Thursday, December 6, 2012

Students Say and Do the Darndest Things!


Wow, it has been a long time since we've last posted. Lots has happened to us, and we will try our best to catch you up on the highlights and spare you from the not-so-pleasant parts.

This post is mostly dedicated our students-- all 400+ of them between the two of us. They bring us so much joy, laughter, and yes, sometimes frustration. Truly, they teach us just as much as we do, them; learning firsthand about culture, food, language, relationships through these 19 and 20-year-olds has been wonderfully enlightening.

One of our favorite quirks about our students is their English names that most of them chose for themselves last year. Most of them have normal names like Mark, Tiffany, and Lori. But there is always one or two kids in our classes that may be trying too hard to emulate some Hollywood celebrities' kids' names.

We don't have a Blue Ivy, one of our friends' student's name is Blue Goat! 

For example, we have a Cookie, Brain, Bunny, Barraatt, Wytte, Jezebel, Nokia, Bieber, Pluto, Nemo, and Deal. We don't know why most of them choose their names, but it is always a bit amusing to compare unusual names with the other teachers. One has best friends with the name of Coca and Cola, and we all have a [not] surprising number of Bryants and Jeremys.


Our students love to send us the most touching and inadvertently funny texts and im messages to us.
Here is just a sampling of the texts they have sent:


  •  Hey, the weather is low temperature today! It turns cold. Need to wear more clothes! Sweet tips :)


  • Good bye, Rachel! Hope you and your lover Ben will have a good night. 


  • Dear Teacher, I am Mary. Please wear warming! Care yourself. I love you. Thank you. 

- T: Yes, I am so sad to hear that [you will not be going home for Christmas]. But I think it is so happiness together with Ben for you
- Me: Oh don't be sad, we will be fine! Yes, Ben and I are excited to spend our first Christmas together
- T: Yes. I think so. The power of love is great.

  • I am so thankful for good friends like you, too! I hope my sweet words can help you feel comfortable and joyful, and then you can forget the hatred illness! 

Another interesting (and much appreciated) quirk of teaching is the number of food related gifts we receive. Giving apples to a teacher is not an antiqued tradition-- I received almost two dozen of the juiciest and most delicious apples from one of my students recently.

We have also received kilos of pomellos (giant grapefruit), bananas, and even purple yams. We have some of the most kindhearted and generous students, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to teach them. [Shameless plug: hiring for Sias University is beginning soon! If you are interested in a life changing and rewarding experience, send me an email or fb!].
Just some of the yams given to us

The inside! Such purple-y goodness!

Speaking of thankfulness and food, Thanksgiving was such a special and fun time for us. We began with an intense tournament of flag football with the other foreign faculty, followed by a barrage of students from our classes giving us cards thanking us for being their teacher, and then a massively delicious feast that left us catatonic for hours.

Not messing around!

Ugh, the ONLY time Ben's guy caught the ball!
Some of our many Thanksgiving cards <3
The beautiful Thanksgiving banquet



Ok, that's all (as my students say). Care yourself, my dear friends and family. I love you!

No comments:

Post a Comment