It's About Time....

Wow. I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I realize that I have been a not so frequent blogger...I'll blame that on the craziness of China and the lack of good internet connections :)

I have been LOVING each and every day here. I am learning so much about the culture, the people, the language, the children, etc. My days are filled with one-on-one structured play with specific children to help them work on certain developmental skills that they are lacking, along with teaching a PE class to 6 of the older children, and helping with an older "preschool/beginning English" class to some precious little children. We are currently working on shapes and colors with the kids :) Funny story- the word "square" is very difficult for these little ones to say, so every day when we ask them what shape a square is, they all reply "Xi (pronounced shi) Gua...Xi-Guar!" (xi gua, in Chinese, means watermelon). The kids all think this is just hysterical and end up laughing at themselves. The PE class is ALWAYS an adventure, as I can't communicate with the kids very well, and they also don't know how to play many "typical" group games. Lots and lots of sign language goes on...and we usually end up playing duck duck goose to finish off the class :) I can see slow but steady progress in the children that I work with one-on-one each day, and it is going to be so hard to leave them in just 3 short weeks. My favorite time of the day is when I take a sweet little 5 year old guy out for a walk each afternoon. He has some severe special needs and was told that he would never be able to walk, but he miraculously has started walking about 2 months ago, thanks to help from a full-lower body brace. We have Chinglish conversations, and walk around outside so he can work his little legs. We usually make a stop by the goat that lives behind the foster home and feed him a few leaves. I am now very well versed in how to say "I want to see the goat" and "get me some leaves" in Chinese. :) I have Chinese lessons for an hour three times a week. I'm trying to pick up as much as I can, and I'm actually learning the most from the kids! It's a very difficult language, but I think it would just be really neat to learn.

We were recently able to take the kids on a field trip to the Beijing Water Cube, which was built for the 2008 Olympic games here in Beijing. We (me and the other interns/nannies) were each paired up with a little buddy, and we spent the day with them. We took a bus in (its about a 1 1/2 hour bus ride into the city from our village) and the kids LOVED the bus. They rarely get the chance to ride in a car or see big tall buildings, so it was definitely a treat for them to do this! My little buddy was a precious little 5 year old guy who talked to me nonstop in Chinese the entire trip. He is such a sweet boy- I told him on Tuesday afternoon that I was taking him swimming on Friday, and EVERY time he saw me the rest of the week, his face would light up and he would inform all the ayis that he was going swimming with me on Friday. It ended up being a crazy fun experience- interesting swimsuits (all the little boys wear speedos) and swim caps galore- and all the kids were completely pooped by the afternoon. We were treated to a fantastic lunch donated by a very nice Chinese restaurant in downtown Beijing, so we definitely enjoyed our break from typical village food!

This weekend, I had the opportunity to go into Beijing for both Saturday and Sunday. We got extremely discounted tickets for the Chinese acrobat show, due to our work in the foster home, and we ended up with 2nd row VIP tickets! The show was incredible and we had such a great time. They even had POPCORN there! (For those of you who don't know me...I love popcorn. It's probably the Western food that I miss the most over here.) We also went and spent the afternoon at a park downtown which was such a cool place. There was a water park, children's carnival, olympic volleyball court, and lots of cool statues! We rented a 4 person pedaling bike thing for about $10 and were able to use it for the afternoon pedaling around the park. It was such a HOT, humid day, so it was nice to have a little breeze from the bike! We went in for the international church on Sunday morning and went to a huge market/shopping area where we bartered to our hearts content.

This week is going to be pretty typical- tomorrow is one of the other intern's birthday, so we ordered a cake (which should be interesting...) and are going to attempt to make "chinese tacos". Our cooking adventures here in China have not gone too well- everything has a very different flair to it :) I am LOVING the mango and all the other fresh fruit here however! It is so cheap to buy off the street and it is always delicious! The village where I am is especially famous for their watermelon, so that is delicious. It is getting late here and week starts up again early tomorrow! I promise I will try to be better about posting in the next several weeks. I do have some pictures this time...but due to our verrryyyyy slow internet connection at the apartment, I will have to try to post them tomorrow! Thank you for your continued pr@yers.... They are so appreciated!

Love,
Meredith