Narrative

Narrative ( This section will encompass all the funny stories I must share)....

It is important to laugh during stressful situations otherwise you will find yourself miserable. Today during our first visit to a shopping mall here a group of us were placed in a stressful situation. We circled the store over a hundred times looking for the checkout line. Turns out we had to lap the store and go upstairs in order to check out. The laugh the we had during this stressful situation was that a man constantly followed us around with a camera. He would act like he was getting to make a phone call but the red light would flash every time the phone turned in our direction. It got to the point that the man would knock people out of the way just to get a close up of one of my friends. Each time he began to get closer to us I would begin to sing the Ludacris song..."MOVE". The closer he got the harder we laughed. We laughed so much and so hard that we forgot how frustrated we were that we couldn't figure out how to get out of the store.

To be continued...many more laughs to come!

Back home I can remember telling my students, give each other some personal space. I could not imagine using that phrase now in China. If I did, I am quite certain that others would look at me and laugh. Last night, we got on the bus to come home from a full day of shopping and truly realized that we were in China. As the bus slowly approached the stop, I turned to my right and saw the look of shock on each one of my friends faces. The bus was so packed that when the doors opened people were literally falling off. People were packed like sardines!!! What makes this story even more interesting is that, we still had to force our way on because the bus was making its last run. The last thing I wanted to do was be left at the bus stop so I pushed and shoved as if I were on a football field trying to push an opponent over. Luckily, I was able to fit on the bus and made it home safely. On that bus ride, I did not need to hold on to the rail because it was impossible to fall over due to the fact that so many people were on the bus. It was a packed night, literally!!!

To be continued......

I always wondered what it would feel like to be a celebrity. To have all eyes on you at all times. No privacy and every move that you make would be critiqued. As a child, and sometimes still, I wanted to be famous and to be in the spotlight like my favorite television shows, movies, and singers. While in China, I feel like my childhood dreams have come true. I am in a country where very few look like me. People constantly stare and take pictures of me. This week I had a person reach out and stroke my hair. I am not sure if they thought it was fake or if I was even real. Initially, the stares didn't bother me but they are starting to freak me out. I am not sure if it is because we are approaching Halloween but the stares are starting to feel haunting. No longer do I dream of becoming a celebrity rather just an ordinary girl who becomes a teacher and loves children.

To be continued....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!! The students at BRS celebrated Halloween by having a party. Many of the students dressed up in costumes. It was interesting to see all of the students dancing and singing the American songs. The high school students brought the NCSU Interns on stage to dance. What is funny is that I completely forgot how to do the Superman while I was on stage, so I had to freestyle. It was a little embarrassing but extremely FUN! Celebrating Halloween was fun and a great way to interact with the students.

To be continued...

Over the past few weeks have I picked up the exercise of running. The interesting fact is that I have not been running on the track rather running in the subway or street to catch the bus or subway. Today as I was running to catch the subway one of my cohort members runs ahead. We got separated for a few minutes (nothing surprising about that because the city is so crowded it is easy to get mixed in the crowd) but I continued to run. As I turn a corner, I hear this loud ROAR. It was my cohort member who was ahead of me and decided to try to scare me. Luckily for me, there is the man who is ahead of me running whom got scared because she had scared him trying to scare me. He jumped and then we all busted out laughing. Later as we were continuing to run through the subway the man disappeared then reappeared and scared my cohort member back. That was the funniest thing I had witnessed all week. As we ran to catch the subway I thought to myself, THINGS THAT ONLY HAPPEN IN CHINA!!!

To be continued...

The schools are filled with international students and teachers from around the globe. Tonight Beijing Royal School formed a partnership with 50 States in America. The dinner was awesome but what was extremely amazing was the fact that the room was filled with educators who all had the same passion for education as I do!!! The students put on performances for the 500 principals from 50 States in America. It was a GREAT WRAP UP TO MY TRIP HERE IN CHINA.   