5000th visitor and Cai Laoshi's pictures

I am pleased to announce that the blog has made it past the 5000 visitors mark. I know that hundreds of those visits are my folks, Mom Forest and Aunt Marie checking every day, but there is also a small feeling of fame...recently I met a woman at church I had first met online via the blog..and a Kindergarten parent told Michael at Helen's bus stop that he had seen it. So naturally I should be doing a better job of posting more often. My apologies. One ready excuse has been that our internet connection has been slow at night during finals week, but that's only the half of it. In truth, I am in a bit of the winter doldrums. While its only chilly and not truly cold, we haven't seen the sun much lately, and I am at loose ends a bit...full of plans not yet realized for travel, a little bored with my local haunts, intimidated by my plans for studying more Chinese, etc, and a bit lacking in spunk. On a positive note, my cough has not developed into anything substantial, just a nagging annoyance, and Helen's lip healed with no loss of baby teeth from her fall. I am trying a Chinese remedy a friend recommended for my cold: its called Banlangen Keli, and it is a bittersweet tea mixture, which appears to be doing me no harm and maybe some good. At 3 kuai for 20 packets, the price was sure right.
Today was Helen's last day of school for the term. Her teacher, Cai Laoshi, has been taking photos throughout the semester, of my English classes as well as Helen's activities in the classroom. She sent me over 100 photos, many similar to ones I have already posted, but I thought a semester photo summary would be fun...

Helen and her buddies on a field trip to the city park this fall. They are shouting "Che zi" at the top of their lungs..the Chinese word for eggplant that kids shout instead of "cheese". also the "V" sign is absolutely mandatory -- both my older kids can't stop doing it.

A patriotic moment during rehearsals for the flag ceremony before Helen's promotion to a speaking part.



The kids made masks as a Halloween activity during my English class. They also took turns dressing up and saying "trick or treat."

Here's the class posing with the coloring page I brought for the end of the Thanksgiving lesson, with the Thanksgiving prayer in the guise of a poem...Thank you for the food we eat/Thank you for the world so sweet/Thank you for the birds that sing/Thank you for EVERYTHING!



During Christmas week Thomas came to visit Helen's class with me and helped her classmates make Christmas trees. She was really pleased to "show him off." (and he was suitably embarrassed, but a good sport).

Our recent foray into kite making on New Year's weekend.

There you have it, Helen's school year so far in review. She got a report card with lots of positive check marks, and they are working on having her speak out a little more, which she can do a little when prompted. Still unclear to me how the wheels of comprehension are turning in her brain. She was not the earliest bloomer in language development anyway, and I am not sure how well the immersion is going from a linguistic standpoint, although my language teacher friends would encourage me to keep her hearing Chinese and keep the faith. For the next month she has only her tutoring and Chinese cartoons to immerse in..and whatever I can impart in my bad accent. From an identity standpoint, kindergarten is a complete success..I can see how her acceptance of the way everything is done is an acceptance of herself as belonging there..even though she doesn't understand everything that goes on...she will have the same memories of Kindergarten as other Chinese-born kids..in my book that counts for a lot.