Ni Hao!

Ni Hao is Chinese for Hello! And when I was younger, I never could have imagined that I would actually know that... much less live in China. But that is where I am! :) I have lived in China for about a year now, and I just started teaching Kindergarten at an International School. What's special about an International School? It's a place for expat children from all over the world to grow & be with other TCKs (Third Culture Kids) while learning a North American curriculum.

My adventure teaching international kinders just started this week, and it has been so wonderful! I have 13 kids that represent 12 different nations: Korea, America, Romania, China, England, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Colombia, Germany, & South Africa!

Basically, I'm a regular American teacher without all of the cute teacher stores, Barnes & Noble, & Michael's down the street. If I want something to decorate, I have to improvise, go to a market (along with my 8 million neighbors), bargain for it, & find some creative way to carry it home!

Here are my classroom pictures:

I got those pink, green, & blue bins at the crazy 5 story market for about 2.5 USD each. :)

Welcome to our Nest :) That tree too entirely too long to draw, cut out, & staple up there. But I think it's cute!

I made these little notes on individual packs of M&Ms & gave them out at Open House! Here are the labels that I made if you want them:  

Here!

Cute chairs & tables- Thank you IKEA!

I loooove my new blue carpet. All it took was a trip to the furniture market, ten minutes to choose one, ten minutes to bargain for it (I paid around 80 USD), and two hours for them to find it in the storage shed across the street, roll it out on the ground, cut it with scissors, and have a man carry it two blocks on his shoulder so that they could put edging around it. :) 

 My Teacher Intern, Gao Wei & I!

That's all for this post. Zai Jian! (Goodbye!)