Never a dull moment

I sat down about an hour ago to start this blog, but then the power went out and I had to wait. The power was also out last night. It's one of those things that I took for granted in America. Sometimes there's just not enough electricity to go around here.

Well, I taught two classes this morning and they were pretty enjoyable. The whole campus was attending sports meet, while our team was teaching. We had to make up for the classes we missed while we were in Zhengzhou, so they decided we need to do that today and tomorrow. Today they put us all on the same floor, so I got to visit my teammates before class and during break. A few of them visited my classes at various times and it was priceless watching and hearing my students react. They've probably never seen so many foreigners, and each one was more exotic than the last one. It was a lot of fun.

My classes were noticeably smaller today. My students had cute polyester track suits the school gave them for the occasion of sports meet. The girls had white ones and the boys had black ones. The students who were missing from my classes were competing in events at that time. I asked my students if they were sad they had to come to class, but they insisted they were glad they were in class. I guess the students who don't compete must sit and watch the competitions all day long for four days. So apparently sitting in Miss Laura's class was slightly more interesting.

Four of the people on my team have had bats in their classrooms while they've been teaching. I figure it's only a matter of time before a bat attacks me during class. I'm waiting...

After my last class today I was erasing the chalkboard and I saw one of the boy students sitting by himself. He seemed to be hanging around, but I didn't want to know why, because he seems to have a crush on me. Everytime he walks in class he smiles the biggest, goofiest smile to me. He's a very good student, too, but I try not to give him too much attention. Anyways, I could see that he was waiting around for me, so I sort of threw down the eraser and dashed out of the room. I strolled down the hallway with a couple girl students. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the kid hurrying down the hall towards us. He squeezed along the wall to walk next to me, where there was obviously no room for him to walk. He is normally very shy, so I was kind of freaked out by his boldness and wasn't sure what he'd do or say next. He interrupted the other girls and asked me, "Miss Laura! Will you attend the sports meet?" I was like, "that's why you're acting all strange, just so you can ask me if I'll be at the sports meet?" But I didn't actually say it.

I am planning on watching some of the sports meet either tomorrow or Friday morning. I'm hoping to watch my students compete or watch them march and dance. I doubt I'll be able to spot many of them in a crowd of thousands. I bet they'll spot me though...

And now for one last story... The elderly "watermelon lady" I usually buy watermelon from nearly every day is no longer selling watermelons. I guess that season is officially over. Now she has transitioned to selling apples, Asian pears, and tangerines from a cart. I bought two tangerines from her last night, knowing she would give me a fair deal. I mostly just wanted to continue buying stuff from her. Sometimes I'm worried she would be out sleeping on the street if I didn't support her. She brightens my day. But what do I call her now? She was the "watermelon lady." Is she now just the "fruit lady?" We also have names for other vendors: "Sweet potato lady," "bread lady," "noodle boy," etc. Sometimes our creativity astonishes me.

Have a great, blessed day!