Song Du Hotel Kaifeng

... I&#8217;m pretty sure. Sounds gross, but she loves animals.<br><br>She does paint h** toenails though. And she had long hair, dresses, and heels &#8212; though not aft** Tom and I had double-digit birthdays. But when we w**e little, and left at home, we would always raid our parents&#8217; room and play dress up. (Probably our parents could tell, but I&#8217;m pretty sure we w**e careful to put all the shoes back exactly as they&#8217;d been when we took them out.) I rememb** a ...

Monday: The fitful sleeping, tossing and sweating on my couch, and forgetting if it was day or night brought me back to my terrible two-week bout of the flu in eighth grade when I famously went from 128 pounds to 96 pounds, and at the height I am now. <br><br>I didn't lose weight this time, but I lost two days of, well, living. An old neighbor passing me in our church hallway once said--just after blowing his nose--"You know, when you're ...

... a while. At the other end of the room, Mike picked up a piece of chalk to write a few words on the board. As soon as the chalk touched the board, the surface cracked, splintered, and crashed to the floor. We stood in a shocked silence and walked out of the room. <br><br>A few looks into other rooms ...

... 8220;Well&#82 12;I just gave up my free time tomorrow,&#8221; I said to Mike. [I usually refer to this Mike as 'Scottish Mike&#8217; in conversation to avoid confusion with Mike Hansen, a teacher here from last year. Scottish Mike is new to Kaifeng this year, but he&#8217;s been teaching English for two years&#8212;in China and Taiwan.]<br>&#8220;How&#8217;s that then?&#8221; Mike asked.<br>&#8220;One of my students asked me to go dancing tomorrow. I couldn&#8217;t say no ...

... Lauren as a middle schooler. In the leaves with her older brother. At school accepting the French Award, a few years in a row. I took a program, as well as a small card with a photo of Lauren in her Boston Red Sox hat. The poem underneath said I should not cry; she was in a happy, safe place. <br><br>I took my seat. The heads around me were gray and white. The funeral at our high school had been post-poned, so I'd come to the hometown one. There were a few other ...

... power/ability"), Writing, and "Chinese Teaching." The listening book is useless without sitting in the class and hearing the teacher read-the activities revolve around "pick another way to say what you just heard." Writing is definitely my weakest point as I can type and text in Chinese, but writing them I am very far behind. I tried to practice last year, but it was sporadic and I had no motivation to learn writing, only speaking. That will be a challenge. Yes. My reading book ...

... essay I read felt like a personal insult. "How stupid do you think I am?", I wanted to ask them. In a country where almost every English sign has a blatantly hilarious translation (ex. Actual sign in Nanjing: "Mr's hotdog"), I know that none of my students can produce an essay free of one, single grammatical error or misspelling. (Heck, I can not even do that.) One of my students named ...

... I also teach Conversational English to Freshmen, or "First Years". For the most part, they are young, bubbly, and eager to learn. They smile and laugh at all my jokes (even the "rare" unfunny ones!). Unfortunately, their knowledge of the language is FAR behind the Juniors. I often have to say in Chinese, "Ting Bu Dong?" and in English, "Do you understand?" They almost always answer in a chorus of "YES!" But, when I walk to the back of the ...

... pagoda and climbed up for the stairs. The stairs were very steep and the light was not bright enough. It was very difficult for us to climb. I grabbed the wall so tightly and looked very carefully. When I arrived at the flat floor, I felt excited. I finished the mission and made the great success. We took some photos and stayed there for 15minutes. When I went down, I felt a bit frightened because it was very ...

... N Noodles Adventure. Between Ximen Dajie and the Kaifeng Riverside Scenic Area I found what I expected. The old had been mostly demolished and the new was just beginning to be erected. I was met by bare earth and rubble with only a few old houses clutching at straws. I then made my way to the West Gate where for 10 Yuan I spent an hour walking on the wall and visiting the small ...