Tuesday September 14, 2010

Thought for the day:
“May your hands show mercy.”
“May your feet care for the green earth.”
- Sign at the Grey Goose Pagoda

We set off for school today trading last minute ideas on how to get the students to talk. I drew a town map on the board while the students were making shopping lists. Then we found the stores and they gave directions from one building to another. After that, we worked on pronunciation: th, l, and v, also "ing" and d. They want to drop the "g" in "ing" and add an "e" to the final "d" in a word. Then they opened accounts at the local bank. They like the dialogues especially when they write them. Today, I had dental students, so we went over dental vocabulary and they acted out their own dialogues about toothaches, cavities and teeth that got knocked out.

In the afternoon, we went to the Grey Goose Pagoda. The fearless Marcella and Tony went to the top. I stopped halfway fascinated by a movie about Xuan Zang, a Buddhist monk who left China in 629 A.D. to travel to India along the Silk Road in order to bring back the holy scriptures. When he returned in 645, he "burried the grey goose and built a pagoda". The courtyards were peaceful and the exhibit halls on the sides were filled with carved jade murals of his travels or Buddhist images.

We all met for dinner at the Bamboo Garden Village for Mongolian hot pot. We happily dipped meat and veggies in swirling stocks, one mild and one very spicy. Claudia and I took a cab home. Marcella, Tony and Wally stayed for the light show at the fountains in the square outside the pagoda. Claudia spent the evening working on her presentation on cells for a biology class at the college on Thursday.

- Maggie