goodbye, peter.

there's a boy named Peter in one of my classes... he a real shy boy that always sits (and sometimes cuddles hehe- which is totally acceptable for guy friends in china) in the back of class with his best friend Kid. Peter is a great singer and is really good at drawing... but his English is not very good- poor guy probably didn't even want to be an English major but was forced to by the school or his parents :(

anyways last friday during class i noticed Peter wasn't there so i asked kid, "where's peter??" kid said that peter went home to recruit (our school is sometimes more like a business and they make the students go home to recruit more students to go to the school) and won't be back for about a month! my heart sank and i looked at the board and realized that the date was may 14th- exactly one more month until i leave for america!! i started to get teary eyed just thinking that i never got to say goodbye to peter and probably won't ever see him again (i hope i can come back to visit in the future too and that one day i'll see him at home with the Father too with all my other students!)... then it just went downhill from there.

clearly there were tears in my eyes which turned.. into more tears... DURING class! talk about a professional college teacher... good job jodi! it's going to be really interesting to see what happens NEXT month when i actually have to say goodbye to all of my dear dear students... sigh- i'm gonna need a LOT of thoughts lifted up- i've become a really emotional person in china. it happens. :) some people are "pre-grievers" other's are "post-grievers"... but i've learned that i'm a "perpetual griever". i hope to have more perpetual joy too... even through the grieving!

one goodbye down, 150+ more to go... oh dear!

one of my first pictures of peter, with kid- naturally :)


later that day some i bought myself my first flowers in china and passed some out to the mothers in the back gate... flowers are so refreshing because there's not many in china!

dancing is therapeutic

last saturday we had our 2nd annual dance party for our students! :) at first... i was pretty sure that no one would come because it the rain was so terrible, it was flooding a little , and students have to travel 25 minutes on the bus to get to the old campus- one boy student sent me a text that said this:

"miss jodi- it rains cats and dogs outside now. it will make me wet through my body and my shoes. i'm sorry i can't attend it"

a lot of students said the would come but maybe only 1/5 of them actually showed up but at the same time, it was also just the right amount of people to fit on the stage/dance floor... if we had anymore students it would have been wayyy more chaotic and not enough room! so the Father knew what he was doing when he sent the rain... only the dedicated and willing students came- and they should get extra credit points :) hehehe...

dancing is not a common skill, art, or activity for most chinese people. about 94% of the students that came NEVER danced before in any shape or form! but the good thing is that chinese students are GREAT mimickers! :) free style dance doesn't work very well in china unless you show them what to do- even then... their rhythm is a little off but at least they're trying to dance and having fun!

eh. i could type all about it but it wouldn't be the same... here's a few pictures and video of what it was like :)

the smaller beginning group- teaching them the basics :)


bethany leading a dancing train line thing haha... they liked it :)


i realize this picture looks like a lot of people, but maybe it was 23% of the students that were suppose to come :) but it was still a good amount. hehe


doin the macarena! (chinese students are excellent at making lines haha)


my dedicated students that came whether rain or shine! :)