Finally we are writing on here, I know thats what you are thinking. Well we have been a little busy, Running around day after day wearing 3 layers of clothing and buying whatever we can to stay warm. My new favorite drink........ HOt water.. mmmmm.
Actually its really not that bad. Things could be worse right? The only time that its bad is when you have to take a shower. Actually its really only bad when you have to take off your clothes or some how touch the floor with your bearfeet. Otherwise its not so bad. I have bought huge moonboot slippers, and wear about 4 pairs of socks at a time.
Heres what we've been up to.

First, After our little thanksgiving party we traveled to HuiHua. A city on the western border of our province. There is another teacher from WorldTeach that is there and she invited everyone for thanksgiving. Her name is Rachel and she had 2 extra apartments free!! wow was it nice. Nice city, amazing school!! I guess the school is owned by the Railway company. I found out that most every city has a railway company school, and there always the richest schools.
Only about 10 people were at thanksgiving so it made for a nice quiet foreigner type thanksgiving. One friend of ours Dan, had his girlfriend send him stovetop stuffing mix and apple crisp in a box. Wow! it was just like at home!! we even found a toaster oven under the sink of one apartment, Rachel was so happy!!
We just added a ton of carrots and celery to the stove top and it went a long way! We also bought 3 ducks , made mashedpotatos and had deviled eggs again. We also made egg salad just because we could!
It was so nice to hang out with other foreigners and just find out new ideas for teaching. Sometimes you get alittle down and feel like you just have nothing new to pull out of your hat. But with the help of the other foreign teachers we got some new ideas for the spring.
We also met another foreign teacher living in our friends town. He has been here for only two months. but he was probubly the craziest person I have ever met.
Which leads me to believe there are two kinds of people that leave america to do this sort of volunteer thing. One, people that want to learn about the world and are sane. and Two. Guys like this, that were basically treated really bad in high school and want to feel popular so they go to another country, where you are stared at and made to feel like a movie star, always being on display. This guy was crazy. Always saying the crudest thing at the table and always trying to get a reaction out of you. Made for hmmm a very well...... american type christmas. This guy made us nickname everyone at the thanksgiving table. He was "the crazy Uncle". Our friend that is also crazy and seemed to be friend him was "the crazy uncles son". Then Joe and I were "Mama and papa Gro". (this is now our nickname for the worldteach group, since we are the only married couple) . Mary claire was "the aunt thats always telling everyone to be nice". Dan was "the ADD neighbor kid that is coming over for more food, after his own families thanksgiving", (theres always one of those), Then the rest were different family members and we even had the shy girlfriend that doesnt say much but brings mashedpotatos!
It was a great weekend.

Other news:

I ( emily) have been given a teaching award. Well actually I haven't received it yet, but I guess I am getting it soon. My liason tells me last week that I will receive an award. He actually told me that he got 1 award and I need to decide who will get it, Joe or me. Then he says well since joe is in class right now, you will receive it, because we need to take the photos now. I am then rushed off to a photo booth and told I need to fill out the application. I ask, well why do I need an application if I have already won? He tells me, its because everyone still needs to apply, I will just be the winner. Hmmmm This is were you must relize Living in china is like being inone of the godfather movies. Everything is done over a nice meal. I found out that my liason had dinner with the judges and was able to somehow get this award for one teacher at our school. See its all about publicity, and if our school has the award winning teacher, more parents will send there kids here. I am now recieving an award that is sort of fake. Not only because of the whole application process, but I guess he also said that I have been here for two years and that I have an english degree. Sweeeeet!!!! So I'll let you know what it entails, maybe i'll get a little trophy or something, or maybe I will just be able to put "fake award" on my resume. hmmm which is better?

A look into our classroom:

Heres what we have been teaching. Last week we had taught the kids about thanksgiving. We talked about the pilgrims and how when they got to america they had to name the settlement "Plymouth". We then had the students come up with there own countries. In groups or individually, Give the country a name, have laws, draw a flag , and so on.

heres some of the funny ones.

Female Country: You must be female to live there, You cant ever get married, if you want to you have to leave the country

Country of Class 251: (This one boy did this on his own) He said he was the king and all the students must obey him, also he said no gay marraige, hmmm This came outta left field?????????

Death Country: You can shoot whoever you want and kill all the time. I said, well who would be alive in the end?? they said, ummmm and sat back down.

The best
Frog Country: Some girls came up with this one, The 4 boys they didnt like in the class were the kings, frog kings and the laws were that they must hop around 6 times a day. Then the second law was that if they saw a pretty girl they had to keep the saliva inside there mouths. (I love when they get the dictionary out and find words, like saliva!!)

Also in our town there is an accent, for some reason people put an "ahh" sound after everything they say, like when they say thank you they say "xie xie ahh".
Some of my students started doing it in class, but with english words. They asked me " can we watch a movie ahh?" SO I made fun of them and sayed "Noahh"
Now its a running joke that when teacher emily comes in talk to her in englishhua, just like rongjiawanhua.

last but not least this week we are teaching about technology. The activity is that the kids must think of new ways to use ordinary objects. For example a toothpick could be a hairpin, or a bag could be a hat.
The three items are a toothpick, a plastic bag, and a sock.

Heres the best ideas:

toothpick:
minnie chopsticks
knitting needles

sock:
hold fish after you catch them
a wallet
a hat
for xmas presents(like a stocking)

Plastic bag:
cat's rain coat
hat
umbrella
parachute
rain boots
best of all : a terrorist hat,????