Day 36- I'm so excited

There are many, many things I love about my job, especially teaching at such an incredible school as Beijing National Day School.  I have some amazingly cool and interesting coworkers from all parts of the world.  And the kids?  They really are awesome; and so much fun.

I have been teaching about Freud and his theory of personality formation, which leads to a whole bunch of sex talk.  Imagine a group of curious, but introverted, Asian kids with a no-holds-barred American instructor?!  I have been around the block far too many times to pull any punches, and we have the freedom and flexibility to do our jobs- as best as we see fit.  So, there was a lot of sex talk this week, and lots of nervous giggles.  We acted out Freud's defense mechanisms with class skits. We made our own Rorschach inkblots, and we poured through commercials, print ads and music videos for the subliminal messages of sex...most were not the least bit subliminal, because sex sells, don't you know?   I have had a flurry of emails and wechat messages from them all week. (Get on wechat people! We can text, talk, send pics, use our phones like walkie talkies, all kinds of fun stuff- all for FREE!  Look me up- I'm pkaryn :) They sent me emails or we chat message for the things they were too embarrassed to ask about in class.  They also posed the more thoughtful, critical thinking kinds of questions, too, which really gets me excited, because then I know that they are listening and wanting to know more. I mean, I get really excited, but not in a Freudian kind of way ;)

How cute is she?!  She was so happy with her inkblot!

I find it interesting to see best friends holding hands when they
walk.  It's what they do; they are simply best friends.
Sometimes there will be several all walking together,
locking arms with each other.  The Asians are quite
affectionate with their same sex friends, which is endearing.
Yet, with the opposite sex, they are quite reserved,
sometimes even painfully shy.  As a whole, this culture
does not engage in public displays of affection.
Seldom do you see couples on the street holding hands,
hugging, and it's more rare to see a stolen kiss.
Clearly, I am not Asian!

By the end of the week, the board was covered with forty five
hand made inkblots.  It was a fun activity. They look forward to
the end of a unit with me.  There always is an exam,
and these kids are all about making the 'high marks' on their
exams.  After exams, we do a fun lab or activity.  This week,
I have catapulted to their favorite, teacher ever.
Sex talk. sex ads. and crafts, Am I cool, or what?! lolllzzz

Well, if you haven't gathered by now, there are just some things about China that make me smile. There are the things that I can't help but shake my head and laugh.  There are other things that leave me dumbfounded.  And much of the time I am confused, and just plain don't understand.  In those moments, the best I can figure is it simply must 'be the Chinese way.'  In other words, don't ask- just accept that it is what it is.  This week was one of those times that we faculty just simply needed to accept that it is what it is...which lead to an outing....

for this!

Meet my Dean for the Advising program; he gives good advice :)

We were on a quest for the best margaritas to be found in Beijing.  The place
two weekends ago had far better margaritas, but the homemade salsa bar
here at Cantina Agave was amazing.  It was hard to pick a favorite salsa :)

Why all the celebration and fuss?  Because this week we have a one day weekend.  Which means Saturday will be a planning day since we have to work on Sunday.  Yep, school is in session on Sunday. We have National Holiday coming up next week, which is a three day holiday beginning on Wednesday, October 1st.  To allow for a full week of vacation time, they added the following Monday and Tuesday to our five day weekend.  Nice! We get seven days off in a row to maybe do some travelling!  Oh, but wait...

We have to 'give back' those two days in the calendar. So we are going to school on Sunday to make up for that Monday, and we have to work the following Saturday to make up for the Tuesday. Confusing, right?  We get seven days off, but sandwiched between two weekends of which we are only off school for one day.  A one day weekend?!  In education?! I don't get it.  Why not just build those days into the school calendar?  Tack them on to the end of the semester, or something, but don't screw up two weekends!  We already had to work a Sunday a few weeks ago.  But to them, it's just another school day.  Not to us; which is why we all went out on Friday night.

Santosh, Zuong, and I bailed on the group early so we could catch the
subway home before it stopped running for the night.

Besides, I needed to get an early start to my one-day weekend.  I had
groceries to get, banking to do, and a pedi to be had before I started
in on the lesson planning on Saturday.  The good news?  I am pretty well
set now, as far as school work is concerned, through October 27th.
And you know what that means?!
It's time for this girlie to hop on the internet and start planning
a vacation with that time off from school.
I'm thinking Thailand....to put these freshly painted toes in the sand :)

 G'nite, y'all!