Need an Update

There is so much to talk about. Let's start at the beginning.
Classes have been going great. Awhile ago I showed my classes the pictures from our trip to Shanghai and Suzhou...they loved them. Most of them have not had the opportunity to travel and I think they like the fact they can live a little vicariously through me and the other foreign teachers through our pictures and our stories. I have tried some games as well that they seem to really like. They go crazy for the game categories where I divide the class into four teams, have them pick one person from each team to come up to the board and then I give them 45 seconds to write as many things from a category that I choose. The other game that gets a good response is the dating game. I pick one boy and three girls or one girl and three boys and ask them questions. Whoever gets to five points first is the winner of a date (just pretend). There is a lot of oooooo's and ahhhhh's from the class. It gets them riled up and embarrassed which is adorable at their age.
Another interesting happening was Kirk's visit to Shijiazhuang and to Handan. Lauren and I went up to the Shiz to see Kirk and the others since he wasn't going to be able to stay in Handan as long as he had first planned. It was a great time. When he came to Handan it was quite an entertaining experience. Let's just say lots of toasting and good times. Plus I am totally jealous of Kirk's Chinese. I find myself in situations all the time where I wish hard that I could speak Chinese as well as he does. Mine is terrible and mostly broken when I try to speak it. Most of the time I can get my point across but I still want to know more...much more!
A couple of months ago the school had a sports meet. The students competed in events like the high jump and running. Some of these kids are super fast and it is quite impressive. There was also an event for us where we do a 4x100 meter relay. We came in dead last but it was still fun and all the students cheered for us and the school gave us a notebook for our efforts. All in all it was a great time and an excuse for the kids to have a little fun instead of studying all the time..which is basically what their lives are.