The week that was.

Field trips, birthday parties and sports meeting practice.  They all add up to one busy week.  The long work week has taken on a new meaning since we came to China.  Julie and I definitely were not expecting how the school schedule adapts to vacations.  This adaptation involves shifting the school days from the week to the weekend.  Next week we will have a seven day school week then get Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off for May Day.  While a seven day week sounds bad, the seventh day will consist of the students sports meeting.  I'm not sure if actual sports will take place or if each class will just perform.  What I do know is that Julie and I have had at least a handful of classes cancelled so that students could practice for their class performance. 

In addition to our lessened week due to the practice we also found out that on Wednesday the entire school would be going on the Spring field trip.  So at 7:40 on Wednesday we all piled onto buses and first we were headed to the Beijing Capital Museum:

This is a replica of the city gate from Jingde which was the 'Mecca' of porcelain making for the royalty living in Beijing.  The museum had an incredible collection of Empress Dowager Cixi's - the Emelda Marcos of porcelain - collection.  The skill level is quite amazing and so this is why all those dishes we eat off of are called china.

One of my favorite displays were this 2 foot tall replica's of 'Hutong' - alley's that used to make up the streets of Beijing - life at the turn of the century, the 20th century that is.

I did get several pictures of Julie.  Some with some camels, but our camera wasn't in a very good mood  and this is the only one where she doesn't look like she is dissolving.

The second half of the field trip took us to a botanical garden.  We visited an impressive garden in Thailand but this one clearly had a much bigger budget and was quite impressive.  Then we were told there is a much better one if we have time to visit it.  Julie took a ton of flower pictures and I'll her decide if she wants to post any, but here are a few of my selections:

So this is how I should have planted my zucchini.

I wasn't expecting to see these craving and clearly I got distracted about where I was placing my hand.

What animal is this?

 Now to the pretty pictures:

Julie couldn't pass up a chance to get a photo with Minnie.

Ahh ... Spring is here.

Thursday we actually had to work again and were off to our branch schools.  Julie got a surprise and a unique opportunity to teach without power.  She said the lights came back on just as she was finishing her final class.  Electricity, who needs it?

Friday mornings mean it's time for kindergarten.  Kindergarten is of course a bit more chaotic than the rest of our week but the last two weeks it seems like the teachers are taking a queue from the students.  The last two weeks it seems like no is sure what classes we are supposed to teach and Julie and I walk around aimlessly until we finally arrive a class that seems to say, "sure, let's do English now."  After our customary stroll around the building we both found classes and even then found second classes. I got lucky and found a birthday party.  It was quite interesting as me and teacher Snow improvised a class based around singing happy birthday and eating birthday cake.  Take a look:

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Here is the birthday girl making her wish. The candle was amazing.  I have been to many kid's birthday parties in the last several years but this candle was in the shape of a flower.  Then it would open up and each petal had a candle on it and a candle in the center.  The petals would spin around the center and the candle would play happy birthday.

Some of us couldn't stop eating our cake to take a picture.

That's all for now.
-Ryan