So, it's been a bit since I wrote. I think I may have already mentioned this, but I'm really not very good at being the most consistent at writing things like this.  Oh well, I'm already doing better than I have at other times.

Anyway, so last Tuesday was the last time I wrote.  Well, last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I got to teach all of my classes again. Basically, I'll be teaching each class twice a week (I probably already mentioned this though, huh).  So my classes for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were a whole lot better than the first two days of teaching.  It's not so much that the students were in any way different, but even with just teaching a second class, I understand them better now and I better understand how to teach them.  Also, I'm starting to get the hang of doing the discipline thing better.  I don't know, I just really have a hard time being very strict.  In my classes, most of the time there is a "translation teacher" in the back of the class.  Basically, they're other English teachers who are there to help translate when needed.  Anyway, almost all of them would ask me how I felt the class went and then tell me that I need to be more strict, especially at the beginning of the semester.  It's so hard for me to be strict, especially when I don't even know the words needed to be strict.  I tried just being quiet, but that did NOT work.  They just kept talking.  I mean, kids talk and that's to be expected.  I just need to try and focus their energy into learning instead of playing.  It's getting better, though, and I'm sure as I keep teaching them, I'll be better able to control the class.  However, it's really hard not to speak Chinese to them.  Because there's a lot they don't understand, I end up trying to explain a lot to them in Chinese. I'll say it multiple times in English and then if they still don't understand, I'll say it in Chinese.  I should probably use Chinese less though so that they learn more English, but I feel that if they don't understand (especially at that age) they'll just say "I don't understand" and tune everything out even if they could understand some of it.  I've noticed that I do that sometimes when I'm here- I'm listening to part of a conversation and I don't really understand what they're talking about so I zone out and then a bit later they ask me something and I haven't been paying attention so I have no idea what to say.  I don't do this all the time, mostly just when I'm tired and don't feel like trying to pick up on what they're saying.

So I have to say that my students really are great.  I've only met with them a few times, but they get so excited just to see me.  When I go by the first year classes, I just put my hands up and they constantly give me high fives.  No joke- I could probably stand there for 3-5 minutes just giving high fives because they'll just stand there each one constantly giving me a high five.  Also, I'll have 3 different people trying to high five each hand.  It's really cute.  I also have some who like to come up and hug me.  Actually, the other day, I had one girl come up and hug me, so I spun her around.  Then a boy came up and he's probably the biggest in the class, but I hugged him and spun him around too.  Even though he's probably the heaviest in his class, he still isn't that heavy.  These kids are so small and it's fun that in China it's not seen as questionable when I hug them or play with them.  In fact, some of the second grade girls want me to go to their apartment.  I haven't made it yet because I'm not sure when they have free time that I could go other than night time (which I don't know what time that would be), and the night they said to come, I couldn't because I was planning 2 lessons for the next day.

So, there's 3 people I regularly sit with at lunch- Ray （王雷）, his girlfriend （才才）, and another 2nd grade teacher （周倩）(the girlfriend and this teacher are the two homeroom teachers for the 2 2nd grade classes).  It's fun sitting with them because the 2 girls mostly talk about students and funny things they do or whatever.  I've noticed that I do the same when I meet up with other foreign teachers- we exchange stories about what our school is like or how our students are.  I guess it's just a common thing for teachers to do- which makes me wonder about my past teachers and what stories they may have told.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon, I went up to WanDa (万达）(it's basically a shopping center) to meet with some of the people here in 镇江 (ZhenJiang) to go see the lantern festival.  Well, I got there fine (though it was a rather cold and somewhat rainy day), and when we went to leave, we realized we didn't actually know what bus to take to get to the park where we were going to meet the others.  We figured it out, but after waiting for the bus to come for about 40 minutes, we decided to just take a taxi.  Unfortunately, when we decided to actually take a taxi, there were no taxis coming by that didn't have people in them.  So we waited for another 20 or so minutes.  Finally, we got a taxi and made it to the park.  Jacob was in town and came with us, then took us all to dinner and we had pizza!  It was pretty decent pizza, at least as far as China standards go.  It was fun getting everyone together and hearing everyone's stories.  It got to be about 8 pm and I felt like I remembered that the buses stopped at 9, so we left and tried to catch our bus back to our area.  Well, the bus that I took to get to WanDa stopped running at 6:30.  So, Chris (one of the teachers that's down in my area) and I grabbed some food from one of the little street vendors and then got a taxi and went home.  In taxis here, a lot of people sit up front with the driver, and I ended up in the front.  I felt really awkward about it.  In Taiwan, the taxi drivers would try to talk to us and stuff like that.  Here they're practically mute, at least the ones I've met.

Well, Friday I randomly decided to go up to Kirsten's and have a sleep over then go together to the RS activity on Saturday morning.  We wandered around WanDa for awhile (she was looking for a keyboard to practice for playing in church) and I was looking for a place to get a cheap guitar so I have something else I can do in my apartment other than my computer and phone (I really don't have much in my apartment).  Obviously, I should get out more and interact with the students, but they're in class almost all day.  Because they're so young, I think the school tries to have even more of a schedule for everything.  Even exercise time is scheduled what they'll do, etc.  The only unscheduled time is the times between classes which is when they pretty much go crazy.  Maybe when it gets a bit warmer the kids will be playing outside more often.  I just don't really like the cold.  Cold here isn't as bad, but when you're constantly in the cold and you never really warm up completely, it's just not a happy feeling.  Plus, even though I put my heater up to 30 (which is like 86 degrees Fahrenheit), my room never actually warms up all the way and I feel like I need to wear gloves in my apartment in order to keep my hands warm.  Seriously, I am constantly wearing like 4 layers of pants and 3-5 layers of shirts.  It will be really nice when I don't feel like I have to wear so much just to stay warm (though as my family knows, I tend to like being warmer than other people do).  I would much rather be too hot than be cold.

Anyway, back to the sleepover.  So, after WanDa, we went over to Walmart (yes, they have Walmart here, in fact there are like 2-3 in my city).  We got some presents for the 2 teachers in my mentor group whose birthdays were Friday and Saturday.  Then we met up with some of the teachers including those two and walked around WanDa a bit.  They were all going to go to one of the other teacher's apartment (Koy, who has a really big, nice apartment) to hang out, but by 8 we decided we'd better head out so we didn't get stuck without a running bus to Kirsten's apartment.  We went back, and then as we entered her school, we realized we probably weren't going to get back out to go buy food.  Luckily we had bought a few extra things at Walmart, and she had some fried rice left over from before.  So, that became our dinner.