the team (minus joel) spent the weekend at our company headquarters in beijing last weekend. i don't know how we had managed to make it to december without having stayed there. i think my team is finally convinced that it is well worth the money to have a weekend away! the girls and i shacked up on "futons" which are really glorified foam mats. it was really great to have a weekend to relax and enjoy beijing because we havent been able to experience the city much this semester because of how busy things have been. we went to Peter's Tex-Mex on saturday for dinner...this place is beyond delicious. it's definitely one of my favorite places in beijing. i enjoyed amazing enchiladas and a chocolate peanut butter shake. (i know... that doesn't sound very "china" ... but one has to experience their own culture at times!)

i actually had a breakthrough today. since early november, i've been teaching a class of low-level english speakers in grade 6. some of the students are new and most of the rest of the students have bad behavior which inhibits their learning. the class has been quite the challenge. as a foreign teacher, i dont have a lot of tangible ways to discipline the students. i don't have communication with their parents and my communication with their homeroom teachers is limited. since i dont have much discipline, i have to focus on motivating through rewards. this has been difficult too because some of these kids are "too cool for school" and they havent been motivated by anything. but today, class was finally good. almost all of my students finished the work i had given them in class. i only had one dramatic moment between my feisty student Lisa and some boy she was yelling at (this usually happens several times in class). Angel refrained from staring at herself in her little mirror she brings to class. Daniel actually brought his own pen to class so he didnt have to borrow mine. Brian decided to be helpful and work with a lower student instead of his usual activity of wasting time looking at yu-gi-oh cards. i didn't have to take any books or electronic games. my list could go on. it was amazing to finally see kids motivated and working on the project i gave them. i had been feeling really discouraged about this class and just thinking that i couldnt ever get through to these kids. so i'm so thankful that after lots of planning and interceding the class is finally coming around!!

december is going to be crazy and a little overwhelming i'm sure...but i'm glad it's finally here. i'm ready for the semester to wind down!