I didn't forget about you!

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since my last update- but things have been so busy here!  So much has happened, but I only have time/energy to share a few experiences:

Last weekend, my roomie and I took a senior student off campus to hang out.  I can't tell you much about her, but we had such a great time together!  We took her to lunch then went to Yingtze Park, which is this incredibly beautiful lake and landscape with an amusement park!  It was so much fun just walking around with her, taking pictures, riding rides, and talking about all kinds of interesting topics!  Then we went to KTV, which is basically karaoke on steroids without an audience.  She is such an amazing person and I can't wait to get to know her more this year!  Here's a picture of us at Yingtze Park:

On Thursday, the Foreign Affairs Official, the President of our school, and several other big-wigs took all of the foreign English teachers out to a dinner banquet; in addition to the 7 of our team, there's also an older gentleman from Ireland and a middle-aged man from Iowa that work here.  The dinner had 24 different courses, and of course we had to try them all.  Oh man- that was such a huge challenge for me since there were so many weird things!  But I actually tried every single dish, and even liked most of them!  I even tried this super strange wasabi-gelatin thing, a pig's ear mushroom thing, and fish!  My teammates were really proud of me ;-)  There were tons of toasts and lots of awkward conversations, but it really was a fun new experience and a great "welcome" to our school! 

On Friday, I gave my students an introduction card to fill out as a way of quizzing their comprehension on the material I'd been teaching and also to find out a bit more about them.  They had to write their name, where they live, how old they are, something they like, and what activity they can do.  Most of the cards were pretty generic, but some of them are hysterical!  This is the best one:

"I like: iPhone 4" (he's 11 and speaks minimal English,
yet he somehow knows and appreciates the iPhone).
Also- apparently he can fly like an angel.

In each of my classes I have this reward system, where students are rewarded by rows.  Every day, each row starts off with 3 magnets and if they misbehave I take away a magnet; the rows that still have all 3 magnets at the end of class get a sticker on the reward chart.  At the end of the month, the rows with the most stickers get to select something from the prize box.  Here's a little peek into the differences of behavior between a couple of my classes:

The class on the left: each row has received stickers for all 7 classes!
The class on the right: none of the rows have received stickers for all classes and the red row only has 1 sticker!

Now it's time for another Chinglish picture!!!

"The Wild Germ Hates Soup with Crisp Skin"- menu from a Western-style restaurant

And finally... You know you're meant for China when: you automatically greet mothers by saying, "Your baby is so fat!" <<<(extreme compliment here)