Teaching Part 2

Meeting up with people I remembered there was a story I hadn't shared on the blog about a second experience I had teaching.  Each class is divided into two 50 minute segments with a 10 minute break in the middle.  During one of the classes, the kids were already seated before the break was over so I figured I'd give them an opportunity to ask me questions.  A boy quickly rose his hand and asked, "Why are your eyes so small?"  And yes, let me remind you that I was teaching a class of Chinese children who all had small eyes.  So my response was, "Why are your eyes so small?" and I went on to the next child.

What I've learned is that for some Chinese, it boggles their mind for someone who looks like them to say they're American.  To them, Americans don't look like me and I think especially with kids it's a difficult concept to grasp.  It was a cute story though and Scott had a good laugh when I told it to him.

Another thing I learned is that kids can also be brutally honest.  One nice girl asked me how old I was and then the last question I took was "Why are you so fat?"  Haha I guess it's a wake-up call to start that diet again especially after my trip back to the States.  I'm currently in Redlands and my mom timed her visit to "the mainland" from Hawaii at the same time so she's been cooking non-stop.  Here's our menu -
Saturday - shabu shabu (Japanese hot pot)
Sunday - sweet & sour port and long rice
Monday lunch - short ribs and inari sushi
Tuesday - lasagna
Wednesday - pot roast

I'll definitely miss her cooking when we go back to Beijing.  Cooking can be fun but usually when there's more people (for a few nights we had 7 people at home for dinner).  Maybe I'll get around to finally taking those Chinese cooking classes.