Rozel09’s Blog

Loving the days when I can't stop smiling!

Sometimes bubbles of joy and excitement just cannot be contained and I begin to smile, or jump up and down, or laugh – or all 3 simultaneously! I get moments like this often here, like just now, walking back from the school canteen. I hear the cry of ‘Rozel!’ followed by a small Chinese girl running towards me, arms outstretched for a hug. Then after talking to her, I continue walking to have one of my grade 3 boys literally hurtle towards me, hug me, take my hand and then spin around with the biggest smile on his cheeky face! Wow, I’m going to miss this place. Days like today, when the sun makes everything just glow. It’s stunningly beautiful, especially walking back down from Grade 6 which is at the highest point of the school, up a hill. This afternoon I just had to stop to take in my surroundings, bright blue sky with the dark purple mountains outlined against it. Birds singing, children laughing and greeting me with hellos. Walking beneath the shade of my umbrella, (yes, I succumbed and joined the Chinese in this habit!) things just couldn’t get much better.

Grade 6 were awesome today. I did a review lesson as testing begins soon. They are the brightest class and so it’s easy to have a lot of fun with them as they understand a lot and get my sense of humour! After playing the memory game as a warm-up (they had to remember a series of pics that flashed up on screen) we then played the basketball quiz game. I’d devised a number of questions covering the topics we had covered. Each time a student got an answer right, they got as chance to get more points by trying to get the ball into the goal. It was a hit! As they are a clever lot, I only said each question once, unless no one got it, so they really had to use their listening skills.

This evening I am sitting in my office, just doing some planning before my one-to-one lesson with Jenny. She’ll be in Beijing next week for part two of the competition! She is so excited, and much braver than I am – you wouldn’t catch me speaking on stage in front of hundreds of people in my OWN language, let alone another one!!! Better get on with things. Catch ya later! x