Bits and Pieces -- 12/25/06

Lots has happened and I keep remembering things that I forgot to mention before, so I apologize if this entry jumps around a little.

Backtracking a tad. Like I mentioned before, we had teacher-parent conferences a few weeks ago. Our school is one of the most expensive schools here, although we have yet to figure out why. Anyways, our students are very rich, or have very rich parents. One of our students, actually he is in clayton’s 6th grade class, has a very famous mother. They call her the Diva of Mongolia – she is the most famous singer in Mongolia. Clayton got to meet her on parent-teacher day. Unfortunately, he had to tell her some bad news about her son, as his English is very poor and he doesn’t participate in class at all. She didn’t seem surprised though. In fact, it was told to us through the small English-speaking grapevine that he is her son from a first marriage, and has another son from her current marriage, and apparently the second son gets all the attention and etc., while the boy in Clayton’s class lives in the dormitory, even though his parents live in the same city! So, if that’s true, it’s a little sad. It would also explain his lack of drive or interest in his studies, if he’s not getting the support he needs from home.

Last Thursday night we went to dinner with one of the other American teachers, her name is Sheridan and she’s our age, and married to a Mongolian. We went to an Indian restaurant; apparently it is one of the best restaurants in the whole city. We looked at the drink menu, and saw something we couldn’t say no to – tequila. How many people can say they drank shots of Tequila in an Indian restaurant in Mongolia? It was too funny to not do. They came with lemon wedges and salt around the glass rims even! The food was awesome too. Unfortunately, I had been sick for about a day and a half before then, and was sick on the walk home. As clayt and I like to gracefully state it, I did something we call “contributing to the street art.” I was still pretty sick the next day, but thankfully it was exam day, (more on that later) so I didn’t have to do too much. Clayt made me some chicken broth soup with rice and crackers, as I hadn’t eaten anything in over 24 hours, and then put me to bed. That was at 3 in the afternoon, and I slept for over 3 hours solid! When I woke up, I felt 100 percent better! Apparently it was just a little bug, as one of the other teachers had gone home sick the day before I got sick with something similar. It’s a little bit scary to feel sick in a place like this. You know when you are sick, like with a sinus infection or the flu, you feel awful and you do whatever you can (or someone does for you) to make yourself comfortable – dvds, medicine, doctor visit, comfy bed, etc. The whole time I was sick I was just worried that if I didn’t feel better – then what? The options are not great here, and we don’t even know how to access them here! I have no idea if they have general doctor’s offices here, or where to buy medicine, or how to say “please no needles” in Mongolian. (apparently hepatitis is a big problem here, and they recommend travelers to bring their own needles, which we didn’t do)…. anyways, clayt and I are fairly resilient and haven’t had any major health issues so far.

Ok, exam day. This is the last day of the term, where the students stay in their homeroom classroom all day (from 9-12:30) and take timed exams in each of the subjects they study. I have 2 homeroom classes, first and second grade. Clayt has 4th grade. Since clayt’s class is small, they combined it with another class for the exams and put clayt in charge of one of my classes. I wanted to sit with the first graders, as I knew they would need the most help and supervision. So, I get to my class, and get settled, and then the principle comes in and tells me there is assigned seating, and they are mixing the first and second graders together. that means clayt and I both had to explain 2 different sets of directions to kids in English, who can’t hardly understand us in the first place. Secondly, they gave us bubble sheets for the kids to fill in. The first and second graders had no clue. I had almost gotten my students on the right page and had gotten them all to write their names on the tops, when the principle came in again and said never mind the bubble sheets, maybe they will be too hard for the small students. Mind you, this was all during the time they were supposed to be using to take their math exams. So, we got rid of the bubble sheets. Apparently the first and second graders have never taken a multiple choice exam before. Which isn’t that surprising, since the first graders can’t even read yet! I spent most of my time trying running from one student to another, trying to make them understand how to take the test. Some circled 2 answers, some circled all four, and some circled the number of the question!!! some drew pictures next to their names. It was really confusing to clayton and I how they expected the first graders to take science and computer tests that were multiple choice, when they can’t even read the questions. it will be interesting to see how they grade these exams. It was cute to watch the little ones take their tests though. During the math section there was a lot of counting on fingers. No shame in that, right?