The end is near!

Well... I can now count the number of remaining school days on one hand. You always here the saying "time flies" but I've never known it could be so true. Time really has flown here in China.

Things are going great! I'm staying super busy as usual. Between teaching during the week and travelling to Mallory's in Guangzhou on the weekends there isn't much time for writing.
Recently Mallory and I were asked by Prof. Qiang (the lady who heads the English Immersion Program in China) to give a presentation for a group of primary school english teachers. We were to present methods for teaching english to children. (Reminder: I am not an English teacher and neither of us are primary school teachers!) So Mallory and I prepared a powerpoint (or PPT as the chinese all call it) and some props and gave a 1 hour presentation to this group of teachers, principles, and school supervisors. We didn't know it when we first began but it was apparently a pretty big deal. There were some pretty important school officials there for it. But we did well. We went through the presentation, had some Q&A time, then of course some pictures. Then as it turns out, some men who are in charge of a middle school in GZ were so impressed with our presentation that they wanted us to present to their school's staff as well. But with time constraints we just aren't going to be able to do it. What an honor though that they even asked!

In other news, teaching is going well. I love that I can see improvement in my classes with each week. I really am truly impressed by these students. At the beginning there were some students who just made me dread going to class, and now to see those very students working, trying, and succeeding is amazing. I know its a feeling that most teachers hope for during their careers and I have seen it just in the short 10 weeks that I have been here.

I have also begun to realize how much I am going to miss these kids. The 11th (a group of 10) and 12th (a group of 3 boys) grade in particular! I have got to know them all and its going to be so hard to leave knowing that I will probably never see these people again. That is rough. I've been having so much fun with them lately too. They are really coming out of their shells and opening up to me and its great. Last week there was a school wide talent show and one of the 11th grade girls performed. So the rest of the class and me all went to support her! We went for the rehersal and the big show! It was so fun! Then this week there is going to be a singing competition in the International Section. But in this one students must sing only English songs. So any extra time in school is spent singing and practicing. And its so funny, they will stop mid song to ask pronunciation of words. But I'm really looking forward to the actual performances. There are some pretty good ones!

Also, the 11th graders are all pulling together and are throwing me a "surprise" going away party! (they don't know that I know!) I think that is so awesome that these kids are doing that for me. They are getting all of the grades that I teach involved and are going to "surprise" me Friday afternoon. They even are making me a scrapbook filled with all kinds of things from my time here! I was just floored by this! I couldn't believe it! It's so funny too. Like I said, they don't know that I know, so they think they are all being sneaky and they ask me completely random questions during class trying to figure things out for this party. Then they will talk to each other in Chinese about it! I just couldn't be more excited though. It's going to be such a great time!

I am just really, really going to miss them though. I will be sad to leave. But in nearly every class I teach they have already asked for my email address and have sent a paper around the class for all of them to write theirs down for me. They all are so excited and say that they want to keep in contact with me! So I definitely plan to!

Oh, then friday night (after the student's party) the teacher's are having a little going away party for me too. I think that we are all going to go out to dinner! So that will be fun!! Between singing competitions and parties this last week is really going to fly by!

Then, just another small sidenote-- today was another roller blading day! Too funny! I think I made a kid fall too. I think he was just so surprised to see me! HAHA. And earlier this week they had a kite-flying day! There were about 100 primary school kids out on the football field running around with these tiny brightly colored kites! So cute!! Almost as fun as roller blade day!