Unintentional (?) whining

New update about the past events… There have been quite a few!

First is Peter. Peter is the other foreign teacher. We thought he was the foreign teacher they had last semester, because we saw pictures of this white guy and everyone kept on talking about how there were the ILP teachers and then this other foreign teacher, the one that is taking over my Friday ELE class (which I will talk about later.)

Yeah… Peter’s not a white dude. He’s legit Indian, speaks fluent Hindu, English, Chinese, and a bit of Arabic. It’s like he came straight out of Outsourced, I kid you not. He’s a pretty fun guy. Weird, strange, but fun. He likes to play little tricks on us, like when we went to Fuzhou, he kept on telling the Chinese people that Ashley spoke fluently and stuff like that. He wants an arranged marriage because he thinks love marriages are silly and doesn’t like the movie ‘Stranger than Fiction’ because it wasn’t real enough for his tastes. So we have someone else to hang out with on occasions, but apparently his mother is not happy about it at all because she thinks he’ll start fooling around. |: Riiiight.

Okay, so you know how we did five days of kung-fu last week? Yeah, well, on top of that, my kung-fu teacher likes to pick on me. We use this foam pad thing that you strap to your arm and you hold it while other people punch and kick it? Yeah, he stuck that on me and proceeded to slaughter my arm. And I’m being serious, he was really punching and kicking. He did that on Thursday and Friday and between that and a bit of tai chi, when Saturday came around, both my arms were killed (I still have purple bruises all over my right one) and my right leg was sore to the point where I almost cried when I put my pants on.

Did I get much rest? Uh, no. Like I said, Saturday, we ended up going to Fuzhou. Angel showed us how to use the public bus system and it’s… not pleasant. I’ve seen crammed buses. I’ve been on some pretty crammed ones. This… was like, sardines. There was no breathing space. Then we got to the city and we just kept on walking around and around and around and I was freaking limping, I couldn’t help it and walking down stairs made me want to cry, but you can’t stay on campus unless someone else stays with you and I know everyone else was going crazy because we hadn’t gone off campus for two weeks… So yeah, I didn’t want to insist on staying home.

The plus side was that there was super cheap ramen. It was amazingly yummy for like… five yuan? Gigantic bowls, too, I loved it.

The way back home was even worse than going to the city, because I had to stand most of the time because it was so crammed. Like, I was jammed between a rod and the driver’s seat and every time he shifted gears on the bus, his elbow hit my butt/hip. Yeah, so fun. u_______u

So okay, that was Saturday… Sunday is the day of rest, right? Right?

Because last Sunday was district branch meeting, they moved fast Sunday to this week. I fasted! So no breakfast and no lunch after church either… then the monastery trip comes. I figured I’d go because… Well, I didn’t think it’d be that bad. They’d have to have places to sit and it couldn’t be that bad…

Oh, was I wrong.

It’s like a museum on the base of a mountain, with over 500 Buddhas and lots of… well, they said they were all women monks, so I don’t know what you’d call those. Some of them were definitely women, but there were ones where I honestly hadn’t a clue. Ehh.

What was really weird was that Angel and Tim acted like they’d never been to the place before and it’s three blocks away from the school. O_o did not make sense to me. It was kinda weird though. I will not even begin to expound on some of the weird ideas that popped into my head when I saw some of the Buddha statues.

This is just on the base of the mountain. No big deal, right? It’s nice enough, if you can ignore all the garbage and the occasional beggar. There’s this guardian statue that I liked a lot, though I thought it was interesting that it was facing inwards rather than outwards. Again, more strange ideas.

… but we’re going up to the actual temple part of things…. And guys, it was up a legit mountain. Like, I cannot tell you how high we were and there were stairs and they were so steep and I’m not sure how I managed it, but I did it in decent time. My leg muscles were spasming and our bus driver kept on hovering at my shoulder (Nicole says my cheeks were flaming red by the time we got to the top) but I made it.

The view was gorgeous. By the time we got to the mountain, I had breathed in so much incense and the temple was undergoing construction, so we just walked around the surrounding buildings, mostly. Annie, one of my ELE students, was visiting with a friend and her friend’s family, so she was all excited to see me. ^_^ Made me happy.

The trip down wasn’t so bad, except my legs were spasming so I nearly fell down twice. Then the monk ladies were clearing some path or something, so they were asking anyone going down the mountain to help them carry down tree branches. Carried down a couple limbs for them… Mm, carrying them wasn’t the problem, I was more concerned about the tree Kim was carrying. Nearly brained me on accident. D: D: D:

So yeah, so much for resting my legs. Luckily we took Monday off kung-fu and then canceled it on Tuesday due to the fact that it was raining and cold.

Kung-fu again today and I’ve bruise my knuckles, done something weird to my ankle (again), done something weird to my hip (idek what’s up with that) and my master punched me three times. He was holding back – but even then, it hurt. Darn men with their stupid upper body strength! He flexed his arm and had us touch it and the stupid shrimp is a rock. D: (I say this because he’s shorter than me.)

But I think he thinks I’m crazy or something… might have something to do with the fact that I am the only one here on campus running around in a t-shirt and shorts. u_u Anyway, other security dude showed up and they taught us some new things. I learned how to break someone’s wrist and a… a set? I don’t know what they’re called when you do a series of forms. But yeah, they kept on making fun of me. Ugh, it’s not my fault, I’ve only been doing this for two weeks, jerks. :\

Master has a 2 month old baby. I think it’s a boy, but whatever it is, it’s cute. He showed me a picture as we were leaving.

So tiiiired. D: We had tai chi before kung-fu, and it was only maybe 15 minutes, but it uses muscles that I swear, I’ve never used before.

I’m such a baby, I know. D: Waaaah.

Oh, oh, on top of that, we only taught for like, a half hour today. Tim came in this morning saying there was some meeting we had to attend. Basically we sat pretty with speakers blasting our ears off while a bunch of the staff got awards… Was a bit weird. I’m glad that Nicole told me I was still wearing my cat ears before the headmasters and deans went up on stage, because it was probably bad enough that I was mouthing along to some of the music and constantly moving. It lasted for like, two and a half hours! Hadn’t a clue what the point of the whole thing was and the headmaster’s speech lasted for like… 45 minutes, but whateverrrrr.

I’m trying to think of what else happened, but I’m so tired. Internet is being weird, so I’ll just be saving this and sending it off tomorrow morning.

By the way, Elder Laulusa, I am wondering why, of all the things you had to quote me on, it was me talking about my boobs. Really. |:

|:

|:

|:

|:

Anywho~ The sleep is for me.

Oh, oh, wait. Before that, I need my little bookworm moment.

I started the Hunger Games. Jamie and Val really liked it and Nicole brought the whole series, so I figured I’d give it a try.

I’m kind of afraid to go beyond the first 50 pages. It makes me think of Battle Royale and… Uhm. ;o; I don’t know, I kind of majorly do not want.

I don’t know, we’ll see. If not, I shall just keep on re-reading the books I have. X:

Oh wait, and I didn’t talk about my ELE class. It’s actually not mine anymore, now that Peter’s here, but it was the older class of 16-18 year olds on Friday. So Nicole and I were teaching them and we decided it’d be fun to play Jeopardy and give American coins to the winning team. Nicole did most of the actual talking… I did crowd control. Because, while they love to stare at us, half of them are totally awful at actually paying attention to the lessons. The boys in the back, as clichéd as this may be, were the troublemakers. There’s this one guy who looked like a gorilla (in a good way, sort of?), a pretty boy who was obviously into his hair and clothes (and scared of me), and the boy who kept on taking pictures of us with his phone.

Yeah, they all learned to keep their heads frontward, in their chairs with all the floor, and not talking. If not, they either got hit on the head with a handbook (paperback, I promise) or I drew on them with chalk.

Gorilla dude, at some point in time, actually stood up and moved out of his seat, kind of stretching. Mostly just to get a reaction out of me. Okay, this guy is like, twice my size and he just gave me this smug look when I told him to sit down.

Guess who slammed him back down into the chair in front of the whole class? Oh yeah, me. |: Don’t mess with me, mister. I may be half your size, but I’m still your teacher and I am not some pansy like the boy sitting next to you.

He behaved better after that. |:

I’m almost sad that we won’t be teaching them again, because Peter teaches them now that he’s here – they’re closer to my age and some of the girls are super nice. Buuuut~ Eh. I’ve got enough on my plate and there’s this other boy who kept on hitting on me and I’m like ‘YOU JUST WANT MY GREEN CARD D8< OR BRAGGING RIGHTS’ seriously, why else would you hit on me. Go hit on Nicole, at least she’s cute. U_U. So it’s less of a hassle.

Speaking of my other ELE class, my Grade 6 kids, I am having to tell them exactly what words they can and cannot say. This wasn’t a problem the first few weeks, but Philip, one of the older boys, decided it’d be sooooo cool if he pulled out the f-bomb and all the other swear words.

Mister, not in my class.

He also likes to pick on Jason, the boy next to him. Not like, in a bully fashion, but he’s a little on the harsher playful side. I taught them the green frog song and he kept on hitting Jason when we did the ‘squish squash’ part.

Guess who got laughed at by the rest of class as Teacher Lindey hauled him into a corner and made him stay there? Oh yeah, Philip.

That aside, they adore me. They always stick their heads into my ILP classes (because it’s on the same hallway) to say hi. ^_^ I love them, they’re so much fun… a bit of a handful, but fun.

Oh, oh, speaking of songs being taught… one of my drama lessons involved travelling into space. I taught the classes ‘Rocketship’ because I remember Kaelyn really loving it. They LOVE it, especially Colt and Gobster, from my home class. They sing it all the time and it’s just the cutest thing everrrrrr. I also sing the chickadee song at them and they think that’s great fun too.


Anyway... sleep fore real.

Update of Doom

Message from Suki, Sister of Lindey: She sent this Wednesday and I'm just getting it posted today (Sunday). End of Message.


So yeah, internet was out for... three days? 8D Fun times. Anyway, long update of doom.


Okay, so our internet it out. D: Boo hissy. I type this up right before bed, so this is… uhm, Monday, March 7th. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY. ♥

I would have celebrated and bought myself an ice cream, but I’m trying to be good and not get snack foods unless I’ve been really good. Which I was today, but by now, the store is closed. But anywaaaay…

It hasn’t been that long since I updated, but I just wanted to send this out and tell y’alls that I AM LEARNING KUNG-FU! ^_________^ Super, uber happy right now, it was one of my goals while I was here. I think our teacher is a student… I think. He looks older than the 18 year olds I’ve worked with so far, but that might be just because he is totally kick-butt. I haven’t seen him do all the legit stuff, but I guess he was showing off in Bryndi’s ELE class and offered to teach us. :D Who could possibly refuse?

Actually, I almost did for tonight. Today was stressful with Nicole’s class (Nate was… yeah, let’s just not go there) and I made little Mark (cutest kid EVER) cry. Not intentionally, but I couldn’t figure out what was wrong and two Chinese teachers plus Ted AND Jack had to help me sort things out. I felt bad, but he was also kind of ridiculous about what he was upset about. Anyway, that class stressed me out and then dinner was… well, I don’t really like complaining, I actually LOVE most of the food served, but today was a bad dinner. +_+ I am not a fan of lotus, peppers, or eggplant… and those were the side dishes… So I some cabbage and rice. The other girls usually grab noodles or chicken sandwiches when dinner is bad, but I’m trying so hard to be good. D: I don’t want to spend the money and honestly, let’s face it, I need to lose the weight.

So after dinner, I ended up falling asleep until it was kung-fu time and Nicole woke me up and my stomach hurt! So I was like ‘… Do I really want to?’ and I was going to back out… but then I told myself: Rin, don’t be a sissy, you’re never going to do anything if you’re like this.

And so I went~!

And I’m so glad I did. Seriously, I’m so out of shape, but our teacher (Master Fu, I can’t say this without giggling) says that Bryndi and I have lots of talent… I think it might just be because we’re the more aggressive girls in the group. After Master Fu said that, Ashley was all ‘BUT I’VE NEVER HIT A PERSON BEFORE T_____T’, it was so cute.

So yeah, Kung-fu. We just did a basic kick and the basic punches (… well, I call them punches, one of them involves your elbow…) but it was awesome. :D I’m going to be sore in the morning cause I jack-knifed my spin doing a right hook thingy, but I’m so excited. I thiiiiiink (and this is just from what Casey told us tonight) that we can do this every night, Mon-Fri. We’re so excited.

Also, in a spurt of self… something, Bryndi, Nicole, and I decided that we’d start buggering each other into running. Ashley runs and so does Kim, but I’ll admit, I’m a total slacker and it’s gotta change. It’s one reason I chose to come to China now, rather than waiting. I’ve got to be doing something, rather than wasting time. (Which I will also admit, I’m a pro at.)

…I was going to end it at that, but Kim just walked in with 100 yuan to split between me and Nicole, from Tim. Apparently tomorrow is Women’s Day and that means we get money. Guess who is going to treat herself to either a chicken sandwich or ice cream tomorrow. Boobs, thank you for being here. n____n

Anyway, the internet is still down… We have a training meeting, planning meeting, ELE, regular classes, and kung-fu. Sounds like a full day to me, so I’m off to bed and I’ll add any edits if anything utterly momentous happens.

Edit: It’s now Tuesday night and our internet is still out. ELE class went great. ^^ We talked about what they wanted to be when they grew up. A lot of them said they wanted to be CEOs or ‘Bosses’, but didn’t have much else to say. Others wanted to be chefs, pianists, and professional sportsplayers. One girl even said she wanted to be the Queen of Ping Pong, which I found hilarious. 8D

My class is apparently much more curious about me than my fellow teachers’ classes, and so they ask a ton of questions about me. I told them how I wanted to be a filmmaker and even showed them my baby flip to demonstrate (I also took a DVD that Nicole had brought with her). They wanted to know if I wanted to make films or act in them and did I like musicals, etc.

Somewhere in here, Annie and Angel showed me this paper with a song on it. It’s this Carpenters song and they wanted me to sing it, but I only knew the chorus, so I sang that for them. Apparently it impressed them, cause they all asked me to sing a song at the end of class and applauded me and told me I was the best. T_T Guys, I am so not a good singer, but it was so cute.

ILP classes went as well as could be expected. O___O I don’t know what’s wrong with Nicole’s class, but I think they’re driving everyone up the wall. Mark was sobbing, Jack was running in and out of classes (he’s a brat, but he usually behaves) and then started pouting at me when I made him behave, TED was acting like a headless chicken and he’s usually one of the better ones, and Jason, Yao-Yao, and Reece all took turns becoming monsters. D: Guys, I love this class, but I was ready to strangle them all. Other than that, it was going great. We have this week and next week to stick to our section of teaching before we start rotating, so I’m only the drama teacher for a little longer.

It’s almost kung-fu time. Hopefully by the time I get back, the internet will be working… Meh. I wasn’t so sore when I woke up this morning, but right before our ILP classes, my back started KILLING me. ;o; T’was not fun. But then I put pain-a-trate on it and all was well. n_n I’m so excited for tonight, I don’t even. (Master Fu actually walked by my ILP classes several times and said hello. He’s actually not a student or a teacher, he’s a solider… so I guess that would make him part of the security here. Yes, there is a lot of security here.)

Edit 2: Back from kung-fu and still no internet. Tech-geek was here with Comrade and Flora, but apparently they didn’t want to intrude too long since we were ‘tired’ and said they’d be back in the morning. +_+ To be honest, I wouldn’t have minded they keep us up all night, but you know, they need sleep too.

Kung-fu was fun. :D I got scolded a few times for not kicking correctly on first try, but I told myself that I’m not going to be a genius to start off with and he still said very good. I think he also called me ‘tiger’ at some point. :DD I like it when he goes ‘ouch’ when I punch his hand, so far he only does that for me and Bryndi. Makes me feel good, you know?

After kung-fu ended, Casey showed us some tai chi. She also said that she’d teach us it and if we learned it well enough, we’d all do a performance on the 1st of June. I didn’t hear this bit, but apparently it’s some kind of bet (says Nicole). And we’ll get uniforms. n_n I am excite.

Oh right, and I forgot. Apparently we’re being harassed. Some boys dropped a couple bricks off at our door. Personally I thought it was kinda harmless, the boys just stuck them there and ran off, but Kim got pretty :\ over it. We also had someone dribbling a ball across the walkway of our floor REALLY LOUDLY and his accomplice came out of one of the dorm rooms on our floor… I don’t know if it counts or not, but Kim talked to Tim and told him to make an announcement during their morning assemblies that they’re not allowed to do stuff like that, but 8D If they keep it up, guess who’s gonna chase after them with a broom?

Anyway… Sleep it for now. Hopefully by morning we will have our internet back and I’ll be able to send off this monster of an update. Unless something else magical happens, but hopefully all that will happen is teaching and more lesson planning.

Edit 3: It’s morning on Wednesday and obviously Techy hasn’t been here, but I just wanted to say that I am SO SORE. T_T Sheesh, self, you suck. Pain-a-traaaate, come to me. But I’m kind of excited for today! Master Fu has stuff in the evening, so kung-fu lessons are earlier in the day, Casey is showing us some tai chi, and we have Institute! I’m excited, I haven’t been since I was way young and I don’t think that counts, cause I was only ever there when there were hang out parties. 8D!

Oh, and we finally figured out skyping into church. Sort of. We’re still not sure why 95% of the times we dial in, it goes wrong, because it’s the same exact way we dial in the other 5% and that works. +_+ But we attended our district conference. :D Which I think was like stake conference and t’was very good. ^_^

I’m doing lesson plans right now and reading Fahrenheit 451. NICOLE BROUGHT IT, I AM HAPPEH. ♥♥♥ ^_______^ I meant to bring my own (or whoever owns it) but I totally forgot in the packing panic and was all sadface-y, but Nicole has it and ALL IS WELL 8D! She also brought the Hunger Games, which Val and Jamie seemed to adore, so I figured I’d give those a try too. O: Ashley has run off with my Goose Girl, because she needed some happy ending goodyness and I’m trying to get everyone to read Ender’s Game. 8D! I love my group, have I said this yet?


Edit 4: It’s now 7 PM, evening. If you can’t tell yet, I’m going insane. Internet still has not been restored and I’m getting a little antsy. +_+;; Tim, please restore it now, I know other people have internet and it’s kind of required that we have it and I’m mostly just wanting to get in touch with Mom and Dad. ): So if you would please stop cockblocking us.

But since there is no internet, I will just update you on the happenings of today… nothing really stood out except that Lory was crying. (I think his name really should be Laurie, but that’s what is written on his token bag, soooo…) But yes, dearest Lory was absolutely sobbing at the end of my rotation. I didn’t see what happened initially because Victor was also very upset and Max (Victor’s best friend) and I were trying to get him to line up. (Max ended up drawing lines on his face and telling him something in Chinese and Victor cheered up). But because of that, I didn’t see what happened, Bean-Bean and Bill and Lilly were just pointing at him and he was crying.

I started trying to comfort him and figure out what was wrong (all the while trying to get Charlie to be quiet because he was chanting something in Chinese and it was SUPER LOUD. I didn’t think these were connected). I was just so confused and then Bill and Lilly are saying something about how Lory isn’t Chinese and he’s not American and all this stuff… and then Lory leans into my hug and whispers so quietly, “Teacher… I’m Japanese.”

My heart just broke. D: I guess Charlie was chanting something mean at Lory because Lory just ended up crying harder and Bean-Bean tried to squish Charlie into the wall after that. I held onto Lory until Desi came to rotate the class, but I felt so bad for the kid. T_T I suppose it’s possible that he’s not Japanese and they were being mean about something else, because I’ve had other kids claim they were when they obviously weren’t… but I dunno.

._. I’ve just never seen Lory so upset before.

It was also evals and my evals are seriously dropping. D: It was AWFUL. It’s just so, SO hard to keep them on track and understanding when I don’t have a book to help illustrate my point and Bryndi’s class was… a nightmare. T_T I bombed so bad and I’m just headdesking because last week’s evals were SO MUCH BETTER. D: D: D: AUGH.

+_+ After a quick dinner was kung-fu… which was good. I’m so sore and I cannot run to save my life, but it was good. I need to get better balance, but I’m still keeping up well enough. He showed us this really cool spinning kick and I cannot get my body to twist smoothly enough to do it yet. Rawr. Something to work on.

Alas, everyone else is off to painting class and that leaves me all alone and since it’s only 7, there’s no students around either. Rawrs. I think I’ll take a quick nap and then wander around outside.

Randomly, but I thought you’d like to know. The lighting for the outsides of the dormitories… are sound sensitive, not motion sensitive. 8D! Tis kinda amusing, cause you have to stomp your feet to turn them back on. Or yell. Whichever method tips your cow. (I like the latter.)

Oh, and I finished Fahrenheit 451 before ILP classes. I love that book so much. ;o;

Edit 5: Woke up and the internet is back. YAAAAAAAAAAY :DDDD Sending this off and taking a shower, hit me up with all the deets of your lives, yo. ♥

This Week The Trend~♫

I’ve actually been meaning to type this up for ages, but you know, life gets distracting. ^.~ Update on week two shall commence!

First off, it’s going to be the 7th here in about an hour, so Happiest Birthday wishes to Dad and Lilli. ^_^ Also, belated wishes to Emma, Matilda, and Gracie. (Even more belated to Suki and Lara. D: Aish, I fail.) ♥♥♥ Hope you all had a ton of fun.

So it was our second week teaching our ILP classes as well as carrying out our TA duties with the older classes(our ELE classes). My ELE class is grade 6 and they’re 12-13 year olds. I have four girls and fourteen boys and I actually know all of their names now, which apparently impressed their Chinese English teacher.

I like my ELE class. They’re handfuls, they just want to play games, but they’re also rather responsive and eager to work with me, doing their best to explain things to me in English and so on. ^^ I teach them for about forty-five minutes in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I might have a second ELE class of 16-18 year old kids, but I’m not sure about that one. Right as we were heading for breakfast on Friday, Kim informed us that Tim wanted us to teach this class… in like, an hour. But it was older kids and I was curious, so me and my roommate, Nicole, decided we’d go ahead and say yes, at least for that day. It was a ton of fun, though they’re don’t have as good of a grasp on English as either my ILP classes nor my ELE class. But yeah, it was fun. They all think I’m crazy cause I was running around in my t-shirt while they were all in their coats, but IT WAS TOO HOT, OKAY. u_u; really.

Anyway, regular ILP classes… Thursday was super hard. I nearly ended up crying by the time five PM came around. It was my first time trying to teach a drama class without using a book as a plot focus/visual reference and it just went AWFUL. They were all disasters and right at the end, Jake, this little seven year old, thinks is hilarious when he runs his hand over my boob. Yeah, kid, not cool, ESPECIALLY after I told you no. Guess who got a severe scolding. |:

So yeah, between everything that happened, I nearly cried Thursday and I was DREADING Friday. ELE in the morning kept me distracted, but I just did not want to teach the ILP classes.

But we got there and we got started… and everything turned out surprisingly well. It’s a challenge, getting them to concentrate without the book to explain the story, but it was SO MUCH SMOOTHER than Thursday. It also turns out that we only teach until four on Fridays because they have computer classes that day. We teachers spent the hour between classes and dinner just wandering around, talking about Disney classics. (: I don’t think I’ve said this yet, but I LOVE my ILP teaching group, they are awesome.

To prove they are awesome, I will now relate to you an adventure… that I missed. I was kind of tired after dinner so I told myself I’d take a quick nap and then we’d all hang out. I wake up three hours later and apparently missed out on all the fun. Kim, Ashley, Bryndi, Desi, and Nicole all dressed up in the most ridiculous clothes combinations they could come up with and went around the campus to do impromptu photoshoots.

Guys, I don’t have the pictures with me right now, but they were EPIC. Seriously, we did a slide-show and I about died. These girls are totally my kind of crazy.

Apparently they tried to wake me up, but I slept through that. Oops. D:

What else is there to update on… Oh! Bryndi’s birthday was yesterday, so the school prepared a special dinner for us. :D It was great, guys. Like, they have this thing where they… I think fry the shrimp. They’re whole, so they still have the tail and head on them. I eat them whole. O: It’s AWESOME.

Nicole and I also got to keep the leftover juice, which made me happy because ZOMG JUICE. 8DDD

Speaking of Nicole. I feel the need to share more about her, because we live together. She is awesomeness. Not that they aren’t all, but I’m glad we’re roommates because our personalities coincide together rather nicely. :D She really likes classics (as in, the literary ones), Singing in the Rain era movies/musicals, and writing. It’s a lot of fun.

Her family is much more bent on seeing every moment of her life, they skype nearly every day. Since I live in the same room, they are inevitably curious about me as well.

I even got a letter from them in the mail. It’s from her younger brother and is basically telling me ‘KEEP BREATHING, INHALE, EXHALE’. He’s a scream. (This is the result of me being ‘too quiet’ during one of Nicole’s skyping sessions. XD)

But yes, we geek out over a ton of stuff together, we’re also the kind to space out and huddle in our own little worlds, which occasionally worries the rest, but it’s a lot of fun. :3

Oh, and on the subject of food… I’m starting to get tired of rice. They rotate through all the other dishes enough to keep me occupied, but rice at every meal… aish. I mean, I could potentially just not have the rice, but almost every meal has a spicy dish (and the spicy ones are usually the really good ones) so I end up eating rice with it. Not to complain, it’s just a LOT OF WHITE RICE.

One last thing before I go is talking about Lory. Lory is a student who was added to our ILP classes. He’s one of the smallest and youngest, but he’s also one of the most advanced kids in our entire group. He’s an attention hog, liking to shriek ‘TEACHER, TEACHER’ to get it from us during class, and he’s super sweet and affectionate.

Did I mention he was a little piano genius? ♥ Kid started playing the piano while we were cleaning up and it was just awesome. He could play Fur Elise, Do-Re-Mi, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas without even looking at the keys and it was just THE CUTEST THING EVER.

So my favorites are probably… Jack. Ted (who is in the same class as Jack and almost as advanced, but not quite. He makes up for this by not being as much of a butt as Jack is), Lory, Gabby, Mark, and Reece. I will show you all pictures as soon as possible, they are the cutest things ever. ♥