night markets, my birthday and students

bubble tea!we dont know if he was more amazed by the puppy or the foreigner

downtown yongzhou
oh benicio

night market with kasey
view from the night market
night market fun!

this guy was too hot for a shirt
teaching the australians how to play beer pong
box head!
my birthday!

night market food
one of my favorite students jeff and his friend
one of my students... a great chinese dancer
watching souja boy
one of my good classes
the smallest beer pong table in the world to join the smallest cups in the world

Little African Dancers

April 20

Well I was asked to direct an African dance for 28 four and five year olds! At first, the owner of the dance school asked me for a video of one of our African dances from "my mothers shows", but I told her I didn't have one and that they were all in America. So she asked if I could have someone send them here, I told her no because it would cost too much money. So she asked me to make up a dance for a performance they are doing in June. Today was my first day.

I got to the studio at 2pm and didn't leave till 5pm. There were, just as she said, 28 four and five year olds who were so tiny and cute. Luckily, they were the best behaved and most coordinated 4 and 5 year olds I have ever met in my life. They did not misbehave whatsoever. They were all made to stand in rows and perfect rows otherwise they were yelled at by my two assistants. One girl touched the girl in front of her and the teacher smacked her hand and yelled at her in front of the class and the parents who sat in on the class. Well these kids turned out to be better than some of the teenagers I have taught African dance too. They picked up most of the stuff right away, not everything and not all of them. But there were a few girls in the front who were great and looked great doing it even though they were only about 3 feet tall.

At one point I was having the kids do a forward roll and not everyone could do it, so I separated the kids by saying yes or no (because my assistants did not speak English, so we had a very hard time talking and translating) and putting them on one side of the room or the other. I only did this because there were too many kids for this one part so I wanted to divide it into sections with two groups doing two different things. After class the teachers who were with me were trying to tell me something, they were saying it all in Chinese and I didn't understand a word but they were also drawing it and what I got out of it was that the kids who could not do the dance were to be sent home. Their exact words were "yes, no, no-goodbye! go home" I was SHOCKED. That was not my intention when I was separating the kids and I DO NOT want to send a 4 year old home because she can not do one move. How traumatizing! So I'm going to ignore that "translation" and just keep the groups separated giving them moves they can do.

The kids danced for 2 1/2 hours straight! Every time they did something wrong they were yelled at, anytime they talked or got out of line, they were yelled at. Which I guess is why they are such good dancers. Definitely a completely different setting and teaching style than in America.

After 2 1/2 hours of dancing in the heat and humidity because there was no air conditioning or fans, the poor girls were exhausted and sweaty but were still made to stand in straight lines, standing up straight to do their end of class routine.
the girl in the pink stripped long sleeved shirt was really really good at African

one of the youngest and smallest girls in the class, again this was after 2 1/2 hours of dancing in the heat- poor thing

April 21

one of the girls got spanked today during rehearsal because she wasn't standing in line straight. for one of the formations i was trying to get them to do a circle holding the persons hips in front of them, they couldn't do it and were "fooling around" so one of the mothers came out and started yelling at them. she got them to do it right. there is no stepping out of line in this Chinese dance class!

Booze 'n' Beef

On Friday we went to our friend Eugenes new restaurant that he had just opened a few weeks earlier. It was really nice! Not like most of the restaurants in Yongzhou, it was clean and really fancy. He treated us to lots of food and lots of beer. His brother and his brothers family also came along and they had the cutest 16 year old son. His English name was William. He had great English so he obviously didn't go to any of our schools haha. He went to the best school in Yongzhou which is school number 4, Carrie and Jesse's school. His teacher he said was Jesse. Unfortunately, Jesse and Carrie weren't there because they were in America for a wedding. There was also a very cute waiter there, and after a few beers I felt the need to express how cute he was. This kind of backfired and our friend translated everything I said into Chinese for the waiter and included the fact that I wanted to be his gf. This I never said, but I guess in China when you think someone is cute it means you want to date them. haha Turns out the waiter was 20 (so young!) and graduated from my high school, but I don't think could speak a word of English, so instead he went around toasting us and chugging beer with us.

William
amanda and I and my awful new bangs
yummy food! including peiking duck!
our cute waiter!
eugene!
eugene and his brothers family
cool wall art
with Willy!
thats right a chicken head... and i even ate it! go me!
more of the restaurant
with our waiter

After dinner, we went to the night market across the street for some more food! ugggg and some more beer yaya!

On Saturday, we invited some of our Chinese friends out to the night market for some beer. We taught them how to play American drinking games and they taught us some Chinese drinking games. We did this after a dinner of great hot pot and again ate more food at the night market, I've never felt so full in china! John also saw 3 huge rats in the mens bathroom. We saw a nasty spider and puke.
Turns out one of our friends is moving to America to get his PHD in the summer and hes moving to TROY! to go to RPI, he had just found out that day. So hopefully we will be meeting up in the States for some "night markets". We also decided because of that fact we need to teach him and the others how to play beer pong. That way when he goes to American Universities he can fit right in.

cooking schwuar which i cant spell
someone got their finger stuck!
sandy snails from a strangerthe disgusting bathrooms at the night market... but at least from that hole in the wall is a good view of the river! just pop a squat!

yummm night market food! chicken, beef, tofu, vegetables and squid
a seed you are supposed to chew on and it gives you a buzz, it was so gross I couldnt keep it in my mouth for more than 2 seconds
haley- who is in the middle is a chinese english teacher at our school
they didnt know how correct they were... even though its supposed to say please do not bring outside liquor into our establishment

random photos

taking the "taxi" from our school to the bus stop
its a cart on a motorcycle with 3 wheels and costs .5 RMB
awesome new shower, that looks like it just landed here from space. it has a phone, radio, lights, back massager, foot massager, overhead shower and regular shower! however, the first time they set it up they didnt do it right so they had to come back and fix it the next day. then the drain wasnt working so the water wouldnt drain for a couple days, had to come back and fix that TWICE then the hot water stopped working... uggg china is so stressful sometimes! i have had something break every other day and that is NOT an exaggeration. there is always someone in my apartment fixing something. and once one thing is fixed usually something else breaks the next day. probably one of the hardest things to get used to in China.
this modern shower def. looks weird and out of place in my apartment haha apparently they only have these in hotels. only problem is its tiny! Chinaman size! if i was any taller or fatter i wouldnt fit! haha1.eugene showing us how its done in china! hes the fastest chugger ever!
2. Amanda and Eugene eating chicken feet
3. Chinese drinking games at the night market