Shiqi China Dolls: China Chapter 2

Date wrote: February 25, 2013
When we arrived there was a young Chinese boy who knocked on our front door to our apartment. After Anna answered the door he ran straight in and made himself welcome to our home. He was running around checking it all out. We sat him down and talked with him, he told us his name was Frank and he was 7. We thought for the longest time that he kept saying Ben instead of Frank and he kept yelling at us and laughing as we would say Ben.. He kept telling us Frank. He took pictures with us and told us that he lives upstairs from us. He had a brown bag of candy and he passed it out to us. He was precious and he goes to the school right down the street from the apartment. Every so often he hangs out with us and we see him around the apartment complex.

: Frank...Not Ben

: Ohh Frank....

Living in Zhongshan, China we are assigned to a preschool and kindergarten school called Shiqi pronounced search-ee. We have adopted the name, Shiqi China Dolls, as Americans.

It has been quite an adventure thus far. The people here are wonderful. The food is still taking some getting used to. Teaching is great. I am teaching 5-6 year olds with the cutest personalities. They are a ball full of energy and wanting to learn. There are 21 kids in my kindergarten class. I have 2 other roommates of mine that teach the class with me. We divide the 21 students into 3 groups and we each take a group and teach them a lesson for 20 minutes. After that 20 minute segment, we rotate, so each group of 7 kids gets 3 different lessons in a day.

Last week we were able to start our teaching on Monday. I thought it was pretty successful for being my first day of teaching. I feel that their behavior is way better than any other 5-6 year old's behavior coming from America. The children here are just happy and could care less about anything. They enjoy each others company and love to have the interaction with us.

As an English teacher, sometimes our lessons don't go as planned, and you have to make due with what you can. I was very nervous teaching and getting to know my students because I didn't know how they would respond to me and I didn't know how they would react to my teaching.I realized that they don't care who you are.

: 5-6 year old, Kindergarten Teachers (Teacher Jess, Teacher Anna, Teacher Shay)

As I met them, I felt that they had just got out of Christ's presence and they came to me directly from Him. I melted into pieces. My students came up to this complete stranger and gave me the biggest hug. They wanted to show me what they were doing in their classes and how their lives were. I feel so privileged to be with them and to stand in their light.

On Tuesday, our lessons went better with the children. We had more control of the kids and a better idea of how we were supposed to run the classes. The kids were more willing to listen and participate as we were teaching them.

Wednesday, we took a field trip to a park across the street from their school and were able to go look at the Chinese Lantern Festival decorations. They were able to celebrate the Chinese New Years on February 10th and they had the city put this huge display on of different attractions that light up at night for everyone to come see. So we were able to take the kids over there during the day. We took pictures and saw many colorful pieces to celebrate the New Year.

: My kids-headed to go see the Chinese Lantern Festival

: My boy-Rain and I

: Park-Lantern Festival

: My Adopted Kids for the next 4 months

After teaching, the rest of our days consist of relaxing, exploring and being adventurous in whichever way a girl wants to be. I have found my favorite noodle place here in town where I can get homemade noodles for cheap that taste phenomenal.

: Making homemade noodles

: Noodle Heaven

: Homemade Noodles!

There is another restaurant right next to us that has the best homemade dumplings. They serve them with a peanut butter dipping sauce. This restaurant also has some peanut butter noodles they serve.. I am not sure if these noodles are homemade or not, they aren't as good as the noodle place, but the peanut butter noodles are still good.

: Dumplings

Yesterday (March 2, 2013) we had a banquet where all of the English schools in Zhongshan, associated with the International Language Program got together and had lunch. To get to the banquet, we rode the town on bikes. While there, each school had to perform a dance or a skit in front of 500 people. So the Shiqi China Dolls performed the final performance from Pitch Perfect.