Oh my gaaahhhhhh

Today began with breakfast at a family's house across the street - usually we eat all of our meals at the church, but

we got a special invitation! My buddy Map (Muhp) was there and sat next to me, saying "Lowra! New Yoooooooork. New Yoooooork. Crayyyyyzzzzyyy!!" I have been saying"New York" with a New York accent, so he repeats me with the accent. It's hilarious. And a bunch of the kids LOVE the word "crazy" which I taught them yesterday, they walk around doing the finger motion at the head and saying "crayyyyyyyyzzzzyyy!!" I don't think any of them know what it means. They think it means "smart" or "brains" but they keep saying it over and over! Map also has started saying "oh my gah" "good" "ok" and "let's go" - they just copy anything I say that they can pick up. Last night they sang "Let It Go" and "Love Is An Open Door" while we were watching "Frozen."

After breakfast it was time for class. Today we learned about family life. We started with vocabulary and they did great - we learned all about marriage, stepparents, in-laws, having babies, etc. I taught them the word "nickname" and then taught them nicknames for Grandmother and Grandfather like Nana and Poppop! It was very cute hearing them say "Nahnuh" and "Poppop" with a nice enunciated "p" sound. When we got to "boyfriend" I said "does anyone have a boyfriend?" (no) then "does anyone want a boyfriend?" (giggles and vigorous head nods NO). I taught them the word "annoying" to refer to husbands, wives, boyfriends, siblings and children, hahaha!! Don't worry, I taught them nice words too like "love" "to love" and "to spend time with." I told them all about my family and they loved hearing about my siblings - they repeated me after I said each name - "Ali" "Ah-leeee" "Nicholas" "Nee-coh-lass" "Julia" "Joolia." It was very cute. We did a writing assignment where they wrote about their families and then wrote about their future family - when they would get married, how many children they would have, what their spouse would be like. We spent about a half hour writing, then I went around and corrected each student individually before they each read aloud. The kids would listen to the reader, then I would ask questions to review and make sure they understood, like "how many sisters does she have? How old are they?" This was hard because sometimes I forgot what the student said! Haha! The kids wrote beautiful sweet things about their families, like "my family is amazing, when I go away from home I always miss my family" and kick-ass things about their future like "I will get married after I find a stable job" (that was from a 16 year old girl! I said "YEAH! INDEPENDENT WOMAN!" And they all laughed). A few of them wrote "I hope my children don't annoy me" - amazing. After that they wanted me to sing for them, so I sang some random songs and then they wanted to sing the song we learned yesterday ("Bad Day") - check out my Instagram for a video of that (@levolpacch).

This afternoon we made family trees and I worked individually with the kids (there were only four in the afternoon). One of them, Li ("Lee"), did the writing assignment we did in the morning and she wrote "I do not want to get married or have children. It is too annoying. I want to live forever with my cats." She wants to be an astronomer - it's her "dream job," a phrase she learned today. After that it was playtime! I haven't done any yoga for a week now, so I just started doing some yoga. The kids made a circle around me staring at me, going "OHHHHHH" when I did different poses. Then we made a dance circle with all of the Vietnamese teachers and I dancing around, and the kids in a circle around us. We learned some more ballet, and I was followed around by my girl group. They would follow me to my classroom, hide when I went in, then when I came out they would stay quiet in the other room when I called for them and as I walked away they would quietly re assume their positions behind me. So funny! At one point I said "oh my gahhhh" and they all copied me - my and a group of little girls walking around saying "oh my gahhhhh"! Haha! One of the girls said "you are beautiful!" and I said "you are beautiful!" and she said "no you!" and I said "no you!" - this went on for a while. I have a Lululemon bag with me that I keep my notebook and curriculum book in. There is a picture of a ballerina in a bridge (backbend on the floor) on the bag, and the kids pointed to it and then pointed to me. I had no choice. I got on the ground and did the bridge and they exclaimed "OHHHHHH!!!!!"

Lots of pictures today! Thanks to Dan for taking some with me in there!