September 30--Day 85

Today I asked my students to give an impromptu speech on the topic: If you could be anyone else, who would you want to be? 

    After about thirty uncreative speeches, Vivian said: Superman. Because 1) He is strong 2) He can fly 3) He can control typhoons. (Hey, on a tropical island where the people are terrified of the rain, this is pretty handy.) Those students who know Frank, and who saw his movie were dying laughing. Those students who were also forced to endure traipsing all over Haikou during the last typhoon while Frank (aka Superman) claimed it "wasn't raining" and the "sun was out," were dying laughing.
     But the best answer came from Donna. "At first, I thought, 'I want to be Superman!' Then I realized that really wouldn't be all that amazing. Now, I just want to be Superman's girlfriend. I can really benefit from that one. Instead of taking care of other people, I can just have Superman take care of me!"

I was talking to Helen during break, and I commented on her Stitch bag. Apparently, no one in China actually knows what it is. I told her it was from a popular American movie called "Lilo and Stitch." She looked at me like I was crazy. So I started telling her about the movie. He was an alien, came down from space, and a little girl befriends him. Still getting the crazy look. She slid her hands over the bright blue face on her bag and said, “It’s a tiger. A Chinese tiger.” Um. Nope. Definitely from America. Definitely an alien. He’s bright blue, has antennae, and six appendages. Alien. Not tiger.  More crazy look, like, “Crazy American is trying to take credit for our cute little Chinese tiger.” Ok, I’ll just stop talking now because you’ve officially deemed me crazy. Ha. 

Alison decorated the green dots on my wall. My wall is now "cool." And, we got milk tea. Past 5 p.m. This will be an interesting night... But, hey, let's live it up! Let the holiday begin!