On Saturday, Kelsey knocked on my bedroom door at 6:15am and we started to get ready for our morning hike. We peeked out the window to look down at the front of the apartment and sure enough, 8 students were waiting for us wearing casual clothes and looking like it was 3pm in the afternoon (not 6 o’clock in the morning). Bamboo, Gaily, Anastasia, Kelly, Doris, Diana, Shining, and Bob had all come out for the trek; Christian also joined.

At one point during the hike, Bamboo asked me about the pronunciation of “worry about” and “encouragement.” Before long I was speaking in a British accent to emphasize that Americans make the “d” sound for “t” a lot of the time. water. little. butter. I’ll have to keep that accent trick in mind when I’m teaching my class because Bamboo and Anastasia thought I was hilarious.

As we took the first steps of the hike, Bamboo told us that the staircase we were climbing has 633 stairs. “Oh great!” I said, but I think Christian and Kelsey were the only two that caught my sarcasm. On the way up the mountain, we saw a lot of elderly people doing tai chi and exercising. We also saw people carrying baskets with water jugs. The local people fill their water bottles in the spring for drinking water.

While I was initially hesitant to go on the hike, I’m glad that I did. It was a great chance to spend time with the students. I think it also gave me an opportunity to get to know them better and feel comfortable around them. It might have been Fiona that said some of the most touching moments will happen outside of the classroom and I’m doing my best to explore that piece of advice.

Well, it’s already Sunday night and I’ve got a lesson to teach tomorrow. Good-bye for now!
Alyssa