Let Me Rest In Peace

• We went to a neighborhood farmer’s market today. We’d heard about the great selection and cheap prices from others in BIBA Bay so we were excited to see it for ourselves. It was hard to drag ourselves out of bed but it was worth it. And the weather has been much cooler lately so the walk wasn’t too bad, even though it was farther than we’d anticipated. (If we can get bikes or a scooter, then it will be much easier). We met some other Ali, Carmel, Amy (and kiddos), James and Quinny there and found pretty much everything we wanted (bell peppers, grapes, sweet potatoes, hand-pressed sesame oil, mushrooms, an apple, a breakfast pancake thing, green beans, and bok choy)…for about 55 qui or $8.50!
• We also went to a supermarket and managed to not spend a fortune! Pretty much whenever we go, we’ve still needed to buy a lot of basic stuff for our apartment. Today it was just toilet paper and some snacks so it was about $5 :D
• On our way home from the store, we had to light our own path, even though we were on the sidewalk of the main road…there are hardly any streetlights here! Since the sidewalks aren’t very smooth, it’s a tricky walk. But at least there weren’t scooters or cars, like on the other pedestrian path that we take to Shine City!
• This weekend has been really restful and it was just what I needed after last week. There were crying children every day (sometimes 8 or more at a time) and there was a lot of learning to do. I am still trying to get a hang of the schedule and of what’s expected of me. I had a breakdown on Tuesday; in fact, both me and Erica cried in the cafeteria at lunch time. It’s been hard to feel like a good teacher when the kids are wailing, they don’t want me to comfort them (because you don’t speak Chinese), I can’t communicate as well as I want to with the Chinese teachers or the parents. I also have been having a constant stream in my head of seeing something happening in the school, evaluating it against licensing rules in Michigan (that have been drilled into my head for the last several years), remembering that I don’t have to follow those rules, and wondering if I should suggest following those rules here. The school wants to be play-based but there hasn’t been any training given to the teachers about what that means, so they either don’t know what to do or don’t want to change. There are a lot of things we wouldn’t expect 3-year-olds to do at Towsley that they have to do here (move between spaces as a large group, walk in a line, sit in circle time) or that we would allow them to do at Towsley that they can’t do here (run on the playground, climb up the slides, have more than 4 children in an area of the room at a time). Over the next few months, I think I’ll be constantly deciding what to fight and what to let go. Whew. But one thing I have decided to do (besides continuing play-based activities even when others aren’t) is to keep weekends for myself. I will need to do extra work and have meetings and such after school hours during the week but I’m try my best not to do schoolwork on the weekends. You all can hold me to it!