Happy Halloween!

BOO!

Hope everyone's Halloween is going well, and includes lots of candy!! I went out to a party last weekend for Halloween, it was great. Most were in costumes, Shannon and I went as kitty kats! Today being a work day I brought my classes candy. I only have two on Wednesdays and one was cancelled!! Anyway, my Join In class had a blast. I played games with them involving Halloween vocab and then I taught them "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat." They had to recite this to me before I gave them their bags of candy. I'm sure their parents were ecstatic to receive their children all hyped up on sugar, he he he. I also told the students a scary story. I simplified it and had my TA translate after each sentence. The kids were so enthralled and really got into the spirit. If any of you have read the stories in Scary Stories, then you might remember the one about the toe, I think it was actually called The Big Toe. The little boy finds a toe in the garden and they eat it for supper. That night the boy is awoken by a voice, "wwhhhereeee isss my toooooe", finally he goes downstairs and looks up the chimney at he sees to big eyes and as the voice grabs him it says "You've got it!" He he he, I grabbed one of the kids and he screamed, I think it was more for fun, they weren't really scared. The kids did a great job and were unusually well behaved today. I told them at the beginning of the class about my cold, plus they could tell I was sick because I can't talk very loud, which means I couldn't project like normal. They were very nice and stayed relatively quite while I was talking! As for my other classes this last week. We taught them a song about veggies at the market, and it is to the beat of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was so adorable. Lots of singing this past week, no wonder I have no voice! Plus, its always a good week if you can make the children cry, thats when you know your doing good! I'm just kidding, both were boys and I have no idea why they were crying. The TA was yelling at one of them, but I don't recall him misbehaving, hmm, oh well. The other was 3rd in line to receive star stickers and began crying because he thought for some reason he wasn't going to get one. When I tried giving him one he balled up his fists and started crying harder, very strange.

The cold has been keeping me indoors more than usual. While the cold isn't that bad, I don't especially like the rain. I even caved in this morning and took a taxi instead of riding my bike, I haven't quite mastered holding an umbrella and riding a bike at the same time. I've joined a gym here, a way to keep me semi productive with all my free time. I've tried studying for the LSAT and Chinese, but I just can't get the motivation to sit down and do it! So instead I ride over to the gym and take spinning classes. Its great, the room is completely dark and they have a colored disco ball going during the class. Everything is in Chinese of course, but its not hard to follow those in front. After all, how many ways are there to ride a bike?!?

As sad it is to say I have been making some plans for when I leave here. After my parents leave in February I'm staying for a bit longer, since my rent is paid through February. I've booked a cruise along the Yangtze and will go for a 5 day trip see the 3 Gorge Dam. I've extremely excited to get to do this before I leave. Other than that I plan on visiting friends in Wuzi and sightseeing some other cities around Nanjing. I want to go to Suzhou, which is called the Venice of the East (lots of canals).

Saturday I went to the English Saloon here in Nanjing. A British man holds a party at a Western Imitation restaurant every week for Chinese and foreigners to come a speak English. Nick and I were the only two westerns there aside from the host. But it was lots of fun and the people were very nice. All were older, but I met one woman who runs her own export business and is an extremely successful single woman, which is a little bit of a rarity here in China. I can't say I really liked the food though. The steak was somehow just not right and it was combined with an egg sunny side up and pasta with tomato paste, hmmm.... The host is a baker here in Nanjing and he brings cookies and treats to each get together, it makes the whole thing very worth while!!

Happy Halloween!