A New Week

Finally, after about two weeks, Niko and I have moved into our new apartment. I, unfortunately, lost the coin toss for the bigger room, but I like to think that mine is way more...snug? comfortable? Anyway, I'm just happy to finally not be living out of a suitcase. Here's my room:

This afternoon I had what I think is one of my best classes yet...I may have had even more fun than the students. I was teaching a lesson on English Idiom and American Slang to my senior 1 class (9th grade). Trust me, there's nothing quite like hearing a room full of Chinese students reciting: "What's up dog?" and then responding, "Not much man, just chilling." After teaching the class a few standard American sayings, I had small groups create skits using a few phrases. One group's presentation stood out to me as particularly hilarious. Two very kind and very shy girls who were partners, came up with this dialogue:

"Oh! I just broke my leg! I won a lot of money in the lottery!"

"Wow! You're so lucky!"

"Yes, but don't be sad, I'll give you half of the money, dog."

"You're kidding me!"

"You know it!"

First, the girls didn't understand that you can really only hope someone else "breaks a leg" to wish them good luck. The girl tried to say she got lucky as "I broke my leg". Awesome. Also, I'm not sure that they understood how funny it was to me that girl 1 offered to share her money, but apparently was only joking about it. I thought it was great. Anyway, just a few more days until our National Day break. I think we may be travelling to Guilin and Yangshuo in Guangxi province. It's supposed to be very beautiful. More pictures to come soon.