Day 2 aka, Best day EVER.

Our first full day at Tongliao #1 Middle school was.. awesome. We woke up and played poker with M&M's (a treat we brought with us) until about 10:30am, which is when we all went to go meet David and his class. We were to sit in on class again and watch an actual lesson, then answer a few questions at the end of class. Again, the same enthusiasm, surprise and absolute happiness from the students at seeing us there was unbelieveable. I couldn't stop smiling at them. David is a VERY good teacher - I can't stress this enough. What an amazing person to have as a good friend over here in China. We all love the guy like a brother. Anyway, after his class we had lunch in the school cafeteria with David and his wife, Honey. They were kind enough to offer to take us into town to go shopping for a few necessary items if we wanted to. Having already made some lists up, we gladly agreed. We took a public bus into the city and got off at the Da Jin Qian Jia, or 'big supermarket'. They had all kinds of stuff for dirt cheap. We managed to pick up a kick ass pair of speakers for our room (ipods and such) for 35 yuan. That's.. about Five bucks. We then hit up the actual grocery store and picked up essentials. Toilet paper, juice, towels, shampoo, a soccer ball, some bread and juice.. and let's face it - Pei-joe and Bai-joe. When in China!
After lugging all of our purchases back to campus by taxi (courtesy of David and Honey - seriously, they rock) both of them had to take off to prepare lessons for their night classes, and left us to our own discretion. We decided to take the time to grab the new basketballs and soccer balls we bought at the store and use them on one of the many basketball courts and soccer fields littering the campus. There was a group of students (they had to be.. age 6-10 or so) that were idling around having recess outside where we went to play. Mike, being a tall guy, dunked a basketball to get us warmed up - and by God - you should have seen the kids. They all circled around us.. there were maybe 50 of them and 4 of us. They kept chanting "Hallooo Teachaa!!" And we kept tossing the ball at them, shooting with them, and playing around. Ultimately, I snagged the soccer ball and threw it across the field, and played a big game of keep away with all of them. It was maybe one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life. I was picking the kids up, they were teaching me chinese, I taught them english, they asked all kinds of little questions ("teachaa! can you do this?" Insert cartwheel,handstand, or leap frog here) and were essentially the most adoreable little kids I've ever met. We did this for probably about an hour (including a 4x4 footrace around a small track that one of the little girls orchestrated) until they had to go back to class. It was surreal. I am SO happy to be here and able to take advantage of what the world has to offer, geographically and people-wise.
After this we had dinner by ourselves in the cafeteria with some weird food we've never seen before. Check out the pictures. After dinner, we ran into David and Honey together by chance ( we thought they were going out on a date.. when actually they were going to teach their classes.. the teachers here all work extremely hard day-in and day-out.. it makes me feel guilty to see how hard they work, and to see them so excited for us even though we do half of what they do) and David invited us to go attend ANOTHER of his classes, this time an english class but a different section. We agreed of course, and this time were able to go throughout the class and meet the students individually. They are truly amazing young kids. They had so many questions to ask us that it made my head spin. I got to know a group of young men pretty well - they were all hilarious. We spent about 2 hours in his class (two full periods) talking to his students before we got kicked out. We then came home and played Beiruit. We still think we're college kids.
I love Tongliao #1 middle school so far, and I don't care who knows it.