Wednesday, June 13

On this last day of driving in the school van, Alex provided a fry stick to share with Julia; don’t they look like happy chums?

The performances and graduation ceremonies were a smash success today.  3 hours is a bit long! But as is typical, parents were happy to sit for the long time in order to see their darling children doing something amazing.  While amazing is overstating it, there were some nice bits and certainly plenty of opportunities for children to have fun while on stage.

Julia’s class did “We’re going on a Bear Hunt” with choreography that was sweetly clever.  I have taken many photos, to capture for Julia the rhythm and repetition of it. [photo number 34 is Julia’s motion that she repeated regularly through the play, saying “oh no”]  At the moment, it is hard to imagine she’ll ever forget those words, as they recited them over and over.  The kind of thing you learn at age 7 that you can still wholly recite 40 years later!  They practiced Supercalifragilisticexpialidous, which is exactly that kind of song—hear a snippet, and the whole song springs into your head! 

The very beginning of the song

More performers joining in!

It was quite the production!

"Oh, no!"

Julia also participated in the novice violin class, which performed.  She and I know that she is faking it at the music stand!  But, who could tell under the circumstances?

The whole violin class

Julia and Alex!

And finally, receiving her certificate from Ms. Alice; I like these photos of the class as it slowly gathers with its certificates.  She is just as tall as Alex, who is more than a year younger! And she will never be as tall as Sunny, who is Japanese and Chinese—what a pretty face.  They turned out to be a pretty good group in these last 6 weeks. 

Julia receiving her certificate from Ms. Alice

The first half of the class, awaiting others

Of course certificates had to be compared!

See them all peering to watch the rest of their class assemble?

Ms. Alice's Second Grade, showing off their certificates!

Also, a few photos of my class (or what part of it which has returned from sick leave!) practicing our songs in the classroom; they are so solemn in their uniforms!  We sang “Open Shut me” which is short but full of action that they love!  And we sang “If You’re Happy and You know it, clap your hands” which was so successful because their faces were pure glee as they clapped and stamped and shouted hurray as loudly as possible!  A sure winner with parents.  The principal reported many compliments; and it wasn’t missed on parents that they sat politely for a good part of 2 ½ hours without disturbing the performances.  When you think that they couldn’t follow the English of most of what was presented, really, it was quite notable!  So, as everyone else packs up and concludes the year, I think the assessment would be that paying to bring a teacher from America was worth the money for the school. 

The 3s and 4s, rehearsing before the performance - so serious and formal in their uniforms!

And the class with Mia and Sabrina

We had plans to go to the beach with Sunny and her cousing Ryochi, who was in the 2^nd grade class also.  As the morning event was breaking up, Sunny’s mother, WeiWei mentioned that mothers were getting together for lunch; we agreed to do that first.  The group was international, with a heavy sprinkling of Japanese mothers.  We went to The Diner, where Julia and I have been twice for western food; hamburgers were the plan today.  We slowly arrived there—a group of 10 families, with 17 children!  The kids were wild, running all around the courtyard outside the restaurant, a good place for all that activity.  But perhaps a restaurant was not!  Finally, a solution was devised to feed us all, and we were able to sit the kids at a huge table with platters of burgers and fries, while the mothers sat separately.  One mother ordered a ‘black beer’ from the home brewery;  I may have to go back to try that! 

A long table-full of burger-eating children!

I sat next to Shoko, the mother of Saskia, with whom Julia had a play date two weeks ago.  She ordered a platter that came with a cube of sticky rice on top of which was a lightly fried egg; it looked delicious together!  It was funny to be part of a mothers’ group—just like a middle class group of mothers anywhere! Talking about kids, trips and vacations, shopping, and the school.  Clearly this was what WeiWei didn’t want to miss! But it did mean that we missed the beach.  The weather turned, it got later, the kids were somewhat dispersed in their energy, and so, no beach.

We—the kids and I, while WeiWei stayed with a sleeping 3 year old and a few remaining mothers at the restaurant -- decided to walk up to the amusement park area for a quick trip to the bouncy house.  Imagine our surprise when we got there to find the entire group of rides packed up and gone.  Imagine if that had happened on June 7, and we had arrived for the birthday party to find it all gone!  It was such a disappointment, and inexplicable—with summer beginning, wouldn’t these rides get increasing use?  And they were so cheap for the pleasure they gave; I had every intention of taking Julia to the bouncy house 3 or 4 times in the next two weeks!  Perhaps something will replace them.

The adventuring group

So we hired a ‘car’ and the 4 kids had a ball driving it around for half an hour.  Actually, it took a fair amount of effort; good thing we had Ryochi to provide some real muscle power! Julia’s legs were essentially too short to help pedal.  I think they had a good time, despite the disappointments of bouncing and beach.

Such fun!

Julia, trying so hard to reach the pedals!

A happy rider

On the walk back, we went through Kite Flying Park, where this marvelous 5-kite kite was being flown.  I love this park!  Shoko told me that Qingdao is the number one tourist site in China for natives; people from all over China come here for vacation.  We may be getting out just in time! Apparently it is impossible to get a taxi in July and August!

The fabulous kite!

I had the weird thought today that I couldn’t place in a specific moment in time something that happened here in China; which made me realize that we have had enough experiences that they are ‘blurring’ in terms of time and order.  China is our default mode at the moment; how odd is that?!

It is hard to know exactly what the next two weeks will bring; so many people will be gone, and Julia will have to come to school with me every day.  Will the adventure end on a bit of a down note, with Julia restless and under-engaged with other people?  The cultural customs of things like play dates are still not quite clear to me, so I don’t know whether we will be able bridge that sufficiently to give Julia something fun to do while I am teaching.  There are plans for Chinese lessons, which sounds exactly what a mother would love, but maybe not an 8 year old!