Whoops! Took me a while to get my blog back. I couldn't read anything because it was all in Chinese! yikes!
Yesterday (Tuesday) was our first official day at the school with the kids. Since our actual program doesn't start until March (English portion), we are just going around to the various classrooms and meeting all of the students. Yesterday we made a quick introduction with the whole school & were supposed to do a whole school activity but thank goodness we didn't, it would have been chaotic! We then met with P3 to do an activity for 1/2 an hour. There are about 35 kids in this class. We took them down to the gym area to play a name game & some other games. The name game didn't really work. It took about 5 minutes to get them in a circle because the girls didn't want to be next to the boys and vice versa... a lot of 'eww' I'm assuming but in Chinese of course. This class is quite shy, so the voices were whispers in an outdoor gymnasium. It didn't really work as planned. But then again, what does? We then decided to do a ball tossing name game. That went even worse as the kids couldn't remember who they had thrown the ball to & proceeded to chuck it at each other rather than an under hand throw, which I demonstrated my but off to try to communicate this message. After that, we tried freeze tag, as we thought that would be easy. It was crazy. Students were running out of the boundaries in between all of the table tennis tables, were screaming their heads off, pushing each other, etc. This is going to be a great challenge, they do not understand a single word we say & don't seem to notice that we are talking? I was so tired after this class!
After P4, we met with P3, learned from our mistakes & tried some different activities. We even played Simon Says & copycat. This class was much more manageable, only 15 students. We will be going with this class to the Flora Gardens on Friday for a full day field trip.
We met with Helen, her husband & their two (of 6) children & Virginia for lunch at the 2nd & 3rd campus. We went to some 'club', I couldn't quite understand what it was, but it was for a buffet. Food was great. It was fried fish, plain rice, and a portuguese rice dish. There were lots of yummy desserts, so I filled up on those ;)
We met with Oscar (the P3 teacher) to go on a tour of the Flora Gardens so that we know what to expect on Friday. We didn't know until we got there that we will be having our own groups for most of the day & we will be giving them a tour of the zoo/gardens all in English. Ha! I really hope that we'll be ok... I won't know how to call them, or tell them what not to do, etc. eek! I've posted some pictures of the area, it's quite nice. There are some animals in there as well, some cranes, ducks, peacocks, leaf monkeys, bears (they call them black bears, I haven't seen them yet, but they're probably Sloth Bears like the ones we have at the Calgary zoo), and parrots. The enclosures are quite different - all concrete with metal bars and a food dish. While we were walking through the gardens, Oscar was telling us some things about the place & we didn't know it at the time, but what he was saying was word for word from the brochure that he gave us. He had memorized the entire thing! It was adorable! You could tell that he was always checking in to see if he had said a word correct or said the right thing. These teachers are very eager to learn English, or learn in general. It's great to see.
For dinner Hong & I went downstairs to the Burmese restaurant, relying on the pictures to point to. We then went to the market to buy some fruit & some things that we needed around the apartment. I like the market, it's so much fun & so much to see!
Today (Wednesday) we went with the Kindergarten class to the Villa de Santa Isabel, a convent in Coloane. It was our first time off of the peninsula of Macau & onto the surrounding islands. Coloane is quite different from Macau, lots of green space & actual houses, not many apartment buildings. The convent was beautiful. We played games with the kids, sang songs, ate a snack, read a story & made a craft. I've posted pictures. We played what time is it mr. wolf & they just LOVED it! They were even saying their numbers in English & getting really into the game. It was so cute. These little guys are quite smart. When we were eating lunch they could tell me the names of most things on our table in English.. without hesitation. ex. Orange juice, bread, ham, cheese, plate, cup, etc. The story that we read was only available in Cantonese, so the Kindergarten teacher tried to translate it for us, but we ended up just making up the story based on the pictures. I think it went well either way... we had them entertained for a little while!
Hong & I went to the market again after school to buy some food for dinner. We made a tofu & rice dish with water crest & broccoli, it was tasty! I love the tofu here, it is so fresh & smooth.
Tomorrow is our day off, so I plan to catch up on homework!! It's about time, I'm being a slacker.
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