The sun is shining

Thank you so much for your thoughts yesterday. I got a better night's sleep last night and I also spent a lot of time in the word, which renewed me quite a bit. If yesterday was awful, today was wonderful.

I had two classes of freshmen University English. The students are a little more studious and well-behaved than Business English. Today I also made sure I spoke slower and more kindly than usual. I smiled a lot more and sat down and talked with the kids who were sitting all alone. I tried to make my lessons more engaging. So today turned out really well. The students interacted and actually spoke pretty well and with confidence. I knew I wasn't alone as I taught today.

During office hours today, a student actually visited me! He was my first student to come to office hours. At first I was surprised. I had put my head down on the desk to take a nap, because all the other teachers were at lunch. Then in walked this student whom I vaguely remember seeing in class. (I know, I'm a terrible teacher, but I'm trying to get better). He had this book in English about American culture. There was an article about 9/11 and how people in Kansas, in the center of America, viewed it. It was really random. He remembered I was from Kansas and wanted to know all about this "disaster." That led us to talk about the earthquakes in China, etc. His English was pretty decent and we could carry on a conversation okay. Anyway, I was excited somebody came to my first ever office hours.

In classes today I took pictures of the students in groups. I had them stand under their English names at the chalkboard. That way, I can look at the pictures later and try to remember their names. All 200 of them. After class everybody wanted to take their pictures with me. They have become braver. Usually I see them taking a picture of me with their cell phone during break and then they quickly look down, like they're guilty. It seems like the students are becoming more relaxed with me, although they are still very respectful.

Tonight Joelle, our team leader, made us all spaghetti and biscuits for team night dinner. I about died eating that wonderful spaghetti. It was fun to sit around the table in her apartment laughing and eating. Afterward we studied the word together and then a couple of us went out to buy ice-cream off the street.