we had a wet and wild afternoon. Surprisingly, for the first time since my arrival, the sun threatened to come out on the only day we wanted to be wet! Everyone was plenty wet by the time the water fights ended though! The station I ran with Kalyn, you had to run with a water balloon, and pop it by sitting on it. The kids loved and hated it all at the same time!
Tonight we had the talent show. There was some real talent, and some misfunctioning microphones and things, so some were just awful. It was really long. My kids were the quietest around me, but I think they might have been asleep!
