So much to say!
I had a Christmas party this morning for one of my freshman classes and it turned out great. We had hot chocolate, cookies, they all brought some food, and we did a 'white elephant' christmas gift swap. Which was so funny to watch! Some of my freshman call me Stephen and Steve and I know have a clue why. I originally thought that they just couldn't get the last S out when they said my last name, but when I received three cards addressed to Stephen, I realized, NOPE they think that's my name! And I guess that they call me Steve because when I see them on campus, they get nervous talking to me and can't get out my whole last name so they just say Steve!
Went to Metro today (a huge import store about an hours bus ride away) with my Chinese friend Stephanie. She really enjoyed seeing the new food and learning new words. And I think she always likes opportunities to see how and why foreigners are different. She liked seeing what I was buying and why. She kept asking if I was going to get coffee or needed coffee. Even though she knows I don't like coffee! That's what they know of foreigners! She was amazed at the insanely high price of the huge bag of cheese I bought for our Christmas Eve dinner of pizza!! PIZZA!
I took my little kiddos to Daniel's Christmas party so they could see a Christmas party as well as be around older students who are learning English. Daniel's students would talk to them in Chinese and I would run up saying "English! English! Use English!" One of my kiddos Steven is ridiculously intelligent and I'm constantly asking him out of the box questions and quite a bit of the time he understands them. Mary is strong-willed, stubborn, and so much like my sister Erica! The third kiddo is Sue who is three. THREE! She just repeats everything I or Steven says. Her pronunciation is great though!
Making cookies for my party tomorrow!
Last little note: two days ago I was riding the bus listen to 'Sweet Child of Mine' and there was a girl walking exactly to the beat of the song. Might not seem significant but it made my day!
4 comments:
I'm so excited about your blog! Sounds like you are having a wonderful time over there :-) It can be a little crazy at times though! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas week! Thinking of you!
if i could tell foreigners one thing about me, it would be cheese, large quantities of cheese. thats all i would tell them, seriously my life revolves around having an adequate amount of cheese to function, if I met chinese people they would be like, why do you eat so much cheese? why are you so crazy? and i would say i do not know, i cant answer that, I only know that I am foreign and cheese oriented.
my favorite part of the story, if you couldnt tell, was the part where you bought cheese for pizza, and your friend was like, why are you buying all of that cheese. I love that part, I like to imagine it, even though I am sure I am imagining it in a way it didn't happen I still get the proper impression I believe, one that is of you and a chinese person, and the chinese person doesn't know why you bought a bag of cheese.
I don't drink much coffee. Would you tell your students that I don't drink much coffee, you don't have to mention me by name, just tell them you have a friend who doesn't drink much coffee because I feel chinese might see all of us as coffee drinkers.
It makes me smile that you were jamming out to Sweet Child O Mine while hanging out in China! Glad things are going so well for you!
I think we should all call you Steve from now on... just 'cause.
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