3 Steps to a Clean Body

As I'm writing this, Andrew is jamming on his guitar... which he's been doing for the past hour. I am SO lucky to have such a musical husband... in-house entertainment (literally!) all the time!

As I think I wrote before, I'm teaching Planning 10 and PE 11 this year. The Planning course is old news as I did that last year already, but the PE thing is all new; I haven't taught full-time PE in 4 years now, so I'm super pumped about it. My first lesson with the kids was this past Thursday, and I thought I'd start out with some basics.

You see, some of these kids' personal hygiene could more accurately be described as "low-giene"... especially the boys. For example, they'll go out and play basketball at lunch for an hour (in the 30-degree heat) and get so sweaty that their shirts are see-through and their hair is dripping wet. Then they'll come back in and sit in class like that for 4 more classes in the afternoon. GROSS! I told them no more of that and had a whole object lesson of what a PE strip looks like, which is news to them! Seriously! And these kids are in grade 11!

What I did was have a big collection of "supplies" in a bag and pulled them out one by one and explained what they were for and how to use them. The kids were captivated! Amongst these items were a washcloth, a towel, deodorant, and a fresh t-shirt. I demonstrated how one would wet a washcloth and wash the face, neck, body, and armpits (in that order!), then towel-dry them, apply deodorant (not to be shared with classmates!), and put on a clean shirt. (Obviously I didn't strip down in front of them to show all this, but they go the idea). In the end they all thought it was a good plan and agreed to bring the suggested items next week! Sorry I don't have any pictures of all this.

In other news... Andrew and I (along with our friend Garrett from San Diego) are playing a show tonight at a little lounge/bar here in Shanghai, which should be fun. Andrew and Garrett both play accoustic guitar, and I'm the back-up singer. Shame I don't have my keyboard here, but it was too heavy to pack and is nestled comfortably in Tony and Gill's basement in North Van. Anyways, the show will be good I think. The only thing that discourages us from doing more of them is that ALL the bars here are super-smokey so you come home absolutely REEKING.

Also, we got gym memberships at a new gym yesterday, which is a 10-minute walk from our house. We are so happy b/c the gym we went to last year is now too far away for us (after the move). Plus, we got our Chinese secretary at school to do the groundwork on gym research for us (she's a STAR!), and she somehow bargained them down from 2800 RMB to 1500 RMB for the year. What a deal! Moreover, 6 of us Canadians joined at once, so we'll all be able to hold each other accountable for working out. It also has a bigger swimming pool than last year, so we'll hopefully be able to swim proper laps without having to negotiate around Chinese "waders".

Alright, that's all for now... have a great weekend!

~Team AC