October Events

Wow...Everything went amazingly. So, the last two weeks have been really crazy. Now that we have "Grease" rehearsals every Saturday for four hours and then also having a two hour class we really do not have any down time to relax. Starting this Saturday we are getting into the three Western beliefs. Through multiple conversations with students they are really enjoying our Saturday classes and each week, more and more students are coming. It's a blessing. Last class taught on "American Elections" (by: Mark) had over 100 students! This is amazing especially considering this is an optional class and some students will skip there classes at that time to come to our class. oops!
The Halloween party went great. We had some where from 350 to 400 students at some point and even though not all dressed up in costume they did get excited about the dancing, which is not typical. We had invited the break dance team and they came and put on a performance. We had the local bakery put together some Halloween looking cookies together for us and handed out lots of candy. We taught those typical dances like the: YMCA, Macarena, and the chicken dance (Yes that dance you do at the ball- park). All of the students really enjoyed the bobbing for apples. They were putting their full heads in the buckets, pushing each other out of the way and the crowd loved every bit of it.

The next night we had our Open Mic Night which was also a success. We went to a local coffee shop and all teachers from ELT Edge invited students and ended up with about 40 people total. At one time, the coffee shop was so crowded that you could not walk or move around. A lot of student got up and read a poem or sang a song. It was great!

Mark had been playing basketball every week with the English Department teachers and some other teachers from the university. It has been a great time for him to get to know the teachers better. We hope that maybe this relationship will help him with our "job" over here. Also Mark loves to play basketball, so it is a win-win situation.

This week, Dane Lewis, one of the board members with ELT Edge came to China to catch up with us all and work with us and the schools. He will actually be at our school over the weekend and we will have lots of time to talk with him and be encouraged with a new and excited face. We are all very excited to see him. This week, one of the Chinese teachers had to leave and go back to his home town for his grandmother has passed away. A few of us are picking up some of his classes. He is a great teacher and friend of ours. Please join us in keeping him, as well as his family in your thought.

All of the foreign tearchers are beginning to prepare for our Thanksgiving meal (It takes almost a month to prepare since it is so difficult to find some of the foods in China). We are all very excited about this and can't wait for the taste of 'home' on Thanksgiving Day. Since we don't get that day off of school we will acctually celebrate it on the Sunday after.