It’s been a long, but pretty good week. As many of you may know, my birthday is next week! Yay! I will be 20, finally. I keep forgetting that I’m only 19, and it will be nice to not be labeled as a “teenager” anymore. Today was Christine’s first day back and I was able to convince her to give me Monday off! Last week I only got 1½ days off, plus I was scheduled more classes than anyone else, plus it’s for my birthday, so she gave in and let me have it off. Chris, Nate, and I are planning on hanging out as a last time before Nate leaves/Alyssa’s birthday sort of thing. We’re probably going to Happy Valley the amusement park, so that should be fun! I’ll let you know how it goes.
Well, I’ve started my Chinese lessons. My tutor came last night for our first lesson. It went pretty well. The only problem was that over the phone she asked what level I was, so I told her very beginner. But when she got there, we got through the whole first lesson in a half hour with still another hour and a half to spare. I guess I’m not as beginner as I thought. I mean, I’m pretty beginner, but I have good pronunciation I guess, I know all the numbers and some greetings, and I can read most PinYin. PinYin is Chinese with English characters, but it doesn’t read the same. We kind of killed time and she improvised so it was fine, but hopefully next week will be better when she’s a little more prepared and organized. I’ll keep practicing with my co-workers too, so I’m sure I’ll learn quickly. There’s a new rule at the office that the instructors and consultants have to get together and talk every afternoon after our lunch break. It’s to build communication, and so that we can discuss the kids, but we usually just end up chatting about whatever. They really want to practice their English and I want to learn more Chinese, so I’m pretty popular during that hour. It’s fun and good practice.
Since yesterday was my off day, I treated myself to a massage. There is a massage/spa place just down the street from my apartment close to where I go grocery shopping. The ladies were so nice and the owner spoke English. The massage was pretty good, but nothing extremely special, like I was expecting an authentic Chinese massage to be like. It was good though and I’m sure I’ll go back.
So yeah, classes went well last week. I taught more classes than usual, and a lot of Music. Actually 2 or 3 of the classes were cancelled because of low attendance due to bad weather, so it wasn’t too busy. This week, Christine is back and Jessie and Sherry are done with training so they’re taking over some classes. I am now going to feel so bored during the day. I used to teach 6 classes on Saturdays and now I just teach 3, how boring. Jessie and Sherry each took over one play class and one of my Music classes was cancelled (but it will probably be replaced with a new class soon).
Sherry now has Thursdays off which is also my day off, so that’s exciting! We live pretty close to each other too, so we are definitely planning on hanging out. We’ll probably go to Yuyuan garden next week, so that should be fun. Jessie passed Music training, so I’m not sure when, but she’ll be teaching Music fairly soon. She will probably have to get comfortable with Play first, then try on more Music and slowly ease into it. Because we have enough instructors now, they’re not just going to rush her into it like they did with me.
Christine had a fun time in Thailand and apparently brought us gifts that she will bring on Monday, but I won’t be there, so I’ll get it Tuesday. She talked of some awesome things that really made me want to go to Thailand (more than I already did) and she also talked of some other things that made me really want to avoid some certain areas when I go. She was feeling unprepared for classes today though, having been gone the past week and a half. She even printed out the words to the songs in Music classes and hung them on the wall so she could look at them if she forgot during class. It was pretty funny, but I’m not sure this should become a habit.
I wasn’t able to go to church last week, so I am so stoked to go this week! Going two weeks without church is just draining. Last Sunday wasn’t too bad though, and pretty peaceful actually. I had received the Ensign in the mail just a couple days before so I spent my breaks reading that and studying my scriptures. By the way, I live in DeAnna’s old apartment and she and her husband had ordered the Ensign so it still gets sent to their address so I get it every month. It’s really nice actually. The Larkin’s son Pete and his wife are in town, I’m not sure if they’ll still be around by Sunday but it will be cool to see Pete if they are. I haven’t seen him in years (for those of you who don’t know, Pete used to be in our Layton ward. He and Ariana even dated for a short time in high school).
I know I mention it in pretty much every blog, but I just have to say how crazy the weather is here, once again. It rains so much! The other day, I had to wade through a small river on the street corner that went almost up to my knees in order to get to work. People were walking barefoot on the sidewalk, holding their shoes so they didn’t get soaked. The rain was overflowing from the gutters up on to the sidewalk; it was ridiculous. There was a small river going through the yard of the resort. When I got to work I had to ring my new jeans out over the sink and then put them in the dryer. One of the girls that was at our center for training didn’t have an umbrella and was soaking wet. I had some extra pants and we gave her a shirt and a towel and threw her clothes in the dryer. You have to be prepared with stuff like that in order to live here in Shanghai.
Last Monday we had a fun day. Christine was gone so things were a little less strict, but we didn’t have to change much of anything at the center. We didn’t change Play setups, nor Music theme display, so all we had to do with prep art supplies and count props. We finished up our work and still had half a day to kill. So we watched educational movies in the music room. We watched two documentaries on babies. They were actually really educational. I will be able to use what I learned from watching them not only as a Gymboree instructor, but also as a future mom. I had the idea to project the movie on the ceiling so we could lie down on the mats and watch it. My co-workers thought I was joking but it totally worked, so we did it! Half way through the first documentary, Yo yo noticed Jessie fell asleep, so we had to sit up and watch it on the wall. It was still great though.
Trainers will be coming on Tuesday to observe our classes. I was feeling super nervous before, but now, not so much. Mostly because I’ve realized that they don’t care as much about my classes because I’m not an employee of Gymboree, just an intern. I still have to do a good job, but there’s not as much pressure. William is improving actually, so it’s been a relief around the office knowing that he might be able to pass training at the end of the month, but we’ll see.
Oh, the cutest thing today at work! Well, there is a little boy named A Tong Mu, and he’s there pretty much every day. Even when he doesn’t have classes, his grandpa watches him and doesn’t really know what to do with him, so he just brings him to our center. We all play with him and our office is like his second home. He can’t talk too much, just a few words, but he can say Assa, which means Alyssa, and Bobo, which means Gymbo, as well as a few other words that always make me smile. He’s so cute! He knows the whole Gymbo dance! We sing any verse and he can do the actions so well, which is pretty impressive because the song is all in English. I tried to record him doing the dance but he kept just trying to grab the camera, but it’s a decent recording. I’m not sure if I can upload videos to my blog, but I’ll probably upload it to Facebook. A Tong Mu is so darling though, I just want to kidnap him and take him home with me when I leave :) Pretty sure that would be illegal though....
Well, life is good. I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed by the culture the past week or so, but I think that’s going away. I really do love being here and the people, but it’s hard sometimes being around people who are all so alike, and yet so different from yourself. It’s so different here, but I just have to remind myself that different isn’t bad, it’s just different. I know it’s a great blessing for me to be here right now. I’m gaining experiences that will benefit me in my future career and family life. I’m also gaining amazing friendships and memories, as well as awesome missionary prep-experiences. Thanks for all your support and love.
Wo ai ni! (I love you!)
Love,
Ge Li Sha
P.s. Ge Li Sha is my new Chinese name, I changed it.
P.p.s . I went to eat at a little restaurant near my house this evening (feeling too lazy to cook) and one of the cooks is a very, very cute young man. That’s saying something, because I’m not really attracted to Chinese men. He spoke a little English and was very nice, and very cute. So hopefully I don’t spend too much money going out to eat every night at the restaurant. Haha just kidding, I won’t, but it was good food too, so I’m sure I’ll go back.
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