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Aug. 30th, 2006 08:40 pmMy upstairs neighbor plays the piano. It's nice to hear her/him practicing every day. The other day she was trying to play "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", but it was pretty clear from her rhythms that she had never heard it before. I've also heard her play "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands." The kids love it too.
A much better day for homeschool today. I've decided just to relax about the whole thing. Also, I've found an awesome website, enchantedlearning.com. It has tons of print outs that we can use. In order to get Zack interested in learning more, I've decided to teach him through dinosaurs. He loves dinosaurs, so I will use them to teach him what the parts of speech are, etc. It will work.
I took the kids by myself to Carrafour. It went just fine, no major mishaps. I did have a little bit of an adventure when I tried to withdraw money from the ATM machine across the street. I'd never been to that one before so I didn't know how it worked. I know that sounds so silly, but it is behind some glass doors inside a little room off to the side of the bank. I walked up to the doors, expecting them to open automatically. They didn't. I tried to open them manually and a guard fussed at me. Ok....what now? I went around the corner into the bank and tried to ask a teller for help. I told her I needed to withdraw money from the ATM and I showed her my card to try and get the message across. Several people spoke to me in Chinese, taking turns trying to make me understand. Finally one person said in English "What is the problem?" In other words, what's keeping you from withdrawing the money, stupid-head? No, no, they were very polite. I said "I can't get the doors open!" and she took me around and showed me what to do. You have to swipe your ATM card to get the doors open. Why didn't the guard point that out to me, I wonder? Something new everyday!
We had pancakes and bacon for dinner. Turns out the cook has been let go as of tonight. That's ok with me. Most of the faculty have moved out to campus and are living in a hotel until the housing is finished. Pretty much only Mariannette's family, Andy and our family are the only ones left living here. During the day only the boys and I are here for lunch. I go for what she has cooked only out of a sense of obligation. The boys won't eat it and to be quite honest it is getting very repetitious. Scrambled eggs and tomatoes, stir-fried cucumber and duck in soy sauce. With rice, or course. Yummy, but not very filling. I'm usually starving again in a couple hours :) My point is, I'm glad she's gone because now I won't feel like I have to eat lunch there everyday. We can just have pb&j here at home.
Have I mentioned how much I love Chen? Now that everyone has moved to campus, she spends more time cleaning my house! She was already washing and folding all the laundry, washing the breakfast dishes, sweeping and mopping the floors on a daily basis. Now she has started cleaning the bathroom and dusting. It makes my life worlds easier, especially with the kids home all day. I wish I could tell her how much I appreciate her. I tell her thank you everyday, but I don't feel that expresses my deep-felt appreciation for her work. I'm talking deep deep appreciation. She's awesome.
A much better day for homeschool today. I've decided just to relax about the whole thing. Also, I've found an awesome website, enchantedlearning.com. It has tons of print outs that we can use. In order to get Zack interested in learning more, I've decided to teach him through dinosaurs. He loves dinosaurs, so I will use them to teach him what the parts of speech are, etc. It will work.
I took the kids by myself to Carrafour. It went just fine, no major mishaps. I did have a little bit of an adventure when I tried to withdraw money from the ATM machine across the street. I'd never been to that one before so I didn't know how it worked. I know that sounds so silly, but it is behind some glass doors inside a little room off to the side of the bank. I walked up to the doors, expecting them to open automatically. They didn't. I tried to open them manually and a guard fussed at me. Ok....what now? I went around the corner into the bank and tried to ask a teller for help. I told her I needed to withdraw money from the ATM and I showed her my card to try and get the message across. Several people spoke to me in Chinese, taking turns trying to make me understand. Finally one person said in English "What is the problem?" In other words, what's keeping you from withdrawing the money, stupid-head? No, no, they were very polite. I said "I can't get the doors open!" and she took me around and showed me what to do. You have to swipe your ATM card to get the doors open. Why didn't the guard point that out to me, I wonder? Something new everyday!
We had pancakes and bacon for dinner. Turns out the cook has been let go as of tonight. That's ok with me. Most of the faculty have moved out to campus and are living in a hotel until the housing is finished. Pretty much only Mariannette's family, Andy and our family are the only ones left living here. During the day only the boys and I are here for lunch. I go for what she has cooked only out of a sense of obligation. The boys won't eat it and to be quite honest it is getting very repetitious. Scrambled eggs and tomatoes, stir-fried cucumber and duck in soy sauce. With rice, or course. Yummy, but not very filling. I'm usually starving again in a couple hours :) My point is, I'm glad she's gone because now I won't feel like I have to eat lunch there everyday. We can just have pb&j here at home.
Have I mentioned how much I love Chen? Now that everyone has moved to campus, she spends more time cleaning my house! She was already washing and folding all the laundry, washing the breakfast dishes, sweeping and mopping the floors on a daily basis. Now she has started cleaning the bathroom and dusting. It makes my life worlds easier, especially with the kids home all day. I wish I could tell her how much I appreciate her. I tell her thank you everyday, but I don't feel that expresses my deep-felt appreciation for her work. I'm talking deep deep appreciation. She's awesome.