herd of sheep in the city

I'm glad the worst of the winter is behind us.  It has been a long one.  Seems that the warmer weather has brought us wind which has brought us cleaner air.  Thank goodness. 

Ryan and I made it through the first week of classes for the second semester.  I have been trying to make my classes more fun so instead of just calling on kids sometime I throw a stuffed animal to students instead of just calling on them.  Today, I had a student who wasn't paying attention (I know that's a big surprise) and the student behind him was raising her hand.  I meant to throw the toy to her but instead in landed on the boy's head.  Funniest thing that has happened to me as a teacher.  No worries, the student was fine and I believe he will be paying attention from now on. 

This past weekend Ryan and I had a mini adventure.  We decided to check out a shopping center that several teachers had told us about.  Through some miscommunication between Ryan and myself we ended up on the wrong bus.  Oops. We decided to get off the bus and go back and stopped at a noodle restaurant that we saw that looked good along the way.  So we ate and got on the right bus.  But then we realized it was the right bus but going in the wrong direction.  Oops again.  We decided to get off the bus to just go back home.  We got off the bus and looked a little lost because it didn't see the bus stop on the other side of the street right away.  We found it and started walked down the street a little ways.  Now, a co-worker of ours sees us and stops to see if we want a ride back to school.  Well all the words we exchanged were "go back to school?" and yes. 

Then we tried again the next day.  We got on the correct bus going in the correct direction but never did see the shopping center.  We ended in the city but got off at the wrong stop and had a bit of a hike to the subway.  It was all worth it. We ended up eating at an American dinner.  Pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage for brunch.  And a chocolate milk shake.  ;o)   So I should probably eat a little healthier...  Eating healthy is much harder here than I thought it would be.  Buying Oreo's is too easy.  And low carb is unheard of.  Sometime we have noodles, rice and bread available at lunch.  Good thing fruit is becoming more in season.  Fruit that has frozen and rethawed is not very appetizing.  This seems to be what has happened in the winter so the fruit people sell on the streets or in little markets is not very good. It seems that the quality of food that Ryan and I require it a bit higher standard than the average Chinese person.  Often times the food sold in stores, in markets, or on the street reminds me of bargain bin back home.  I like to buy the "expensive" fruit from the Wu-Mart.  By expensive I mean American priced.   I bet with the warmer weather fruit will be looking better. 

So in the suburbs of Charlotte, people walk their dogs. In the suburbs of Beijing, people walk their herd of sheep.  Never have we wished we have our camera more than we just did.  Ryan said, "those sheep act better than some of my students."  The sheep just followed their owner to the pen along the side walk.  Crazy site.    

Julie