Spring is here!
I've been getting quite behind on my blog updates. Rather than bringing you all back a month in time to catch up, I'll just make this one a summary of what's been happening.
First, thank you to all of you who sent birthday messages! John made sure my day was special. My kids did their best to make the day special as well:) I recieved many fun and interesting gifts that they had either made or found....some examples are: an origami colorful ball, a decorated hard boiled egg, stuffed animals, cards, boquets of flowers (even roses), etc. They enjoyed having dirt pudding for my "birthday treat"...gummie worms being their favorite part.
John suprised me with a guitar! I've been teaching myself online - so far so good. A dream of mine for a long time has been to learn to play the guitar. My college roomates suffered through my beginning "teach myself lessons" sophomore year...which I gave up after I could only play Amazing Grace by plucking strings. This time it's going to happen! haha





To celebrate Easter, my kids had a scavenger egg hunt. I made clues for them to run around outside finding eggs and one of the moms created amazing treasures for each of them at the end of the hunt. They had so much fun!

























Last weekend we went on a "Employee Field Trip" to a nearby city known for it's beautiful river. It was interesting...not necessarily the most beautiful, but we all still had a lot of fun wondering around the tourist city.






Don't forget to check John's blog....he's much better at udpating!:) from-shanghai@blogspot.com

Fieldtrip to the zoo

Friday we had our elementary field trip to the zoo. Now, some of you might think - how fun, a day at the zoo without teaching....but what you may be forgetting is - I needed to take my 20 first graders with me to the zoo:) It was a fun filled day at the zoo, let me just say that. I came to the realization that kids are no longer impressed by zoo animals. Maybe the zoo is overdone with the parents, or maybe the kids just never get to eat snacks at home? I'm not sure, but at least every 5 minutes, at times, every minute, I had kids telling me how hungry they were, how they wanted to buy a snack, or they were giving me their random goodies from the backpack - most of which went right into my backpack and are still there. Lunches and snacks are a little different here. One of my kid's mom packed me a lunch of sushi and egg salad sandwhiches - loved it! That along with all the other parts of everyone elses lunches they kept giving me - I was set. Once we finally got lunch and buying snacks out of the way the kids enjoyed seeing the animals. Some of the animals though didn't look happy - therefore it wasn't always fun to look at them...more sad...especially when they would be eating the garbage that others had thrown in. Didn't see any "No Feeding the Animals" signs around - so you can imagine what was inside the cages. All in all, the kids had a great day - and that's what matters! I even lucked out with a leg massage on the way home after the 5 hours of walking.

Science Fair

Last week our Elementary school had its Science Fair. These first graders worked hard - and found many ways to help the environment. I even accomplished to show them how to make plastic without using natural resources (oil...maybe you all knew that - I didn't)...it only blew up once at home, testing it before showing the class. Thankfully it went smoothly in the classroom. We also helped clean the environment and started collecting toys and clothes (reusing) to donate to a nearby orphanage. I have quite the toy collection in my room:)

My class never ceases to amaze me - it's been so exciting to see their growth this school year. I now know the joy of a first grade teacher....hard work....but soooo rewarding!

Look What's Coming!!

When we got back from Chinese New Year vacation in America....I was quite pleased to see a new sign added to the Super Brand Mall. April 26th will be a good day!

Trip to Suzhou

As most of you have probably seen from John's site, last weekend we had a getaway with a few friends to Suzhou. This is a smaller city that is mostly used for vacationing. It is known for its gardens and beautiful surroundings. We headed out right after school on Friday with our friends Jayme, Channing, and Laura. It's a 45 minute subway ride and about one hour train ride away. The train station is always a joy - yuck!! It's not the cleanest place to be:) The actualy train ride was a little different than our first one to Honzhou - so many more people, most of which stand around you and stare, one because there is nowhere left to sit and two, they just love to stare.

Here are some various pictures of sights around the city. John and I took a boat ride around the river channel. Along with the old parts of the city, bridges and such, we got to see some daily routines of some of the locals...brushing teeth in the river, washing clothes, scrubbing mats, reading the newspaper, etc. All of us visited one of the many gardens, did some street shopping at the markets, went to "walking street", and various other activities.






My friend Laura is engaged to a German man - Thomas - and they are planning a summer wedding in Alabama. It's been fun to hear about their plans, and also get see G blessing them as they figure out paper work as to how they will legally be married. It's not easy putting that all together when neiter of them are in their own country. Just recently though everything has come together and they should be able to have a marriage license before their "wedding ceremony" in America. Laura is getting her dress made in Suzhou (where Thomas is living and working on his thesis). If only I could have waited one more year....her dress is beautiful...and let's just say A LOT cheaper ($80). Crazy huh!

Home for Chinese New Year

All of us teachers had off from February 5th to the 24th for Chinese New Year. This holiday is celebrated like the Christmas season is celebrated at home. Everyone travels to see their families to enjoy much celebration including lots of fireworks. We have seen some areas of burnt grass - very interesting.

We had such a wonderful time visiting friends and family. The time flew by though - so if we were unable to see you, we look forward to seeing you this summer. We spent about a week in Wisconsin and a week in Minnesota. Here are just a few pictures. We weren't on our usual picture taking mission to fill the blog - so the pictures are few. Thanks to those of you who went out of your way to come see us and also for those of you who opened your homes for us to stay in. We're so thankful for our dear family and friends!!

Visitors!


At the start of the new year my friend Jenny and her sister Heidi came to Shanghai. They stayed with us for 2 weeks, getting to experience the life here in China. It was fun being able to show them around our school, have them meet my kids, and experience all the different things that we experience each day, and of course very nice to have girls to shop with - although John loves it so much. They got to do a lot of traveling around the city while we were teaching.



On the last weekend of their visit the four of us went to Hongzhou, "the paradise" of China (that's what people here call it). The city is about a 2 hour train ride. It was quite beautiful. Unfortunetly it rained most of the time that we were there, but still, it was so relaxing being away from the busy city. We stayed on West Lake for one night and walked around most of the lake. We also took a boat ride that stopped at different little islands and historic points around the lake. John and I look forward to going back in the spring.

Hong Kong!

Yes, it has taken me quite some time, but I'm finally attempting to update my blog. The internet has been so slow, I haven't even attempted.

Christmas in Hong Kong was wonderful! We enjoyed being away from Shanghai for a short amount of time, and enjoying the beauty and cleanliness of Hong Kong. We had so much fun traveling around seeing the sites. The best was being at the "Peak" which was an overlook of the city from very high (not sure how high?). We waited in line for over an hour, then rode in a little rickety trolly up to the peak of a hill - scary - but fun. There was a whole little city/area on the top that we ventured around and tried to take many pictures. We're still working on learning how to use the camera so bare with the blurriness. If the user's guide wasn't in Chinese it would be a quicker process.




On Christmas day we rode on a double decker bus to the southern beaches. Again, amazing!! The views of the green hills and ocean was breathtaking. The busride was quite an experience too:) Rounding the cliffs sitting in the top of the double decker - wow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas is almost here, 3 more days. Christmas isn't a very big deal in China...but at SMIC (our school), we celebrated as if we were home. I had a lot of fun teaching my kids all about Christmas, doing many activities, and talking about Christmas at home. When I first introduced the holiday about 3 weeks ago, I asked, "WHY do we celebrate Christmas?". The overwhelming response of "It's Jesus' birthday!!" made me smile. Whether it be from their Christmas program songs, learning about it last year in kindergarten, or from home - many of the kids knew the true meaning of Christmas. That is hard here, since the stores only sell commercial items. PTL that these kids have a chance to hear it so young!!

All that to say, John and I have had a really nice time celebrating with our students and friends here in Shanghai. We started the season homesick and wishing we wouldn't have to miss another Christmas. Two Christmas seasons away from home is different. But, were truly blessed by all we saw and experienced here at SMIC. Here are some pictures of my kids in their Christmas program. They sang a song about baby Jesus written by one of the music teachers here, and they played instruments and danced to Up On The Housetop. Wish you all could have seen - it was adorable!!




Here are some pictures of John's 10th grade honors class helping my first graders write their own lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas". They had some interesting songs! Mr. Taylor's class began the time with their own Twelve Days of Christmas. Although my kids barely understood - they watched in wonder and found the funny lines.





Lastly, here are some pictures from the BIG Christmas party. I say BIG...because we were the only class to have a Magician come right to the classroom. Not real sure what he was saying the whole time, but the kids sure bought into his tricks and laughed hysterically. I had more fun watching my kids. After the magician, Santa popped his head in to. Talk about a bunch of crazy first graders. I'm pretty sure the party was a success!






Even Mr. Henderson wished he could be part of the action. Mr. Henderson, Dan, is another first grade teacher and a good friend of John and I. Whenever John is missing - I know he's over at Dan's playing ping-pong - his new love:)