Rain, rain go away!
Its been raining more than a week in this area of Guangdong. Most areas. However, HK was great. well, the first day was. And the humidity, man, its tiring me out big time. I just want to sit in an AC room and do nothing.
Morning class with the 3rd graders was loud and uncontrollable. I took their picture.
Went to the gym at lunch and while running, my foot cramped up. I was pissed.
When I got back from lunch as I was heading to my desk, one of my 6th grade students, one of the ones that sat in the front of class and was relatively good compared to the rest of kids was standing at her homeroom teacher's desk staring at the desk while this lady was screaming at her and pushing/poking her head with her finger. Thats a common occurence when an adult scolds a child here. That or they hit them and slap them, I see kids with bruises all the time. There was a girl in my class yesterday who had the whole right side of her face puffed up and she used her hair to cover it up. I think that was a dental issue, not so much a parental beating. But back to the girl in the office. Her mom was the one screaming at her and doing this. In front of all the teachers. I was like, "Jeez, if you yell at your kid, do it in the privacy of your home. Screaming at them in public to try and gain face doesn't help their development." I asked Anna what was going on. Apparently, this girl did something bad or wrong, I don't know which. Whether it was intentional or not, but anywho, I have seen this girl all the time, she seems nice and all, I have never had any problems with her. She's not one that I would think would get in trouble. But the cause of the screaming was this.... The girl did something bad that made the homeroom teacher call in her mother. But then the girl said, "Please don't call my mother and have her come here. She's ugly." So, that was the cause of the screaming. The daughter didn't want her mother to come to school because she was ugly. The teachers told the mom all about her bad deeds in class and then this extra thing and the mom went off. She lost face from her daughter saying she was ugly and she tried to gain it back by scolding her in front of everyone. Personally, I don't see how that regains any face to the mother. It makes her look...well...ugly. But, the chinese have a very different and odd culture. In fact, I have seen this more than a dozen times.
Afternoon 5th grade classes were great. I did review and got to use the over-head computer projectors. Those things rule. I want to buy one. The photos of the classes were good. I am gonna miss those two 5th grade classes.
After all my classes were done I chatted with Anna and Coco about the screaming lady and I mentioned that I thought it was horrible to do something like that to your child in front of everyone like that and I mentioned I have seen it before. They laughed and they said they totally agreed with me. Then they said, the mother has problems, then they said. "Koi hai chi-seen." (she is crazy). I then headed home and practiced some chinese lessons since I had no Kindergarten class.
Then, at 5pm, Mountain calls me. "Where are you?" I am at home, why? "You have class right now?" I do? Wing told me, many times yesterday that yesterday was my last day. "Did you look at the schedual that Wing gave you?" Yes, I did, and it confused me and then Wing explained the schedual and said I didnt have class anymore. "Ahh.............did you look at the schedual?" Yes, I did, it confused me and Wing said I had no more class after yester... *click*. About 1 minute later, Mountain called back again, "Can you go and teach." Yup, I am on my way out. "You can teach till 6pm" No problem.
It really wasn't a problem. I just had to cancel my lesson with Daisy.
Teaching the kids was no problem and I enjoyed it, I actually was happy that I would have a couple more days with them. I got them saying "How old are you?" and "I'm 3/4/5!" So cute. Only problem was that I was preparing to go to 6pm and the teacher pointed to her watch at 530pm.... UGGH!!!!
Communication sucks in this place!*
I headed home afterwards so I could get some things done and work on my chinese and some other stuff for Megan, Amy, and Moses leaving.
Well, goodnite.
*and yes, to all you people that wish to lecture me, I know there are communication problems everywhere else in the world. but i never have had this issues ever before. So don't bother. And don't ever call me a racist.