Monthly Archives: December 2008

Christmas Show

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I’ve been busy with the school’s Christmas Show. We finally had it on Saturday. The theme was “Learning English with Movies”, so my 2nd graders sang “Born to Be Wild” from the movie Herbie Fully Loaded and my 5th graders “What Time Is It?” from High School Musical 2. Some of my second graders were also in a Kung Fu Panda sketch, acting out scenes from the movie. That’s Riley being Master Shifu, or rather, just a mouse, and the rest of the cast below.


Practicing for this show took about a month, and it was long and arduous. My 2nd graders really weren’t that bad (pictured below), but my 5th graders were too cool for school and refused to sing or dance properly. At least they made some sort of effort on stage. We didn’t get extra time to practice so we had to practice during our classtime which put us a bit behind the curriculum. My 2nd graders also have been particularly naughty, especially a select few, and I’ve almost all but lost it many times this past month.


But then, sometimes, I get nice surprises like this when I grade homework, and I get all fuzzy inside. Hey, at least I’m getting through to some of them, right? Ann already is one of my favorite and best students. Need I say more?
“Dear Teacher Tina,

I think you are special because you are my teacher and you teach me a lot of things. You are a good teacher. I am glad we are friends because you help us to know the words that we need to know.

Your Friend,
Ann”

Common Courtesy

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Fun Fact: I’m from the dirty south aka Nashvegas, so I grew up with male chivalry all around. The most basic courtesy was holding doors open for other people, unfortunately that’s just not part of the culture here. I’m not saying that you have to stand there and wait five minutes for the next person to walk through. If there’s someone walking right behind you through a door, it’s just an extra second of a conscious effort to keep the door open for them, right? Nope, not here. I can’t count how many times I almost ran into/got hit by doors here. And don’t even get me started about getting cut in line and pushed out of the way by people, men and women alike, in the mad dash to get on the bus.

Tonight, I walked up to my apartment, and there was already a guy unlocking the front door. He got the door opened, stepped aside, and let me go first. I was pleasantly surprised, thanked him, and continued on my way. Coincindentally enough, he was a foreigner.

Don’t get me wrong. People are nice here and are always helpful when I play the lost tourist card. There’s just some things that’s just not part of the culture.

Hazel

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I went and bought some colored contacts, which kind of make me look like a freak when I first put them in. But after catching myself in the mirror a few times, I’ve decided that I like them. They’re supposed to be brown, but turned out to be more on the hazel side. I’ll only be wearing them on the weekends when I go out and stuff, otherwise I would scare my kids half to death.

I am officially super Asian.