Western Walmart

A couple days ago I led a field trip.

All the good kids get ice cream! And me!

Sure, I've been a participant in field trips before. Tons of them! But I've never led one before, until now. I took our giant class of FOUR advanced campers (and by that I mean students) to Walmart! I created a scavenger hunt for them, with questions to answer and new words to learn. It was a really fun morning, and I'm sure you remember how a good field trip is SO MUCH BETTER than another day at boring old school. I mean camp! It's not school... it's camp! Camp for learning English in a classroom.

One of the challenges was to find a piece of clothing that would look amazing on Andrew.

Checking out some English on a t-shirt.

I loved how relaxed a Chinese field trip can be. There were no permission slips or waivers, no strict schedules, and get this- the kids actually wanted to wear those giant orange shirts! We strolled over from the school, chatting, which simultaneously blew my mind that I can talk to Chinese 11 year olds in English so easily.  Since their level is so advanced for their age, it meant we could joke around and have fun while checking out everything in the store.

No matter what country you're in, Walmart will only open 2 checkout lanes.

A great class... now I just need to figure out something to do with them next week!

Thanks to Lily for the pictures.

Hand me that baby.

Today I held a Chinese baby.

I don't know if you know this, but Chinese kids are freaking cute. Even though I work with little kids 5 days a week, I still love seeing these little guys outside of school. I mean, I can only teach English to so many kids, so there are probably DOZENS of other kids that I won't meet in class. A good portion of those kids are just too young to learn another language (because they're super busy learning Chinese), and those tiny ones will really melt your heart.

When we went for lunch today there were a couple kids roaming the restaurant, and I couldn't take it anymore- I just had to hold one of these tykes. I figured that strangers have approached me for pictures enough, it's my turn to approach a mother and demand a photo with her child.

It actually worked out really well; I was able to pull it off without speaking any Chinese. I just did the classic approach: walked up slowly, without making sudden movements as to not make the mother skittish. I held out my hands, palms open towards the baby, and mimed holding him. To seal the deal, I said in English, "Give me your baby." It worked. The baby was mine.

Here's the picture we got. Me and the baby, and a second baby that another mother wanted to be in the picture. I don't know why, but more cute babies... so why not?

Photo by Greg W.