Lettersssssssss

So for this week and next week, every single class I teach is the last class I teach. Does that make sense? I teach 4-6 classes per day and I teach every class once every two weeks. So yes, I have over 3,000 students. I mean, it's fine, right? After teaching the Christmas lesson last week, I really wanted to conclude everything solidly by making sure they know I love them and want to remember them. 

I asked them to write letters to me about themselves--to be creative, tell me their 'favorites,' use color, draw pictures, etc.

Here are some gems I received:

- "I want to fly in the sky."
- "It is important to remember: I love you!"
- "My English teacher say: 'I am her friend. We are very Good friend.' We are your students, but we want to and you friend, too. Ok?"
- "You are a beautiful girl. We are very like you. You are my friend."
- "I like to you."
- "YOU KNOW.!!!"
- "We very love you"
- "Remember me..you are very cute! I'm a girl!"
- "I want to have a travel to America. Because I have a good American friend in there, her name is Miss Marissa. She can speak a little Chinese and she is 19 years old. She like travel, art, her family, her friends, Chinese. I like her first lesson. Because she is very cute. DO YOU REMEMBER ME? MISS MARISSA"

There'll be pictures to come later. 

And I wish I had more than three minutes to write about how much I love them, but I don't. Due to technology failures, computer time is limited haha. No problem, though. I love my students with all my heart. They are so close to God--more than anyone else on this earth. I love them.

Ten Minute Post

So what words are there to say in a ten minute post?

The past two weeks, I've been doing some introductory Christmas in my classes. Each day I add and subtract to my lesson plan until it's really solid, and I feel like I've gotten Christmas down pretty well (now that I only have two more days teaching this lesson plan).

I start out the lesson by either playing Christmas music or this delightful video that's a song of English people trying to speak Chinese, both of which they enjoy. But then I round it off with jingle bells, which they know a Chinese version of (ding ding dong ding ding dong, li something something something..they don't know the rest, I don't speak Chinese--YET, it's just a hot mess). Then I teach them the English version of it. We then go through the Who What When Where Why and How of Christmas, starting with 'songs' under 'What'.

I go Christmas caroling to four of my students' desks, starting with Jingle Bells (they help), then We Wish You A Merry Christmas (they know a little bit of it), then Frosty the Snowman. Before the last song, though, we talk about the Why.

Do you know why we have Christmas?
...........
Do you know...Yesu?
Ohhhhhh!!! Yesssss!
His name in English is Jesus Christ. See? Christ? Christmas?
Ohhhhhhh!
We have Christmas because it is Jesus Christ's birthday.
Ohhhhhhh!
So I love Christmas because I love FUN Christmas songs, but I also love Christmas because some songs are quiet. They make me feel peace in my heart. Do you know peace?
......
Ping'an.
Ohhhh!!! Yes I know!!
Some songs are very quiet. Like this song.

I then sing them Silent Night.

I'm not entirely sure how it works out, but they're sweethearts and applaud after I finish a verse, but I motion for them to stay quiet as I play another song by Cori Connors.

The lyrics:

"Heavenly choirs must have had children
Singing along when they came to the earth
Jesus I know loves little children
So I imagine they sang at his birth

Alleluia, alleluia
Had I been there I would have sung
Alleluia, alleluia
Praise to the Lord, praise to His Son
Praise to the Lord, praise to His Son

(Children join) Heavenly choirs must have had children
Singing along when they came to the earth
Jesus I know loves little children
So I imagine they sang at His birth

Alleluia, alleluia
Had I been there I would have sung
Alleluia, alleluia
Praise to the Lord, praise to His Son
Praise to the Lord, praise to His Son

My children listen in silence, as enthralled with Cori Connors' voice as I am.

Beautiful, yes?
YES!
Do you feel peace?
Mmmmm. (how they say yes)
This is why I love Christmas. I love fun Christmas songs, but I very much love quiet Christmas songs that make me feel peace. It makes me want to give. Instead of thinking ME ME ME, I begin to think, YOU YOU YOU. It is very good. 

I then go on with pictures of Christmas trees, learning what goes under the tree, what goes on the tree, THIS incredible light display, and terrible drawings of ornaments, candy canes, and one-horse-open-sleighs.

But the beautiful thing is seeing a glimmer of recognition in my students' eyes as they feel the one thing that Satan can't replicate--the one thing the Atonement can bring us, the one thing people spend their whole lives trying to obtain, the one thing that softens hearts and opens eyes: peace.

My students may not ever learn the truth of the gospel in their lives, but I hope they can at least distinguish that peace comes from a being greater than them, yet a being that knows them personally to give them a hope in their heart that they will be able to recognize in the Spirit of the Lord.

This definitely didn't end up being a ten minute post, but, Merry Christmas!

I have nothing to add.

shelbylanece.blogspot.com

Read the post titled 'More.'

I HAVE NO TOLERANCE FOR THAT, SIR

I spent yesterday getting myself in the holiday mood, as it was fast Sunday and I had no desire or energy than to watch Christmas movies and Mormonads. I did end up watching The Santa Clause, which caused me to reflect on the time when my sweet mother informed me that Clause in Santa Claus is not, indeed, spelled with an e on the end. 

I KNOW IT'S UNREALISTIC TO DEVOTE THE REST OF MY LIFE TO INFORMING THE WORLD THE TRUE SPELLING OF SANTA CLAUS BUT THE DIRECTORS MADE A CLEVER PUN THAT SCREWED UP EVERYONE'S SPELLING OF SANTA CLAUS AND I WISH I COULD FIX IT.

Also. Please, don't screw up your/you're. This is YOUR spelling error. YOU'RE a bad speller, Petey.

Effect/affect. These are the EFFECTS of YOUR bad spelling. It's AFFECTING me for the worse.

To/too. I suffer TOO many angry physical reactions to bad spelling. I'm going TO do something violent.

Anyway. Time is nearly up on Dragontales.

Bye.

Don't dis, disown, or disassemble

Just take a second and commit to not do any of the following before you read further.

Yeah, I haven't shaved my legs for a month and a half. After shaving nearly every single day for the past 7 years, I can honestly say that ...... well, no, I haven't been converted. But I also am not offended by my shaving apostasy. Sure, it's absolutely disgusting, but I'll finally understand what it means to, after shaving, hop under the covers and appreciate what it feels like to have nicely shaven legs.

Huzzah for No-Shave (partial October and) November!

I will never do this again.

Student Funnies

Introductory Christmas.

A girl hastily draws a rough outline of a stocking. She clutches it in her fist and shoves it toward me and says, THIS.

Yes! A stocking! 

I draw a picture of a fireplace on the screechy chalkboard and the kids breathe out an audible ahhhh as they understand where I'm headed.

They clap their hands when I finish, thrilled that there was a point of connection between their language and mine. That's the thing about art--it's universal.

Okay. You remember what is UNDER the tree, and what is ON the tree, what goes IN the stockings?

A diminutive seventh grader (I seem to remember a newspaper once referring to me in the exact same terms when I was in a play) in the back says, unabashedly, FIREEEEE!

Fire???!

The class laughs.

A young boy on the front row on the far left shouts, FIRE IN DZE HOLE!!! pulls the trigger out of an imaginary grenade, and throws it out the window into the cold air as he plugs his ears.

I have the best students.

Things.

Thoughts in my head.

It's not like today was a crappy day or anything. By all rights, it was an excellent day. I taught my typical 5 classes (nearly every other teacher has 2-3) and returned home, exhausted, after taking the ten minute speed walk through the biting cold. After warming up for 5 minutes, we headed back into the icy abyss to hail a taxi to take us to Restaraunt.

By the way, Restaurant Mom bought us some earrings and gave them to us last time we were there, along with some delicious ball thingies that looked like tiny rolls and tasted like baklava (except the brown ones, which were chocolate covered and tasted like eclairs without the cream). She no longer accepts any money from us because, as she forcefully asserts every time we go, we are family.

Restaurant fed us delicious dumpling soup and our favorite, sweet potatoes, as well as the bizarre chicken broth stuff that's vaguely spicy and has floating cilantro in it. Which is good... seeing as we haven't had appetites for the past four days. SPEAKING OF WHICH. We had Thanksgiving in Nanjing with the ward there. It was the second-best decision of my life, next to marrying---oh wait. Yeah. It was THE best decision of my life. We had turkey, rolls, sweet potato delight (don't know what in the world it was, but I think it was a blend of sweet potatoes and pumpkin with sugary goodness on top), and all sorts of brownies and pie. What a lovely experience it was.

BUT BACK TO RESTAURANT.

It's always the biggest tender mercy to go to Restaurant. Mama cooks us something special and gives us something to take home every time--and not necessarily something tangible like food. She never fails to completely change our attitudes. I've been setting goals for Chinese lately and gotten pretty discouraged and overwhelmed about this language. When people speak to me, I don't understand a word they say. I don't know whether it's the dialect in Pooptown or what, but I just wish it could click and I could pick out the words that I say to them when they say it back to me.

Then the idiot (pardon my pessimism) taxi driver decided to go off on a rant about how he hates America and he mistook my 'ting bu dong' (no understand) to be awkward offense. Well, sir, even if I did understand anything you said besides:

BLAH BLAH BLAH--oh, let me do this correctly now...

Taxi Man: BRAH BRAH BRAH I HATE AMERICA BRAH BRAH BRAH I LIKE CHINA BRAH BRAH BRAH CHINA BETTER THAN AMERICA BRAH BRAH WAIT YOU'RE AMERICAN BRAH BRAH BRAH I MEAN I DON'T LIKE AMERICA BUT AMERICANS OKAY BRAH BRAH BRAH

Me: Uh, how much was the ride?

Taxi Man: ...............

Dear Taxi Man, I know what long pauses mean. They mean, should I rip these people off?

Taxi Man: .......Ba kuai.

Me: BU BA KUAI. TAI GUI LE. (NOT 8 KUAI. TOO EXPENSIVE)

Taxi Man: ......ba...qi...qi kuai wu. (8...7...7.5 kuai)

Me: LIU KUAI. Women zhidao duoshao qian (6 KUAI. We know how much money it costs..)

Taxi Man: [mischievous smile] Keyi keyi BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH (okay, okay BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH).

Me: [in English, with a sincere smile] You can't insult me and my country and then expect us to pay two more kuai than expected. I hope you have a terrible night. Xie xie, wan an! (thank you, goodnight!)

Just. Well. Here are my thoughts. And here's what I think about politics at the moment. I don't care a bit who's poor and who's rich. I don't care whether or not Taiwan is technically considered China. I don't care if you hate America or if you hate me. But what I do care about are human beings. Since when did God create us to create tension with others or obsess over diplomatic details or rifts from the past? I love America. I love my country. I love China. I love the people here. The way I see it, you can come to love any place in the world when you take a glance into the core of humanity. Why, why, WHY do the countries of the world feel the need to destroy each other for the mere 'feeling' of superiority? Are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend on the same God? 

I don't mean to adopt a defeatist attitude, but our world won't change until the Second Coming. I'm not asserting that even the smallest efforts to change it can't bless at least one person's life, which will be entirely worth it, I'm just saying that it's really heartbreaking that human nature in politics has become so vile, base, and apathetic. I guess it's just one of those days that I wish things were better in the world. I sincerely cannot wait for the Second Coming of the Lord.

Bizarre that a simple conversation with Taxi Man became so thought-provoking, but I just wish with all my heart that I had more means, time, and talents to change the world a tiny step at a time. 

Ether 12:4:

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."