This past weekend was certainly placed in the “ridiculous/crazy/insane memories of China” folder of my brain.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my students–Sunny–asked me if I wanted to go on the ‘class trip’ with them.  Well, you know how I am about traveling. I love it. So I asked her when they were leaving, etc.  In typical Chinese fashion, she could not give me a straight answer.  So, I went about trying to rearrange my Saturday classes.  Couldn’t do it.  So I found two people who were willing to sub for me so that I could go with my class. 🙂  I found out two days before the trip that it wasn’t a trip at all but that they were going to the CRCC school in Daxing (a southern suburb of Beijing) to have class. WHAT?!?  So, they really wanted me to come along so that they could still have my class. Hmmm….  Okay, I can work with this.  I told Ms. Fan that I was uncomfortable teaching all 80 of them at the same time and that if she didn’t find another teacher that I wouldn’t come.  She found another teacher. 🙂  So, we got on the bus and we were off!  I didn’t actually know what was in store for the weekend!

Ms. Fan had told me to plan for a regular class for Saturday morning.  That morning she changed things. The class went well. The other teacher and I decided to combine the two classes for the last part of the class and teach them how to play Taboo.  They liked this game more than I thought they would. It was funny to watch grown men and women get up out of their seats and be excited about it! 

It was difficult to put them into circles because the classroom was for lectures and the chairs didn't move.

The previous night, Ms. Fan told me that she wanted me to plan an activity for Saturday afternoon. She wanted them to be occupied for a couple of hours.  OK?  So the other teacher and I came up with an idea for a photo scavenger hunt.  We told them to get into groups of 4 or 5 and that they had to have a camera (or camera phone) in each group.  At the appointed time, we gave each team a list of items to photograph and gave them a time limit.  The first team back with all the correct photos would be the winner and would get to have dinner with the teachers!  🙂  Below is the list of items: (in photo form–courtesy of the winning team!)

Bananas

Mangoes

Kiwi

A Comb -- What most teams didn't realize was that there were a few items that they could find in their rooms!

A Bridge

A Pink Flower

A Hairdresser -- I'm not really sure if this one is a man or woman.

A Bottle of Baijiu -- This is a popular alcoholic beverage among Chinese men. It's disgusting.

A sign for an internet cafe -- these are everywhere!

A dog -- these are also everywhere

A blue car -- when we made the list, we didn't realize that there were two blue cars in the parking lot. 🙂 A couple teams still didn't catch on.

The number 14 bus -- They had to take a picture with the number visible.

A showerhead -- this team figured out that there was one in the room!

An orange building -- These are also surprisingly common in this city!

A bush -- this was the most pathetic of this team's pictures. Would you call that a bush? I can't believe we let it slide!

A Public Toilet -- These are also very common. We should have made our list harder.

One team member with a man with a beard -- This is actually harder than you would think. Most Chinese men cannot grow beards. This is why this team found a picture of a foreign man with a beard. They were rewarded for their creativity!

...and All Team Members with a Guard -- since there are also guards everywhere, we thought this would be an easy one, and it was! This particular guard didn't really know what was going on but was very excited that people wanted to have their picture taken with him. 🙂 Most of the teams asked him! From L-R: Michael, Sandy (who comes to B study with me), the happy guard, Rebecca, and Tim 2. Oddly enough, Tim 2 looks almost exactly like Tim 1. Tim 2 is super shy but he came out of his shell over the weekend. It was fun to get to know him also!

The rest of the weekend consisted of KTV on Saturday evening, (KTV is the Chinese version of Karaoke. You have your own private room and they sing super loud. I had to leave because I didn’t want to destroy my hearing) and an English debate on Sunday.  The debate was ridiculous but kind of fun!  I left on Sunday after the debate but the classes stayed for a party that night.  I won’t get to see them until next week Wednesday because I’m going on vacation!  Oh, the life of an English teacher in China! Always on vacation!….

The weekend before, I visited Yuyuantan Park in Beijing.  This park is known for it’s Cherry Blossom trees!  I rode my bike down there with another one of the teachers.  Below are some photos I got from the park.

🙂 It was beautiful!

🙂 It was definitely not a blue sky day! I hope to go back when the sky is blue but I'm afraid that I might be too late!

This little girl was posing for many people but I think she got nervous when she realized just how many people there were! I caught her as she was jumping off a tree stump!

The other teacher I was with insisted on taking a picture of me with the blossoms! Notice my nail polish. The color is called "cherry blossom" 🙂

This one was from a different day at the Forestry University

Another from the Forestry University

I will be leaving tonight to fly to Chengdu.  Chengdu is in Sichuan province and is said to be very beautiful.  Hopefully I will get some more great pictures!  On Friday, I will fly from Chengdu to Xi’an, which is in Shaanxi province.  I will be visiting one of my students from last semester! I’m very excited to see him again. 

I’ll leave you with a photo I took yesterday in our apartment.  My roommate’s boyfriend often buy her flowers so our apartment is always decorated with them! 🙂  Have a great week in HIM!!

🙂 They are so friendly looking.