It's not that Zack was so hungry he had to eat a grasshopper...it's just that it was the biggest grasshopper we'd ever seen.
Today, in an attempt to buy chicken to make chicken noodle soup, we ended up with a frozen cornish hen...head, beak, toes, and all. Zack is teaching little Corny to perch on his finger.
In case you were wondering, the soup was delicious. After two weeks, we have begun almost all of our classes. Our schedules are final, as far as we know. Zack has 16 hours -- five video-audio classes and two listening classes. Elizabeth has 14 hours -- three audio-video classes, two listening classes, and two American film and music classes. We both have Thursday off, which is excellent. For the most part, our students are the sweetest and funniest people. Most of them, especially the freshmen, are so excited to have American teachers that they can't seem to take their eyes off of us. Both Zack and I have had to spend time after our classes while our students take pictures of and with us. We are constantly hearing things like, "I am so happy to have you as my teacher" and "I am so excited to have foreign friends" and "You are a beautiful teacher." They also open up to us quite readily. When we ask them to tell us something about themselves, instead of saying "my favorite color is blue" they give a speech about their hopes and dreams and are always offering to be our guides should we ever choose to come to their hometown. One thing we are doing with all of our classes is inviting them to come over to our apartment. When we suggest this in class, the students all beam and start whispering excitedly to each other. We have had a few troubles with our classes, but only in terms of broken computers or technical misunderstandings; the students are all awesome. We have heard so many times in the past week from our students, "I want to have foreign friends. Maybe I can be your Chinese friend."
This is one of the groups that came over to our apartment. We have had four groups so far; 24 people. Every time a group comes over, we serve them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and play the Un-game. The un-game is just that...not a game. It is actually just a deck of cards with conversational questions, which we play as a way to get to know people. In this picture, everyone is saying "qie zi" (chee-ay zuh) which means eggplant. (Their version of saying, "cheese!")
After just two weeks of school, our first break is this weekend. Sunday is mid-autumn festival, so we have Monday off. It will be nice to have a short break; we hope we can spend some of the time getting to know some of our students better. As far as we can tell, mid-autumn festival is just a day when they look at the moon, spend time with family, and eat mooncakes. Zack and I were each presented with a box of mooncakes from our school. They were described to us as fig newtons...which was true in appearance, but far from true in taste. I guess the more weird things we eat, the more we learn about China. We didn't know until we got to class today, but today was Teachers' Day! I actually didn't find out immediately because my students either forgot or they just don't like me...Zack came to find me during the break between classes to show me the cards that his students hand-made for him. Throughout the rest of the day, we both received about a dozen "happy teachers' day" text messages from our students. Even so, by the end of the day I was feeling a little jealous of Zack because of all the cards his students made him. However, we had a group of students come this evening and as they walked in the door they presented me with a large stuffed animal dog. I was delighted, and now Zack is the jealous one.
Teachers' Day gift and a box of Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes.
The best way for us to describe our experiences here is that we are excited. We love the people here and are so glad that we are able to get to know them as the opportunities present themselves.
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