Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Shane English School Wuhan: The Kids

It was my last day of work today! Taught my final class and now it's all over.

This is just a little post about my kids :-) and some photos we took in class.

I know you're not supposed to have a favourite...  but I do. Little Candy. She's the cutest little 5 year old ever, and she's also the sweetest little thing. Just LOVE her.

Candy - she likes to run across the room and hug me during class. LOL
Raisin (4) and Sarah (5) - Definitely two of my faves.  Sarah is our landlord's daughter and spends a lot of time in Singapore, so she is basically a native English speaker.

Crystal (5) and Sweety (5). Crystal is the class giggler and finds EVERYTHING hysterical. Sweety is definitely the shyest student of them all and barely speaks... but she has improved and can now say hello and her name if you ask her quietly.

Jojo and Yoyo. (Yoyo's name is actually Crystal, but she insists on being called Yoyo (she's 4). She's a cutie.

Jason (3) and Lily (3) - Jason just comes to class to play with the ball. Lily is like a sponge and repeats everything you say. I've taught her to say "My name is Lily. I'm cute" LOL. It's really funny.

Lily and Alice (3)

The CP class. They are the teeny babies (Jason, Lily, Alice, Yoyo and Angel). Most of them are 3 and don't know their own names. It's one of the more difficult classes to teach because they don't understand anything. But they are very sweet little ones.

Alice (barely 3). She's the youngest of the class and has just turned 3. She insists on trying to sit on my lap whilst I'm teaching. Personally, I think she's too young to be coming to class.. but whatever.

Yoyo and Angel (3). I've only just been able to get Angel to say her name. She's also just turned 3 and very young for the class. She has no idea what's going on most of the time...but she likes colours so at least that's something.

Yoyo and Angel - Yoyo is also one of my favourites. She's a clever little thing and oh so cute.

Sarah and Jerry (5)

Candy and Carol (5) - Carol is the resident chatterbox. Her favourite colour is pink.

Linda (5) and Angel (5) Linda is the class clown and never sits still. Angel is very quiet and shy, but she's the brains of the class.

Linda in a game of Twister

Carol

Ariel (5) - The pretty one. Pity you can't see it in this photo, but she looks like a doll. She's adorable.

Angel (5)

Candy

Cherry (3) and Sunny (3) Also in one of the CP classes. Sunny is such a tomb-boy, but oh so clumsy. She trips over her own feet whilst standing still. Cherry is also one of my favourites. She started out being quite a sulky little one, but as the months have progressed she's become a little bundle of joy and now loves class.

The CK class - Angel, Ariel, (the doll), Linda and Carol

Raisin and Rainbow

Teddy (7) and Yige (6) - part of my older CL class. Teddy is the complete package. Smart, funny and active. When we play games etc, Teddy is usually the winner. Yige on the other hand... is probably the smartest of the class, if she can keep her head out of the clouds for long enough. She doesn't have a competitive bone in her body and doesn't care at all whether she wins or loses the games. Which is really frustrating because she's better than all the other kids, but doesn't care. 

Cherry and Sunny

Lily

Gogo (6) also in the CL class. He's the class giggler.

Tony (8) - he is also the boss's kid. And yes... he is also the most arrogant kid in class. But what can you do...
My Boys - Tong Tong (6), Jimmy (5), Abel (5) and Leo (5). Tong Tong is probably the WORST student EVER.  Jimmy is Mr Smart-Ass. He is also in Liesl's class, so he thinks it's hysterical to call me Teacher Liesl when all the other kids call me Justine. He's a cutie. Abel is one of the best students ever. He takes learning very seriously and tries the hardest. He'll be president one day (assuming Chinese people ever get to vote). Leo is definitely one of my most favourite students. He's Mr Personality. He just loves class and has fun no matter what he's doing. He also likes to try and tell me stories (in Chinese) and always wants me to comment on his scratches and scrapes and kiss them better. LOL.  He also runs past my classroom door sporadically throughout the day, yelling my name as he runs past. I love this class because the boys are awesome (except for Tong Tong)

Jimmy, Abel and Leo

Sweety, Crystal and Oscar (5). Oscar used to cry when we came to class because he didn't want to leave his gran. Now he's the first one to run into class and wait for me.

Crystal, Oscar and Sweety

Crystal

Little Raisin. Probably the cutest little girl EVER. She's 4 years old and the youngest in the class because her English is too good for classes of her own age group.
The school has hired a new teacher, Lucas, to take my place. He's from the States, and has previously lived in Wuhan for 4 years (he left for a year to study and came back a couple of months ago). The kids all seem to like him, so I'm sure I've left them in good hands.


Lucas in a stylish hat-scarf-glove ensemble

And that's it. It's all over.

We leave Wuhan on the 18th of Jan... and can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us!





xxx

Thursday, 3 January 2013

A (Wuhan) Christmas Story

Christmas this year was very different - to say the least.

Whilst the Chinese do acknowledge Christmas, it's not a holiday that they celebrate. Christmas day is just a normal working day for Chinese folk. We had to make special arrangements with the school to get Christmas day off.

All the stores and town is decked out with Christmas decorations, and it all looks quite festive.

Our Christmas tree 


Liesl waiting to open her presents!

Christmas morning! Don't you LOVE my Chinese PJs? LOL
Check out all our presents!
Some of the decorations around town:

View of Guanggu Shopping area 
Christmas Tree and lights at Grand Ocean




Merry Christmas Liesl!
Not sure why the house is upside down...





View of Grand Ocean and the Guanggu shopping area

All the trees in the streets surrounding are decorated with these lights. Very pretty.

Christmas tree in the Spanish Street





"Merry Christmas" (said in best French accent)

The school held a Christmas party for its students. It was their first Christmas party, and Liesl and I were asked to host the evening.

We had to put together some games the kids could play. We also arranged for our new teacher, Lucas, to dress up at Santa Claus.

Me in my Rudolph nose and horns

Dora trying to get me on stage

Me doing the welcome and intro

Some of the kids

Liesl and Dora 


In the front: Yoyo, Leo, Abel, Linda, Yige, Teddy, Angel and Sweety

Our Teacher Assistants did a little song and dance number to "Rudolph"


Me and Angel

Mike, Susan, and Gigi - and  our TAs, Yuki and Rianbow

Ivan, Angel and our new teacher, Lucas, as Santa 
Tony and Crystal

Teddy and Yige

Linda

Banny and Jerry

Lucky and Leo. 

Sweety and Ariel

Gigi and Ethan

Susan and Abel

Dora and Angel
Mike and Rainbow

Some of our games:

Leo and friends in "Guess the Candy"
Jojo, Mike and Leo
Jojo, Lucas, Essie and Mike
Lily and Dancy at Pin the Nose on the Reindeer (and yes, her name is Dancy)

Liesl in Pass the Parcel

Dora at the Pinada

"Chinese name I can't pronounce or spell", Amy, Lucas and Dancy


Snow and Peng Peng at Decorate the Christmas tree


Kids making their Christmas tree decorations

For Christmas day, we decided to invite some of our friends over for Christmas dinner. They were all super excited because none of them have ever celebrated Christmas before.

We couldn't find turkey - surprise - so we bought 2 chickens and loads of veggies.

When we got the chicken home and started to prepare it, we noticed that the head and feet were still attached!! Which means we had to get a big-ass knife and dismember the chicken before we could cook it. This was one of the most disgusting things I've ever had to do! Seriously, I'm never eating chicken again!


Me and the Chicken 

The feet...

                                                              
The deed is completed...

Chicken aside, we made some cottage pie, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli and rice. I also made a chocolate cake and some traditional eggnog.

Eggnog 
Our set up


My cake



     
Our friends came over, we exchanged Christmas gifts, had some drinks (which I had to warm up for them in the microwave because they don't believe in drinking cold drinks during winter.... yes, I had to heat up the coke!) and we danced to Gangman Style. All in all we had a good time.

Essie, Lily, Jojo, Peter and Liesl

... and me

Rainbow, Essie, Lily and Jojo


Another new teacher, Anthony, and Peter

Liesl in the kitchen

Antony and Peter

Rainbow and Lily

Jojo and Essie

Everyone enjoying their dinners


Us
Us

Jojo and Liesl's moustache

Peter and the moustache
We woke up on Boxing Day to find that it had been snowing throughout the night! A white Christmas! Yay!! So we got dressed and went for a walk to see what snow-covered Wuhan looks like.

Santa and Christmas trees in  Spanish Street

In our apartment complex




View from our balcony

View of Spanish Street from our balcony. 




 















 





Us in the snow

Liesl in Spanish Street



 

Christmas balls



View of our road


Having coffee and a bun at Pappa Rotti

Really tired and cold. 





The Don Quixote statue in Spanish Street


Construction of the new German Street - behind Spanish Street



Merry Christmas ya'll.

Hope you had a wonderful day!



xxx