Spring is here at last

or at least I hope! The weather is finally getting warmer, and the sun peaked out a few times in the last week, lol. This is such a cloudy town :) And the town is going into spring mode, there are more and more Chinese BBQ stands popping up along the streets of downtown, and tables out front of the food stalls. Fresh cherries and strawberries are available everywhere along with fresh almonds and walnuts. Yumm!!! But another thing I noticed showing up out of nowhere is the homeless people, I had never seen even one person living on the streets when the weather was cold. I haven't seen too many yet, maybe a handful, but where are they coming from? Where were they when the weather was cold? And why can't they keep shelter there now that the weather is warm?
Well, on a lighter note my classes are getting much better. The students are getting used to me and more importantly my accent, so each week they can understand me better. Also, my students are feeling more comfortable to participate in class activities and even approach me after class to practice their English. I think I'm also getting used to my classes and I'm able to adapt my lesson plans according to each class's understanding, and I've come up with many tricks to explain myself to the students. :)
A couple weekends ago there was a Tomb Sweeping Festival, and the students had Saturday, Sunday and Monday off of school. So, my Class 2 students took me to 'climb the mountain' and visit a temple on the top of the mountain.
'Climbing' the mountain, or really it was just climbing stairs to the top.
They are a funny group.







There were 9 students in all. And the boys who joined us are some of the most respectful teenage boys I have ever met.




The girls donate money to the temple at the Chinese God of prosperity.








A cave with a natural formation that they dedicated to a Chinese goddess.
I showed the girls a new way to take a photo.








Something in the temple I don't know what it stands for.











The next weekend some other students heard I've been spending time outside of class with the students. Now, I get tons of invitations to go climb the mountains, play basketball, cook Chinese food, go shopping and so on and so on. I try to do as much as I can with the students, but there are just too many of them. I know over time they will get bored of me but in the mean time I don't care how tired I am I want to take advantage of their enthusiasm and give them as much opportunity to practice their English.
At the temple on Huang Shan, or Yellow Mountain.

Too bad my camera doesn't have a wide angle view so I have to be at weird angles to fit the temple in the picture. Its a really beautiful temple covered with colorful, Chinese art.




Foggy Tongzi from the top of the mountain.








One of my students and 3 of her roommates from Grade 1 came to my apartment to teach me how to cook Chinese food. The girl on the far left is quickly becoming my favorite student. She is from my best class, Class 2, so she's really smart and hard working, but super shy. After one of my first English corners, a few weeks ago, she sent me a sad message to my cell phone almost begging me to help her with her oral English because she was so afraid to speak out loud in the group and even more afraid to speak with me personally. So, I met with her 1-on-1 after class to give her some tips on how to overcome her fears, and give her the chance to feel comfortable speaking to me. After that she has met with me almost everyday after school, sometimes alone just to talk, and sometimes in an English corner with other students, and she's such a great student because she understands when to give others a chance to speak and when she can translate what I say into Chinese without taking away the experience for others, and she can now join into the conversations freely. And not only that, she's sorta become my little English assistant, gathering up students for English corner that may have never given it a chance and reminding others about activities I've planned after school. Its awesome! And she has a great personality. She comes from a town in the countryside which is much poorer than here and lives with 8 roommates, so I sense she has a really difficult life, but despite that she is so grateful for every little thing and always smiling behind her shyness :) I just know if she is lucky enough to get the chance she will be very successful, but I just hope her good nature and innocence won't be taken advantage of. I'm not sure if I should say that she is my project or I am her project because she is actually teaching me too!