But I'm a Creep...

So I thought winter was here last week... NOPE! I also thought my bedroom in my apartment on Dupont last year was cold... NOPE again! We haven't had very much snow but the temperature is staying really low, though from what I've read about the snow at home I'm getting it easy. For how excited I was to come to this new school and have a social life, I have been spending way too much time in my apartment. I get pretty worn out traveling around the city to my different classes so when night comes, I've been pretty content to just stay in and rest up... What?! That is so not the reason I came to China! If I have to start taking naps or going slightly crazy from sleep deprivation, so be it, but I am making a vow to get out and actually delve into the nightlife of this city.
The turning point for me was this past Saturday night. One of the TA's (Cherry) is leaving for Indonesia so a group of us went out to dinner and then to a KTV (I don't know exactly what KTV stands for, but it's a place you can go and do karaoke in a room with just your friends.) I've never been one to do a lot of karaoke, but... well, that's different now. Between the hours of 10pm and 2am I sang/screeched myself hoarse to the following songs (as best as I can remember): Creep, Living on a Prayer, Bitch, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Hard Day's Night, I Want it that Way, Everybody (and another Backstreet Boys song. I never, ever came close to liking them back in the day, but they are/were so popular in China, and it was fun having songs to sing that the TA's knew too.) Oh, and My Heart will go on... it wasn't pretty. I also hung out with a group of people I had not spent very much time with until this night and now I feel like I have a few new friends... all in all it was a really good time. The pictures are of the dinner but my camera's batteries died before we got to the karaoke (boh.)

The teaching aspect has been going pretty well. I've decided to start bringing a small notepad with me to write down some of the funny things the students say. Here are a couple of the better kid quotes from the last week or so: "How are you today?" -me "I couldn't be worse!" -Kid A "That's too bad. How are you today?" -me "I couldn't be better because I hate him!" -Kid B. The other day I was teaching a class how to say "jumping." To do so, I started jumping up and down and asked the students to say what I was doing. Rather than saying "Zack is jumping" a very eager student in the front row exclaime "Sex and Junk!" No one else had a clue what he said but it took me at least a minute to stop laughing. Then yesterday I was playing hangman (or "snowman") with a class of seven and eight year olds, and decided the word they had to uncover was "shirt." It was an ok idea... until the students quickly guessed all of the letters except the "r," and than took a spectacularly long time coming up with the last letter.

I've also finally started some regular Chinese lessons. The TA I've worked with the most, Sasha, started tutoring me this past weekend and some of it is actually sticking! I think I am light years away from being able to recognize the characeters, but it is a pretty sweet feeling to at least be learning how to speak some of it. Chinese is interesting in that there are four (actually more like five) different tones that people use to pronounce words. For example, the word "Ma" if pronounced differently can mean mother, dog, something I can't remember, and something that is so offensive no one has been willing to tell me the actual meaning. All right, that should just about do it for now. More to come soon, hope you're all staying warm!

Oh and if anyone is interested in actually coming here and doing this teaching thing, the school is looking to hire two or three more Americans. So if anyone is looking for something to do from January until July, let me know and come play with me!