Monthly Archives: December 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! 圣诞快乐！ 恭喜发财！ 新年快乐！

Our exchange student, Flora, “walks for fitness.” She is quite the comedienne. She’s enjoying America, along with the challenge of our schools, a definite contrast with China’s. At Meadowdale High Flora is taking two Math classes, History, English, Photography, and P.E. – “Walking for Fitness.” Really. In “Walking for Fitness” Flora and classmates do just that, walk around the neighborhood; on rainy days they walk around the gym. One time I asked her what she did in the class, and she said, “Today we walked to McDonald’s.” Funniest thing she’s said all year, and she wasn’t joking.

Flora Learns U.S. History:  Flora finds History difficult, as studying law and wars and politics in a second language would be for any foreigner. Her teacher was talking about Jim Crow, Civil War, segregation, and equal rights. Someone said, “Hey, if we’re equal, why do girls and boys have different bathrooms?”

Flora blurted, “It’s science!”

Math Good!  Flora switched an Art class for a second Math class. Why? She said, “The math is so easy, we did this in 8th Grade!” However, upon arrival she couldn’t ride a bike or swim, and has little art training. True conversation, paraphrased:

Us:  “Flora, don’t you have Art in China?”

Flora: “Yes, we call it Math.”

Us: “What about P.E.?”

Flora: “We have that, too, we call it Math.”

Food break – Cooking with Ava:  Ava’s got noodles. And she’s starting a cookbook. Check out her recipe and follow step #6. Enjoy!

You say potato, Kaya says tomato!  Whether I bake ’em, mash ’em, fry ’em, do au gratin, or roast ’em, Kaya gets all excited and says, “MMM, I love tomatoes.” We correct her, she seems to get it, and next time we bring out the spuds, she’s, “Can I have some tomatoes?”

Here’s to a great 2015!