Ice cream cone :D

Written by Michaella:

Browsing the market on a hot Saturday after teaching a class, I have about two hours to just be downtown and enjoy the city to myself.  Boy am I getting brave!  LOL  I know the streets, bus system, culture and language enough now to go out and about and have a great time with the people here in this land of sorts  :)

One on my favorite things about being here, is that almost everyone wants to talk and have some sort of interaction with us.  Not to mention getting a picture snapped with them before moving on I know he and I all over the net with as many cameras that's been in our face.  We feel famous!!!!

Well, today, as it was quite hot, I have been seeing some people around with small ice cream cones and finally spotted the source from which they came!  YES! and they were only 3 yuan.  With four flavors, I was really craving a smooth soft serve vanilla in a cone and to my desire THEY HAD white!!  Well, to my limited knowledge, I think it was intended to be vanilla.  With high hopes, I step in line.

Let me stop and laugh out loud hysterically at my very own statement:  "Step in line"  LOLOLOLOLL  HAHAHHAA  BAWHAHAHAAHAHAH  Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!   Ok... Ill collect myself. AHEM........

No direct lines here, its just those who has money wavering in the sellers face with the right words: "I want that" in which I have mastered to say in this language :D  With a creeping smile, money waving, and arms stuck out to stake my claim of my "spot-in-line" HAHAHAHA  Finally she sees me and returns my now stretched smile as I await my loooong desired vanilla ice cream cone, after 11 months, might I add  :D

As quick as it was, the money was handed and my cone was filled!!!  I turned with glee and went for my first taste!!  OHHH Boy was I happy and certainly was a sight to be seen in the large crowd around me as I was smiling like a silly fool!!! HAHAHA  Well, it was no McDonalds soft serve (I really like Mcdonalds soft serve) and it was no Briers (SP?... I've been gone too long.. I can't remember how to spell it...)  But with a bit of a cool grainy milky (not so vanilla but it will do) flavor, it burst in my mouth and I was happy!!   I enjoyed the cone for maybe... 45 seconds then I realized it started to melt... really fast....  

Well stink...  My pack of tissues are in the bottom of my bag, so I start licking fast... STOOPID BRAIN FREEZE!!!  Oh the stares of people were getting a kick our of the foreigner LOLOLOL

FINALLY!!!  I feel the tip of the tissue package when all of the sudden.......................................................

BAM!!!!!  A lady walks slam into my ice cream cone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  All on the front of her BLACK silky blouse.... of the horror!!!!!!!!!!

Immediately, panic spreads over my face because I am just now comfortable with general market talk (but to a Westerner, its yelling, and I get very nervous when people yell....) I wasn't really sure what to expect in the next immediate 10 seconds....  So with my dripping and smashed in cone, my STOOPID pack of tissues are not wriggling free from the depths of my bag... AAAAHHHH

I look at her and say "I am so sorry!!!!"  Over and over in my best Chi nese accent of course...  Well, she responded in a typical single lady response: "May-sure"  over and over that means "It's OKAY"

I just wanted to hand her a tissue or two or five!!!!!!  Oh man.... I felt so bad... so with a quickness I step to the side, wrap my what-was-left cone in a tissue and head for the trash.  So ladies and gentlemen, Chi nese ice cream was not fully worth my $.08 US cents or 3 Yuan.....  I will just gladly figure out how to perfect the baggie ice cream at home, now that I have some very high quality milk from K0r3a!!!  :)

Any suggestions on my new agenda in Michaella's kitchen??

Much love to you all.

Go hug someone, and please, sit down with ice cream cones!!!!!!!!!

D  +  M

YOUR STAGE FLASH MOB :D

'YOUR STAGE' pops YUST, name of the college that Dozier
teaches in.  Very clever hee hee  :)

Had a blast dancing in the YUST performance last month!!  The guy with dozier (above) his Chi nese name is Fan, English name is Oscar.  He became a great friend to me and Dozier but then left us for Hong Kong   :`(   He promised to visit if ever gets 

near Alabama when we get back.  

We had a great time doing a crazy flash mob dance with him and like 20-25 other people.  We wore neon colors and had four groups then ran on stage for a synchronized dance.  There were 20 acts so it was a looong night.  After it was over the grand finale was lighting some things on fire.  Scroll down to see   :)

The MC's for the night.  The ladies came out in a
different dress every time.

Everyone was taking pictures, laughing and having a great time when they finally got
everything lit up.  This large group began dancing, singing and laughing.
You can see them holding hands and moving in a circle.

Great times.  Great memories.  Great marriage.  Great love.  
Can it get any better than this?  

我愛這個男人 (Wǒ ài zhège nánrén)  (I love this man)

Fun times!!!  Have a great day everyone!!!

D  +  M  <3

Pregnant orange :D

Browsing my Facebook page, I realized I have a TON of new mommy friends (25+) and wanted to give a sweet congratulations to the mommies AND daddies with their new additions!  Much love too all of those tagged and those I missed tagging, really, more than 25 took a bit of time :)  

With many anticipating the one day big news of me and Dozier saying we have one in the oven........ I must confess.......

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Nothing but lemon bread is in this gals oven with a side of a pregnant orange hee hee hee.  

Happy Monday everyone!!!!! :D :D 

For now,

D  +  M  still = just 2

A little April update from the little Lee family in this little corner of the world :D

A little love goes a long way.  Dozier and I sure hope it is felt in the long distance from here to your heart as you read this.  Our loved ones are missed for sure and we of course long to be home soon... but our life is here a little while longer.  We are quite confident we will be here through December and possibly until Summer of 2014.  With this said, we are very thankful for the recent move to a bigger unit last weekend.  It happened out of the blue as we kept pressing to be given a bigger unit.  

This is now the third unit we have been in.  Finally, the place is the right size and much more quiet.  Before it was a tiny one room efficiency and we lived underneath the male student floor...  yeah... it was never quiet, except maybe between the hours of 5am to 7am.  Now we fall asleep to the raging winds ripping around our corner unit.  Strangely, it is a rather soothing sound!  That has been something we have missed is white noise...  brrr too cold to turn on a fan etc...  

Well, our internet was set up on Friday, but we could not get it to connect, so hopefully we can work this out on Monday.  Dozier and I came up to my (Michaella's) school for internet use and grading.  He has mid terms next week then I have report cards the week after.  Both of our schools have a four day break that EVERYONE is looking forward too!!!  Wahoo!

Both of us feel stronger as teachers; I have been so proud of my students, in both grades 5 and 6, as their grades have come up, and my ESL students are surpassing my expectation!  Hooray!!  Currently, we are looking for some teachers for grades: Kindergarten (more than likely for K) one teacher for grades either 3 or 4 and one teacher for grades either 5 or 6.  We are working towards splitting all of the grades.  Please message me if you are interested!  Free lunch every day, great work environment (once you get used to the many items here that are greatly stimulating to your sensory's) and it is paid some, with low rent on campus :D  basically, it is just enough to be sustained.

Anyway, it is a process that can be done with some help from people here to guide you along the way.  Please YARP about it and let other teachers know!!  (read backwards :D )

Dozier and I hope everyone is doing well and please know we miss everyone greatly and think of home often!  Well, it is getting late here, Sunday night about 7:45pm and we have been at my school all afternoon since lunch, working.  Hopefully our internet problems will be resolved soon so we do not have to leave home to do work!  Our health is ok, of course my guy is healthy as a horse then my allergies get in the way.  I have suffered a week long battle of head congestion and terribly sore throat all week.  I am on the mend!  This was brought on by the move we made last week due to not new mold but large amounts to clean and being around bleach for days and days.. ugh... Thankfully students came to help us clean and move!

Goodnight to all!  We are going home to our little apartment that still contain a few boxes around with items to go in our kitchen cabinets.  There are zero shelves in the entire kitchen... ?... We do not know why but anyway, there are about twelve on order and we are waiting for them to be installed.  Oh well, such is life :)  We are just so thankful for this place!!!  Hall elu. jah! 

Go hug someone and tell the one you fought with last week that life is short and make up!!!!!  May HIS glor ious Peace reign in your minds and hearts <3

Much love to all! 
D  +  M

:D

Successful first day back to school!

Arriving at school early set me up for a well planned out first day!  I was ready for anything!  I got up super early, had oatmeal (my feel good food) and plenty of water to awaken the brain!  Hooray!  The first day back to school is finally here!

As I briskly welcome my students back, I felt confident and ready!  WAAAAAAY better start than last fall..  yeah... I was pretty much a dead limp vegetable drying up from extreme dehydration as alien like foods entered my bloodstream... WOW Never have I experienced such wild sicknesses and feelings from traveling 14 time zones... AND STAYING!!!    HA

The bell rang and I opened our time with a warm smile, greeting and pr yer, then chuckled to myself of all the sleepy faces before me :)  They had no idea was about to hit 'em!  A prepared teacher!  Well, as I confidently turned on the projector to display my astronomical power point (okay, I was more than ready... alright?  HAHAHA) then suddenly, I realized with horror what was happening as the laughter from the class bellowed up from beside me.... The display on the wall was...upside down!!!  I took one look at all the chi nese symbols on that projector, let out a quiet HUFF, turned to the class, laughed out loud, and said "I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIX THIS!!"

Deflated, I hit the ONE button I knew --> the power button.  I then I silently yet irritatingly decided to commence my presentation with the best enthusiasm I could portray to get the information transferred to my awaiting minds HEE HEE

All of the sudden, a little voiced piped up and proclaimed: "OH I NOW REMEMBER HOW TO CHANGE IT!"  I said in the best Rod Roddy voice: "Well we have a winner!  Come on down!!"  

Three buttons people.... THREE!!!!   Ctrl, Alt, down arrow.  Then: Ctrl, Alt, up arrow

Well there ya go folks, a new shortcut to save your life.  Another cool shortcut in case you ever close down a tab: Ctrl, Shift, T.   WOW can you believe this one??  My whole world changed after discovering this recently.

When first period ended, I walked into the hallway to be in the buzz of the students and here comes the Headmaster saying as loud as he can above the noise of changing classes:

"There will be no running water to flush the commodes, and may not come on before school lets out!!"

Oh well, at least we drink bottled water from a cooler and my olfactory is becoming desensitized to the odious vapors in the air :)   Well, hooray, I would say between this and panicky students from homework shock, and no bloody noses, well, at least today, I would say it was quite a successful first day!

ONWARD!

PS.
The water did get fixed after 4 hours <Insert hysterical belly laugh, and repeat>

Love,
Mrs. Michaella outstanding 5th and 6th grade teacher in Ch ina

Michaella's Classroom

Come and look inside my classroom in Ch/na :)

My classroom is combined of two grades, 5th and 6th grade, all mostly from Ko. rea.  One student is German/American, another is American/Ko. re.an, (one or) two are Ko. re.an/Canadian, one is American/Chi nese and the rest are 100% South Ko.re.an.  Total of 19 students in all.   


There are computers in the school, used for their computer class and all teachers have their own laptops.  I have speakers and a projector to show videos, slides, power point or anything from my laptop in my own classroom.  My students love to watch educational youtube HAHA

We begin the day with popcorn pr. ay. r; that is I start and close the Pr.a yr and allow the students to freely participate as they feel.  We also Pr. on the hour each hour, and this is usually a short time, a mixture of being led by me or a student chosen by me.  How rewarding and humbling to hear the words I have spoken in their own person Pr. yrs!

When my students have exceptional behavior, I have a prize jar filled with their favorite candies and pencils; I'm still learning what my students like that is still affordable.  They like candy, what young tween doesn't?  When the class is VERY good, I let them have the last five minutes to play their favorite game:   NINJA!!!!     HI  YAH!!

Three of my 6th grade boys.  My handsome boys :)  Little stinkers is what they are, but VERY respectful!  "Yes Teacher"  is a sign of respect instead of Mr. or Mrs. Name, that is what some of them call me :)

My poster I made

I fought for this shelf when the front office got new furniture; it is my class communication  mailbox.    I even have one! You see at the bottom right?  Its a large envelop.  The front says "Teacher's Mailbox" but on one side it has a green strip of paper, to tell me I do not have mail.  The other side is completely orange and says "You have mail!"  Pretty clever huh?  I madeit up myself after a student said "did you get my note?"  After I realized I threw it away, because she left it on my desk on an exceptionally unorganized day... oh dear...  Yeah I had to fix this communication line, and my desk :D

There are always rules, but in my class, we have:
"Ways for teamwork success in room 212"  :D

Since almost my entire class is ESL (English as a Second Language), I decided to help them out in their writing by providing thoughtful transition words!  They responded "Oh thank you teacher!!"
Message me if you would like the master list!

As a bonus to get my middle schooler's talking and soaking up more words, I came up with Word of the day.  Does this add a ton of extra prep time and stress????  Yes it does!  But this has definitely gotten quite a few trying!  The WOD must be used in a sentence correctly, in any form, state the part of speech and spell it.  The student receives on tally mark for each day they succeed; after 5 are accumulated, they receive one bonus point on any assignment that is 99% or less.  The student may use it at any time or by the end of the quarter, for report cards.  Once used they circle with a big red marker indicating the point has been used.  Some love it, a few could not care less :D

Our bookshelf.  Those turned on their backs are books not being used but have no where else to store them.  They may be donated to an orphanage or given to the poor to collect money for the paper.  I just want them off my shelves!! The left side is where the students and teachers editions are kept; the right side is the personal library for our grades.  The schools' library is small.

These are sweet notes and origami gifts my students made for me when I was so sick!  I never missed a day of school, just one class because I needed a breathing treatment and the doctor was in that hour.  Of course the campus doctor leaves at noon every day so I made the loooong trek up the hill on a growing cold and windy day and back by the end of lunch time

I know this is big but I wanted to give you a close up if I could.  The right are limericks we did in reading during our Poetry week;
 the left is from Social Studies.  The students created a Yellow Journalism article.

My desk, part of it anyway.  I took trashed boxes and covered them in newspaper, taped them to the wall for my personal bulletin boards!  An actual bulletin board is boring so I got creative!  Like my table cloth?  It was an overlay curtain I found in my dorm room when we moved!  My prize jar is made from a can of tomato paste I bought, used and cleaned; I then dug around in the lost and found and discovered an old shoe bag, like for dirty sneakers I guess.  I washed it and covered the jar.  My kids love to make me origami presents; I keep all of them :D

Of course my "Quiet zone" is NEVER used because my children are An gels :D :D :D  HAHAHA  It has been frequented by my tweens as a place to cool down or serve their forfeited recess or silent lunch.  Of course it is set right next to my desk with a folder of communication questions; during this time away from others part of their discipline is to find verses they think will help them correct their behavior and words given to find their meaning in the dictionary like "privilege" "integrity" and "responsibility".  The paper is concluded with writing a paragraph on what they learned and a personal Pr a.yr to the FATHER.  If you would like this form in a file, just message me!

OKAY!  This is getting long, I am sorry!  I will end with one last picture.  This was taken of me on the last day of school.  Hello tired and washed out face after being in Ch / na for 4 months and surviving my entire first semester of teaching for the first time ever!!!!  Notice I am indulging on my favorite comfort food: 'Pingwah' (spoken in the third tone, falling then rising)  Again, I spelled it phonetically for you.  Guess what you just said??  APPLE!!!

I made it half of my first year of teaching.  Hooray!  PTL!

 

Now I need to get some pics of Doziers office and classrooms!  That will be in two weeks--> stay tuned folks!

Much love to all!

D  +  M

Life 6 months later in Ch/na

Hello Friends!  Now that Dozier and I have a little more time, I would like to take a moment and let you in on our lives after being here 6 months!  Last fall semester was terribly difficult in just getting settled, battling sicknesses, allergies (with me--> Michaella), sleep deprivation, facing challenging deadlines, and just pouring ourselves into our students.  Routines have been put in place in the Lee home, and well thought through plans to balance our family time, teaching time, min. is. try  time with our students and taking care of our relationships Stateside.  It took a solid two months to get our money in our hands, internet set up, knowledge of where to get food (other than peanut butter and cafeteria!) and start feeling human again.  Well, classes resume for me next week and the following after for Dozier, so we shall see how well things go!   We feel a bit more prepared now for life in C hi na!   

After classes and deadlines ended December 27th, we slept all we could and ate every American dish we could create for a few weeks and just enjoyed the peace and quiet during our 'recovery time'.  Once we rejuvenated our bodies, cleaned our house top to bottom, we stayed on the phone talking with loved ones back home for all hours of the night to keep up with our relationships Stateside.  

We were, and still are, terribly homesick; this time here in the quiet has strengthened our love for The FATHER and our marriage in this time alone.  Even in the middle of the busy city, we feel alone because  of the language barrier.  How sad it is when you want to engage with someone, and you just can't!  It is terribly frustrating... and sad...  We have stayed on youtube, in the books, and phone apps to learn what we can during this winter break and all I can say is 'Dwey boo chee, teemb buh doe' (spoken in the falling tone).  I do not know the pinion so I spelled it out phonetically for you to try and say.  I said:  "I am sorry, I do not understand".  

Between the German and English department, and my school, we have made some good friends and learn from each other about the culture.  Some things we have done in our downtime, has been gathering in each others home to share meals, laughter and play board games.

I will be posting more on our classrooms since all my pictures are sorted and categorized, so please check back in the next few days for a look into our life here now!  I am adding the following pictures from around the campus I took just before it got really cold, so I think first or second week of October.  They are buildings, crops and roads right here near the campus; I took them just walking around the campus and on the main road near by.

The academy is to my immediate left, (then the college campus) as I look down into the main street heading into the city.   All of the buildings on the right are apartments.  

The ground shown here is used for crops.  It is located on the path leading my my school to the campus at where Dozier teaches.  It is hard to see, but there are phone numbers on some of the light colored areas on the wall.  I do not know what they phone numbers are for.

I am standing and facing the dorm and business building area, with my back to my school.  I am still standing on the big path leading from the Elementary school to the college campus.  To the right of the crops you see, is the path from the dorm to the school I use to get to school.  It takes about 10 minutes to get to work for me, (Michaella).

The path connecting our two schools, looking over the city, this is a view to the right from the
 picture just above.

This is the same path, just slightly turned to the right from the picture just above.  Do you see the cream colored building on the right?  That is the school I teach in!

On my walk around, I saw some of the natives burning piles of dead crops.  I think this is to help clear the land of the leftover dead plants that will not help rejuvenate the soil.  On my walk to school every morning, I walk thorough rows and rows of very tall large sunflowers and as soon as the seeds are harvested, the plants are left to die and put the nutrients back into the ground.  But, unlike the very dead plants, they get burned to make room for new plants.

The looooong walk up the path connecting the two schools.  On both sides, you will see many people working their feilds.  I always wave, smile and say hello in Ch i. ne. se  and K or. ean because I do not know which the person is just by looking at them.

Looking up the path at most of the buildings on the college campus.  

Hope you enjoyed the scenic pictures of where we walk each week!  It is Tuesday night here and Valentine's is in two days.  We will celebrate by making chicken and dumplings, banana bread or an apple cake made from scratch.  Our gifts will just be homemade cards and time spent together, maybe looking at a book I made of all the love notes we shared in our year and a half of dating.  It's very sweet and I am so glad I kept the notes and put them all in a book!

Much love to all and Happy Valentine's day!  Please eat some chocolate for us :)

D  +  M