My Life in Transition

There is so much change in my international life.  The students I grow to love each year may leave my class/our school with only a day's notice.  I am constantly making and losing friends.  Transition makes you feel slightly off balance, but eventually you learn how to embrace it and live a full life with it.  One of the ways I do this is by holding firm to the constants in my life.  I am a single twenty-six year old American woman who teaches second grade.  Yesterday one of those constants was challenged and I wasn't just thrown off balance.  I was bowled over.  And no, I don't have a boyfriend so stop thinking that.
It all started when a friend found a lump.  She immediately went to the doctor and then back to America.  Yesterday they confirmed she had breast cancer.  Our community has responded to this whole situation on our knees and I love that.  When she found out that she did, in fact, have cancer, her husband started making arrangements to travel back to be with her.  Her husband is one of our third grade teachers.  *Transition #1
Yesterday afternoon our elementary principal came into my class and asked either myself of my co-teacher to step up and teach his third grade class.  Second grade this year is very small and manageable in one class.  Third grade is not small and they need two classes.  He left us floored.  Either I lose my favorite co-teacher to another grade or I lose her and my class.  What do I do? *Begin Transition #2
We talked.  We felt numb.  We cried.  We fought the transition.  We came to a conclusion. 
Today is my last day (this year) as a second grade teacher.  In one and a half hours I'll said goodbye to my class...a class that has stretched me, driven me crazy, made me cry, made me laugh, made me proud, and who I will just plain miss and I will become a third grade teacher for a quarter.  All of us cried off and on for the entire time before school ended.  I sent every one of my students home in tears.  We finished a box of tissues and got another.  The third grade class also came down the stairs clutching crumpled tissues.
Now may be when you are thinking, what is the big deal?  It's one quarter and she'll be back in second grade.  They are just changing teachers.
The big deal is as a teacher you build your life into your students.  For those 9 months they are in your grade, they are your children.  You teach them facts, how to take care of themselves, how to be a friend, how to have manners, how to love, and so much more.  You are a parent.  The big deal is that I have to shift my focus from building into these students every moment to building into others.  The big deal is that I'm leaving a co-teacher I know inside and out and teaching with a friend that I've never taught with before.  None of these things are bad.  In fact, I'm excited about some of them, but first I need to give myself to mourn the end of my school year.  I need to be sad about not seeing my second graders each day and start being excited working with someone new and teaching some students that I gave my whole heart to last year.  I usually have so much more time and warning to mourn my class.  I'm so tired and I've never had a headache this bad before.  However, I'm going to focus on the positive.  Tomorrow, I am going to Xi'an to see some Terra Cotta Soldiers and more.  Then I have one whole week to process this....
God please help us all to thrive in this new change.

Another Funny Taxi Story

Today I went to see Les Miserable with two fabulous girlfriends.  It's the first time I've seen it on the big screen and it was an amazing, beautiful, and emotional experience.  However, this blog post is not about the movie.  This blog post is about how we got to the movie and then how we back home from the movie.
This afternoon my friend, Amy, and I grabbed a taxi outside of our complex to get into town.  We were meeting our friend, Karen, at the theater.  Our taxi driver was very nice and started to talk to us a bit.  However with two introverts in the back seat, we didn't get so far in that conversation.  However, he did ask us what country we were from.  When we told him, he proudly proclaimed "Obama!"  I think it is funny that Chinese people seem to be more proud of America's president than we are...but that has nothing to do with anything in this post.
We made it to the theater somewhat slowly...rather odd for a taxi driver..usually they drive like maniac race car drivers.  As the movie started and I spent time with two such great friends, I completely forgot about our taxi driver. 
After our movie, Amy had a date with her husband so Karen and I grabbed a taxi home together (yes, I ride in tons of taxis).  Because she gets car sick, Karen rode in the front with the driver and I am SO glad that she did.  The taxi driver was completely enamored with Karen the entire ride home.  He laid on the flirting nice and thick and barely acknowledge that I was in the back seat at all.  His world was centered around my beautiful friend in the front seat.  At one point he asked where we were from.  Karen replied, "Meiguo" (America).  He proudly proclaimed "Obama!"  All I could think was NO WAY!  This was the exact same taxi driver I had just four hours before.  I was shocked...however, due to the crazy amount of flirting going on by the taxi driver, I couldn't get in a word to tell Karen this fabulous development.  I shouldn't have worried though.  Halfway through our ride (which I'm pretty sure I could have walked faster through...he was really enjoying flirting too much to drive), he turned around and in Chinese told me "I drove you into town earlier.  But not with this girl...with another one.  She had long brown hair..." He went on and on.  He told me all about our ride earlier in the day.  When I laughingly confirmed this fact to both him and Karen, he smacked his head and said "Oh my God!" in perfect English.  He then turned back to Karen and continued to flirt.  One street before we got home, he pulled the car over, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and asked Karen for her number.  Poor thing gave it to him...yes, he has already texted her...in fact, he texted her within five minutes of us getting home. 
What a fun way to spend a taxi ride home! Sorry, Karen.  Oh, and there was an added perk.  I understood everything that was said in the conversation tonight!  Usually I'm stuck within the first five minutes and they give up trying to get me to understand, but tonight, I made it through all 20ish minutes of Chinese.  So either my Chinese is improving or he knows how to speak foreigner Chinese.  I'm going to go with the former and feel good about all the hours I struggle through Chinese lessons. What a fabulous day it has been!