A SPAGHETTI PARTY

Last night, Friday, we invited my afternoon English class to our apartment for an evening of games and American food. The students wanted me to make spaghetti, which is one of the only American dishes they could think of. I was excited for my 3 children have young people to play with for an evening and I think my kids were excited too. After a busy Friday, I walked to the nearest restaurant to meet my students (You see, I invited these students to my home but I still can't say my address, so I had to meet them and escort them to my apartment....maybe I need to learn my address!) It was extremely cold and 3 out of my 4 students met me at the restaurant. The only one who didn't show was my translator!! One student speaks much better than the others and so I use her as a translator (I still don't know why she didn't show) Two of the students brought gifts for me and one brought food to share. I had to make spaghetti sauce from scratch the night before and at the baby specialty shop I found spaghetti noodles (yes, I know that doesn't make sense...few things do here). We also had french bread with garlic butter. We found a bakery near our apartment that makes incredible french bread and if we ask for fresh then they make it and tell us when to return to get ift hot and fresh from the oven....such a treat for a family that doesn't own an oven! In fact, the bakery offered to deliver it from the oven to our apartment, but once again not knowing my address wasn't very smart. We played games like checkers and Guess Who and all the children loved the Wii. One mother stayed with her daughter, which was fine because she kept Joseph busy so I could play with the children. We had a wonderful evening. I don't think all the Chinese children enjoyed the spaghetti, but my Howe kids loved it!! For dessert we had American oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies. A delicious American meal. We had such a nice evening that we look forward to doing it again.

Jim and I have started Chinese class. We'll meet with other team members Mon, Wed, and Fridays for an hour each time. There is an expense but very small...$1.40 per person per hour! Nothing to complain about. We were given Chines names.....mine sounds pretty, but when translated means "day 10". Jim's name sounds similar to Jacob.....but not really! The class is casual, and I think we will enjoy it. I'm excited to build my vocabulary. I like learning the language from the public when I'm out. I talk to anyone who looks like they would talk back to me. Taxi drivers always want to say something.....my Chinese may sound like I'm a taxi driver! I repeat what they say to me and listen as they correct me....it's such a hard language to learn. The few phrases I know I say whenever someone speaks to me, like: it's cold today, I have 4 children, I'm an American English teacher, That's too expensive, thank you and no good (this is polite to say when you don't want something) In fact I say these things even if they ask me something I don't understan in hopes they start to talk about something I can respond too.

Our family may begin teaching English 2 nights a week at an orphanage for older children by our home. This would be another opportunity for our kids to be around other children. We don't know details yet, but we have offered to teach in the evenings and the orphanage is open to that. This will also be a great opportunity to see how a Chinese orphanage is ran and to get experience before our orphanage is built. All of our evenings are free right now, so getting out a couple nights a week is okay with us. Our evenings are so long because we're all home in the afternoons so I fix dinner early and I'm not a slave to dishes any more becuase I have a Sunny.

Times up! Joseph just woke from his nap. I'll write more later. Thanks for reading and being a part of this Great Adventure!