…yoga session. Lecture. Week of class.

This has been a summer of firsts, but as the program comes to a close, I’m beginning to taste the bittersweet of “last.”

Tuesday lecture was one of the best I’ve had here; I got to talk about my home away from home, New York City. A grid of the city, complete with approximate avenues and streets, the words SoHo, NoLita, Broadway, Chinatown, Statue of Liberty, etc. littered the blackboard by the time I had finished. For the second part of lecture, Miryam and I combined classes – we somehow went from playing the classic “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra (which only Miryam and I seemed to fully appreciate) to blaring “Starships,” “Glad You Came,” and “What Makes You Beautiful.” The students couldn’t get enough of the Jersey fist pump and other cheesy dance moves that we taught them; everything was caught on video, naturally.

Precept was also amazing; one of this week’s textbook lessons was on Flat Stanley. In class, each student made their own version of a Flat Stanley; some of my precept’s included Cuber (an alien robot), Spongebob and his trusty sidekick Patrick Star, Scarecrow from Kansas, a Chinese empress, and my very own Princeton Bob. We ended up taking our Flat _______ out for a Jishou adventure; the characters enjoyed a trip to a local bookstore, took photos on the bridge, and finished up with a visit to Drinking Express, my new favourite tea haunt (sorry, 7Cup). After class, I told the students that they could give me their Flat characters, and I would take photos of them in their new Princeton home. The students seemed overjoyed at the prospect of having their paper creations fly halfway across the world; as for me, I can’t wait to bring back such a personal piece of China to Old Nassau.

Wednesday, the Jishou Olympics were held. I don’t think I’ve ever yelled so much in my entire life. Miryam and I painted blue battle stripes across our students’ cheeks; we also wrote “Unicorns Unite” down their arms with black eyeliner. The goal was to elicit some Unicorn pride. I guess the plan worked, for our little Unicorns – drum roll, please – took home the Gold! Cheering on my students as they played ping pong, badminton, basketball, tug of war, and a host of other events against the other levels was something I will never forget. I felt like the proudest mother in the world as I yelled, “COME ON, UNICORNS! GO UNICORNS!” till I was hoarse, running back and forth like a hysterical Chihuahua. A completely different person seemed to take hold of me yesterday, and I joked with Eliot and Jessica that a crazy alter ego had been born.  

With only one week left of PiJ, things are heating up. Today’s speech contest was a great success – mad props to Cameron and Alyssa for leading Speech Club and for organizing this event. The talent show is coming up soon, too; with such a gifted bunch of students, I have no doubts that the performances will be stellar.

Unfortunately, the Unicorn teachers have already had to say a few goodbyes (to Yolanda and Tina). It’s hard to believe that I might never see any of my students again. The tears have not [fully] been shed yet, because I know that once the waterworks start, they will never stop.  For now, my goal is to savour every moment I have with my students; I have exactly one week left with them.

I plan to make it count.