August 13-16

On the last day of school all of the classes put together a talent show. Our class (how it worked was that six different teachers all taught the same class during different parts of the day) decided to rewrite the song "You Raise Me Up". As a class they created all new lyrics to let everyone know what their weeks in our class had been like.
Lyrics:
When I came here
And all my soul so worried
Will the teachers be nice or will they be mean
But time goes by, and there's no more pressure
We've learned a lot, this is what we want to say

From Josh and Ali, we learned about "Big Brother"
From Stephanie, we studied paparazzi
With shy Michael, we fall in love with doin' chores
We have to say, what a great husband he'd be

We played the Mafia with Carrie
And who knows that Mr. Palm likes dancing
We think Fuat and Elie are handsome
And we learned U.S. history from them

Everyone was very impressed that they put together their own song, and it turned out great!


This is the Beijing Silk Street (when I first heard of it I pictured an outdoor market with stalls, not quite what I had in mind). It is really famous for selling inexpensive silk and pearls. You walk in and there are six floors of just row upon row of different vendors. Each floor has a couple different themes and you could spend days just looking at all it has to offer. Bartering is also a must. The rule of thumb is to walk in knowing how much you want to pay. They'll give you a number (hopefully), you look a little interested then shake your head and start to walk away. They'll grab your arm or call after you with a number that is usually a couple hundred yuan less than they had started. You can walk away again or suggest about a third of that price, maybe a fourth. Then going back and forth you simply test each others wills until one of you caves and agrees on a price. I bought one item for 175 yuan, the first number they had said was 850.


This was most of my class in Beijing. I had Seniors (which is equivalent to our sophomore/junior and seniors in high school). Most of the students we taught came from affluent families and were extremely good at English. Almost all of those girls you could drop in the US and they would fit right in. During my teaching I found out that in China they play Mafia too (though they call it the Killing Game)! I was excited to find that out and included the game in a couple of my lessons.


This was the first day that some of my friends and I caved and went in search for Western food. We chose that pizza was what we were craving and found ourselves at the local Pizza Hut. In China, Pizza Hut is a fancy establishment that makes you feel under dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. The pizza isn't exactly what it is like in the States, for instance many of the options have seafood and the sorts as toppings, but it definitely hit the spot.