Monday, June 18

Today was a first:  I took the school van to school without Julia.  Weird!  She was invited to Maci’s for a play date, and Danielle, the mother, came in a taxi at 7:05 am to fetch her, before I left for school.  What a nice thing!  So, Julia spent a whole, and undocumented, day away from me in China! 

Sounds like they had a really good time:  played some games, painted half of Julia’s fingernails, took a picnic to the beach and dug a hole deep enough for both of them to sit in together, scootered and biked, and then played at the playground with me when I arrived at about 4:30 pm. 

Monkey girls!

Monkey bars are Julia's very favorite thing at a playground

Climbing up and twirling 'round!

They made use of every piece of equipment

A teeter-totter of sorts - and some onlookers!

Hanging from the monkey bars!

We were invited to stay for dinner, to boot.  This is the family which has come from Utah, the father to teach English at one of the universities, and the mother got a job teaching kindergarten at QAIS.  They have 4 kids, ages 17-7, so their adventure dwarfs ours!  They are here for at least a year.  It was a nice change up for Julia to have this day outside of the school routine, the only routine she has known in China, actually!  And, in fact, she’s been invited by the other western girl in the second grade to play tomorrow (Jessica, who is leaving for Australian grandmother’s on Saturday).    So the two play date possibilities have offered just what I hoped for—friends and outside activities.

Don’t you love these Chinese school girls, reading at the playground?  They are wearing their school uniforms.  If school uniforms could be cute like this, more people might agree to them!

Adorable!

There are only 9 days of teaching left!  Everyone felt a bit Mondayish today.  And yet, despite that, I was able to look around and feel satisfaction at what is going on in the room.  Mia made a batch of playdough to start about 6 kids on a peaceful and craft focused note—not particularly Montessori, but a gentle and deeply satisfying way for these kids to get the day going.  Other children worked on more traditional Montessori works, in ones and twos.  I talked about ‘orange’ at the morning circle time, and then set up a paint station with the color orange, which 6 children took advantage of.  Everyone traced the letters for orange (they really love to do this task, day after day), and several children worked with pattern blocks.  I taught them two new songs, with fingerplay motions—music has been a successful tool to use with this group.  At some point later in the morning, I heard Jim singing softly, “the more we get together…”—I love that!  So, I felt they were doing meaningful things around the room, regardless of the Montessori slant, and I am satisfied with that because they are ‘working’ not simply playing, and they are expanding their skills and knowledge in meaningful ways. 

Sabrina turned my day around by giving me a 10 minute back massage—what a gift!  The humidity really hit my sinuses today—a full summer of this weather might take me down a notch or two! 

Today is our wedding anniversary—where have the years flown?  Maggie talked about some Chinese wedding customs.  The Chinese have regular vacations in May and October, as well as a Christmas vacation time.  So most weddings happen in May or October (although her anniversary was June 17, as was Sabrina’s).  It is typical in China for the male’s family to purchase an apartment for their son, often long before there is a bride in the picture; the purchase is supposed to enhance the male’s desirability!  Maggie said she and her husband have already bought (with a mortgage) Alex’s apartment—he is 6 ½ years old!  Sabrina asked me if women ‘make requests’ of prospective bridegrooms.  It seems that there are negotiations in most proposals, not just for the well-to-do.  One can ask for an apartment or a car or something less tangible, like guarantees against infidelity.  Women don’t change their names.  Divorce is on an increase in China—essentially, permitted now where it wasn’t in the past.  Chinese are tending to marry in their mid-to-late twenties.  Mothers have a very traditional attitude toward marriage, calling up unmarried daughters at the age of 24 and begging them to marry!  And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, marriage doesn’t appear to have religious trappings connected to it in most instances.  It is interesting that brides tend to wear Western-looking wedding gowns, and that they wear these gowns even though there isn’t a church ceremony. 

Elinor is off to Camp Roger today—we had a nice skype with her and Dad, a send-off for this last-year-in-camp experience!  Elinor loves Camp Roger with all her heart.  While she is there, we will be at another remove, as she cannot communicate with us, although we can send her emails.  I hope there are lots of photos of her at the website, because it will help us to feel more in touch.  Feel free to send her emails from the Camp Roger website, www.camproger.org —Silver Birch is her cabin.   Be sure to tell her that mama and Julia love her!