I've been tagged!

Apparently I got "tagged"... a long time ago... ops ;-) Just for fun, and because I haven't fallen asleep yet; I rarely do these, but hey, why not!

8 Shows I'm Watching this Spring

1. The Mentalist
2. Bones
3. Lie to Me
4. Gossip Girl
5. One Tree Hill
6. occasionally catch an update on American Idol
7. Project Runway 
8. um... ??

8 Things That Happened to me Today

1. heard an amazing talk at fellowship
2. went grocery shopping with a fabulous friend
3. ate too many chocolate chip cookies
4. had good friends over for dinner
5. looked at airline tickets online
6. limped because of a fun night last night which involved running around the city!
7. posted pictures online (karenanderson.shutterfly.com)
8. enjoyed time with roommates doing nothing/chit-chatting

8 Things I Look Forward To:

1. SUMMER!
2. Family visiting!
3. Friends visiting!
4. Learning more Chinese
5. watching my students become 3 graders!
6. trip to India
7. trying new things & learning more... in the classroom, in the city, in the world, personal life, spiritual life, relationships, etc
8. laughing at every moment... 

8 Things I Wish For/Goals: 

1. Becoming a better friend/daughter/teacher/sister/person/etc.
2. Traveling at every opportunity
3. An amazing summer of memories and achievements 
4. Have more people over at any moment's notice
5. Get a masters and maybe/possibly a PhD
6. Learn something new everyday... which isn't that hard living in another county, new words/vocab is always a big achievement!
7. Continually be flexible and cheerful about it...
8. Recognize miracles everyday...

Website has moved, just by the way... in case I forgot to pass the word: karenanderson.shutterfly.com That way I can post pictures and journals and other crazy stuff all in one place!! *mom, this post doesn't need to be emailed out ;-) THANKS!

thanks friends... have an amazing day!!

Thailand Adventures

And now for a long, quasi-narrative of the vaca C08:::

We left QD in the evening and went to the airport to check in and hang out... good times. Our connecting flight was in Shenzhen. When we got there we had to switch over from domestic to international terminal. It's not the best marked airport I've ever seen, but it works. And of course not speaking Chinese kind of made a difference. To get to the international terminal we had to go outside down a hundred yards and into a rinky-dink check in counter: they hand wrote our boarding passes. Hm. Went through security and then waited... Now, our tickets were cheap, which was nice, but there was a reason it is cheap, and why they ever decided to do this in the Asian culture I'll never understand; but it's first come first serve: no seat assignments. Yeah. We stood there while people pushed and shoved to get onto the bus to take us to our plane and then push and shove off the bus onto the plane to get a reasonable seat. Woo. Part one complete!

We landed in Bangkok, Thailand, at 4am... there was an option to wait until 6.30 to catch a bus or to grab a taxi and get there faster and not have to sleep in the airport; we chose taxi. He was also falling asleep so Kayla talked to him to keep him from going all over. We made great time because he was going 140km/hr.

We woke up to construction going on next door, wandered out to the beach and laid in a chair for the day: reading, swimming, soaking up sun; it was great! For dinner we went to "walking street" which was a bit sleezy so we stayed away from those type of things. I got Starbuck's mugs (a tradition, I send Dad a mug and I buy a tumbler for me!). Called it a day and went back to our hostel.

Christmas Day! We woke up decently early, hit 7-11 for breakfast and sat outside waiting for the bus to take us to SNORKLING! :-) got our gear and headed to another bus to go to the boat! After about an hour or so I puked my guts (and breakfast) up and over the side of the boat, then got off and went snorkling (good times). We saw sea urchines, stars, plants and loverly things! Got back on the boat, took a sea-sick pill, ate the most delicious home-made (on the boat-made) Thai food and went to the next dive spot. More beauty just under the surface of the water! And then we left for land, which we made me very happy! :-) We got changed and went out for Christmas dinner at a local hole in the wall place that we randomly wandered by. I had lasagna! On the way back we stopped for a foot massage, ahhhhh! And then for ice cream which we took to the beach! What a great day!

Friday, got up... went to Continental for breakfast and encountered a completely creepy guy... seriously creepy, we ignored him and had a great breakfast! ;-) and then proceeded to go back to the beach and do nothing! That's a vacation baby! That night we found the best Mexican outside out of Mexico! We had heard about a big market so we walked... and walked... and walked, and finally found it... and it was like a Goodwill out doors. So we left.

Saturday we were going to lay on the beach and do nothing, but we found a place that does elephant rides... and so we went!! :-) So fun! The man had his five year old son with him that was giving the elephant commands and knew how to run the show all on his own! So cute! We came back and decided to go parasailing (we are on the go people once we get moving!) So we went! Down the beach, found the place and away we go! It was fun! I could see the whole city from up there! I flew over a couple of boats and hung on for dear life! I had a crash landing and the Tatum got to fly high... :-) Having done enough for the day, we went back to the beach and laid there until it was time to go for dinner and having had such an amazing experience at Mexican, we went back!! After a very filling dinner we found an internet cafe with Skype access and called home :-) so wonderful to talk to family!

Sunday we got up and headed to the bus station to go back to Bangkok to see some things before flying out! When we got to the city we wandered to a hostel Kayla found online, but being so close to New Year's Eve they had no openings and pointed us to another one. We got lost on the way and eneded up finding another, FABULOUS hostel: hqhostel.com something straight out of the Pottery Barn! Dropped stuff and went to SUBWAY! YUMMY! Then off to the night/weekend market found some super cute things and back to the hostel to crash for the night.

Monday we had breakfast at the hostel then set out to go grocery shopping! :-) I got ranch dressing, chocolate, spices, cereal and some other fun stuff! Stopped on the way back at A&W Rootbeer Stand for floats! We can't get rootbeer here very easily, so it was a great treat! I'd heard that going to a movie was quite an experience so we walked until we found a theater. There were only a couple English movies, so we decided on Australia. Before the movie there were the standard previews then there was music and everyone stood up for a montage of the King, then we sat down and watched the movie. Quite the expreience. And for the rest of the day we walked around and I read and laid down. We went out to some good Thai food and did a little shopping on the sidewalks and called it a day.

Tuesday we met up with a friend and went to the palace via boat, took lots of pictures and explored! Ended our time with A&W Rootbeer stand, again. Then headed off to the airport for some insanity reprised. Tatum's itnerary was jacked up and they said she missed her flight by a day, so she had to rebook, we had to run through security and then fight our way onto the the first come first served airline seating. Woo. Landed in Shenzhen and slept in the airport until Starbucks opened. Bought hot chocolate and mugs :-) and slept til our plane was getting ready.

All in all... and AMAZING trip :-)

Say What?!

I've been having to crack down a bit more about speaking non-English in class. It's not that we don't want them to be proud of their country and to know their language, it's more of an issue of being inclusive of everyone in the class. In my class we have 6 Koreans, 1 Japanese, & 1 American.

So on Friday they were working on a project while I was working on some things. I gave them their warning and said next time they would have to move their stick (our discipline system). I went back to working and so did they. I then heard a tussle break out and lots of non-English. So I went in and restated my rule and asked that they have some integrity (our character trait of the month ;-)) and go move their stick. With some hesitation they did it; while they were moving to do that my American turns to me with a shocked look on her face and asks "Was I speaking Korean?!"
"Molly, you don't know how to speak Korean."
"So I don't have to move my stick?!"
"No, Molly, go back to work."
"Okay!"

Yeah... welcome to my class. ;-)

Hold on to Your Hats

So, I just experienced my first 'tuk tuk' ride (google image it) and it was quite the time; I nearly lost my hat three times!

In other exciting news I went grocery shopping. I know, exciting huh? I'm sure it was strange for people to see two American gals carrying around a couple boxes of cereal each, but hey, we live in China and can't get it! So now two boxes of Frosted Flakes are coming home with me!! And Hershey's Syrup, Goldfish crackers and Ranch Dressing! It was a great and productive shopping outing!

Now for whatver adventures tonight holds! We fly out tomorrow mid-evening. But before then we are going to see the palace, do a little bit more shopping and lots more sight-seeing! WOO!

Pictures to come when I arrive back home (QD). :-)

New Traditions

So, I'm in Thailand... and it's GREAT!

Today alone I've been on an elephant ride and parasailing... and that's just what we did before lunch!

Christas was a time of new traditions (and missing the old, a bit). Normally on Christmas, we'd all get up later... when we were young it was early, when we grew up, it was later... eat breakfast, while reading in Luke, then move to the presents and fight about who would open first, "you go first" "no, you can"... and we'd all open and take pictures and lots of smiling and lots of thank yous. Then after family Christmas, we'd drive the 15 minutes to extended family Christmas, having done Anderson Christmas on Christmas Eve. Craziness of fitting that many people into one house and finally having little ones running around again. Great times of joy! After reading in Luke and prayer, we'd hand out the gifts and go at it. Then go around and show what we got ;-) Then came the FOOD... and lots of it. And then the conversation and grazing. It was a fabulous time of joy and family and love.

This year... was a bit different. We woke up about 7:45 got on swimsuits and grabbed breakfast from 7-11. We ate on the patio of our hostle while waiting on the bus to pick us up. Grabbed the bus to take us to a diving shop where we got stuff to go snorkling! and off we headed to the boat. 1.15hrs later we were at the first dive site (after puking my guts up 5 or 6 times)... and got in the beautiful, emerald water and saw what there was to see! We were there for about an hour then had lunch on the boat (which, thankfully, I was able to keep down thanks to a little sea-sickness pill); and off we went to the second site for more underwater sight-seeing! Finally after an hour or so we headed back! When we hit dry land (which I was thankful for), we showered and went out for dinner. I had lasagna, delicious (though not like my mamma's homecooking), and the other girls had fabulous dishes as well. On the way back to the hostle we decided to stop for a foot massage, ahhhhhh awesome. After that greatness we stopped for icecream and took it to the beach for the evening low tide.

What a great day it was!

Pictures will be coming SOON! :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!!!!!!

1 Whole - 1/3 = 2/3 Left and a sad teacher

I lost a third of my class... :'( literally... I did have 9 students and three of them had their last day on Friday. I cried. I knew my first year would be hard, but I didn't think it would be because my classroom door would be a revolving door. Oi. And now come January I will get two new students, bringing my back up to 8 students. But now it will be split down the middle, boys & girls. What a class dynamic that will be. Quite different from 6 girls and 3 boys.

I'm at school now (on a Saturday) so I can set up for the new unit we're starting: Penguins.

(life-size penguin painted by moi)

It'll be great! But now, I need to get stuff done... Or go home and relax properly. Oh, and moving a bookcase 1 and a 1/2 times my size... not that easy by yourself; just for future reference.

(giant bookcase moved by moi)

Okay, now to clean up the mess (or part of it anyway) that I made making the fabulous new room layout. woot.

Our Multiplication Community

New Penguin Helper Chart (from good ol' Education Station!)

New & improved & GIANT bulletin board to contain all greatness that will be included in the upcoming unit.

Not a Problem

We were driving home yesterday from school and they were painting the lines on road ... with traffic continuing around them. As if to say, No, no problem, continue your commute home. It was entertaining. In the states, even on podunk roads they shut everything down; not here. Life continues, they get their job done and everyone is happy. Talk about functional!

In 2nd grade we are doing Christmas Around the World. When I tell people that we are going to visit 9 countries, they looked shocked and ask how I could pull that off. IN THE CLASSROOM that's how! We do a different country each day. So far we have done: America, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Germany & Ukraine.

For each country the students have to record (in their "passports"): population of the country, capital city, north or south hemisphere, name for Santa and Christmas traditions. It's great! Then we do a country craft. 

For America it was stars. 

Australia: dot art of animals or city scapes. 

Brazil masks. 

Egypt camel paintings.

 

Germany angels. 

And Ukraine a "Mitten" Project!

 

They've turned out GREAT! And the kids are learning lots. They're still a little confused as to what a nativity is, but we're working to clear that up. And the best part of all we are able to talk about the Christmas story and all the joy and excitement that goes with it! The reason we celebrate to begin with, and what it all began with!

Things are going well outside of school too! Roommates are better and really enjoying good health. Kayla and I are traveling to Thailand for a week of our Christmas break for a nice relaxing time. Amy will be traveling to the States for holiday. I've been blessed with amazing roommates and friends!

Basketball is going well... practice is the mother of all learning! And practice is what we are doing... not LOTS of it, but when we do, we work them hard! ;-) And if I practice with them, I waddle like a duck for a few days afterwards (according to Amy :D)

Alright... pictures to come soon ((pictures inserted :-D))!