It Was Better Today :o)

I forgot to write yesterday about something that really excited me. There is a new girl that comes to the preschool now. When she came the mom said that she didn't have an English name yet. I wanted her to ask me to help name her, but she didn't. So at lunch (this was on Monday) Natalie comes in and hands Teacher Steffanie a list of names. I looked at the list and they were some pretty crappy names. Teacher Steffanie saw me looking and told me that Natalie was writing names for the new girl. I asked if we could call her Zoey (as soon as I found out she didn't have a name, I wanted to call her Zoey). Steffanie told me we could write it down and she would see. Well, yesterday (Tuesday) we were reviewing capital and lower case letters. As we went through the alphabet, we were trying to figure out whose name had what capital letter. When we got to "Z" I was going to put the cards down but Steffanie said, "Oh, our new friend, she has a 'Z', 'Zoey'" I was so excited. I got to help name a girl and she has a super cute name :o)

Last night I was tired of being on the computer but didn't want to bed that early. I was wishing that I had a good book to read. Then I remembered that there are like two books in the common area and one of them I was sort of interested in reading, "The Magician's Nephew" from the Chronicles of Narnia series. I went in and grabbed the book. I was getting really into it and because it's not that long and it's an easy read, I was planning on finishing it. Well, Natalie got a phone call and so she was talking to her family. Our apartment isn't that big and the walls are not thick. So I tried to keep reading, but I couldn't concentrate. I was so upset that I had to stop with only 50 pages to go. Plus I was irritated because I had to listen to Natalie tell all of her stories twice (once to her mom and once to her dad) and she was saying some pretty inaccurate things about Taiwan and that was ticking me off, so I didn't not fall asleep in a happy mood last night. (Dang shoot, if Natalie does ever happen to read this, I'm in trouble, but it's my journal, so I have to vent.)

In her phone conversation she was complaining about our runs, how she's so tired because she wakes up early and how she feels slow. I was hoping she would go running with me in the morning because after she made me have a not so good night I wasn't in the mood to listen to her ramble in the morning. Well, I was in luck. She woke up and got ready but her eye was pink and swollen so she decided to get back into bed. Okay, honestly and truly I'm sorry that it took her having an eye irritation to stay home, but I was SO relieved to know she wasn't coming. I went out to the trail and it didn't feel like I was going fast, I was even getting frustrated because it felt like I was going slow but every time I tried to pick it up, I forgot to hold the pace. But it turns out that I did our normal 30 minute run in 22 minutes. I was headed home when I realized that now would be the perfect time to try to find the another trail. I didn't have to be back to teach and I didn't have to make sure Natalie got back in time because she wasn't with me. From the turn around point of the run I did this morning you can see another trail across the river. Nancy and I always wondered how to get there but never went and tracked it down. I actually found it today (it wasn't too hard either, I just kept biking). I didn't run on it at all because I was pretty tired from the run I had just finished and tired from the monster hill I had to bike up to get to the trail, but I'm excited to run on it soon. On the way back from the new trail I decided to try to find the fastest way back (which would not be the way that I came) but I got distracted along the way because I saw a sign that said bike trail. I turned down and started to head down the bike trail. It was great. It wasn't really a trail, it was an asphalt road that was a little more narrow, but for the most part it had really light traffic and it was such a bright sunny day and the bike path had a clear view of the mountains and a cemetery (cemeteries here are more decorated them in the states, so it wasn't creepy). I was so happy to be on the trail. And the best part about the trail is that it has lots of different turn offs and so every Wednesday I can run, send Natalie back to teach and I can go explore different trails off the path.

Even with all my exploring (45 minutes of it at least) I was still back before Kaylene and Natalie had gone down to teach. I did an ab workout, made breakfast, and then did my normal Wednesday cleaning. Actually, it wasn't my normal Wednesday cleaning because I did a more intensive cleaning of the kitchen. I cleaned until nearly lunch time. After cleaning and showering I started working on my evaluations and lesson plans. There are a lot less kids now and so I could have finished my evaluations today but decided to hold off on a few kids, but I was able to get all of my lessons planned for next week.

After lesson planning I finished the book. It ended kind of abruptly and I really wanted to start in on the rest of the 6 books in the series but I don't know if we have them, and we definitely don't have them in our bookshelf up here.

When I was done with the book I was finally ready to start looking through the information pamphlets I picked up at the tourist information center and plan my weekend plans. I didn't actually get too much planning done because I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to get to these places. Two of them are on the west coast and one of them is in the south. I don't think it'll be hard to get down south, but I'm pretty sure that if I want to go west, it's a six hour train ride. Maybe that'll have to be an August activity where I cancel tutoring for a couple days.

Shortly there after, it was time to tutor Kristy. She brought a super short book and so we had a lot of time. I figured that her mom wanted me to practice speaking with her more so I was okay with that, but Kristy was being a total boog and complaining about everything.

I waited for Natalie to finish up her tutoring and then we went to dinner. We biked downtown for some famous dumplings. I love those things because they are cheap and delicious! Natalie and I got along at dinner and I even started a conversation with her on the way home, we didn't bike in silence. I feel much better about how things are going to go for the next two months.

After dinner I tutored Dar-sen. A two week break was detrimental to this kid. He was making so many mistakes in his speaking and in his writing. And, he's always slow when it comes to thinking of things to write, but today we he was extra slow. Poor kid, he knows he didn't do so hot tonight. But it is summer vacation, so he can be allowed some slippage.