First Day In Primary School

Well, it's been a long time since I was with the little ones ... like 1st grade. I student-taught in 4th grade and really liked the middle school here in China so it was totally new to walk into a classroom with 40 yelling, excited 1st graders. They were all hot and sweaty from running around during their 10 minute break and they all wanted to give me a hug. During the class they were SOO noisy but apparently this class is always like this. I had a better time in the 3rd grade class I taught and really enjoyed teaching them about different types of food.
Last night a husband and wife came over to our house to have dinner. I heard someone come in (I was in the computer room planning a lesson) and the daughter came and brought me to the guests. They spoke English! I was so happy. Apparently, they moved to the US (Penn.) in 1987 and come back to visit Chengdu once a year. They were very sweet and it was nice to have dinner with my host family and have someone to translate. The visiting couple told me my host father is very smart and he and my host mother own and run their own business. Actually, the mother does most of the business work and they both share household responsibilities (the dad and mom are both WONDERFUL cooks). My host mother loves tea and only buys the finest (think $100-$200 for different types of tea). She is so cute and young enough to be my older sister. My host father was in the Chinese army and when he was 40 was in a car accident that caused him to break both his arms (but he's fine now). I love learning about them. BTW, chicken feet were on the menu last night. I picked one clean but that was it ;)
Tonight, Joni's family is taking me downtown to look for a hotel for Shawn and I to stay in. They are going to take us to eat Japanese food so I'm looking forward to that. I'm trying to set up things for Shawn and I to do while he's in Chengdu. So far, I have us going to climb a mountain on Saturday, Friday we'll see the school, Sunday night is Hot Pot :), Monday is Panda's and Tuesday will probably be touring around downtown but I'm sure I'll come up with more. I'm really enjoying my time here but I am counting down the days till Shawn comes (9)!