Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you

What began as a pretty horrible morning turned out to be a great day at school today. Oh, so hung over! I had to give all my grade 3's English names. I spent a drunken night last night thinking up 100 girl's names and 100 boy's names. I went through books and DVD's and stuff like that. It was drunken evening as I went out after school last night with Cathy to her cousin's party. The party was for her boyfriends 1st visit to her family home. There were about 40 people there to meet him. Poor bugger!

What happens is, or so I was told, if you are Chinese and you have a girlfriend you usually don't visit her house at all. This couple has been together for 5 years! So upon the male's first visit to the girl's family home they have a big party to welcome him. Sounds strange, maybe I didn't hear correctly or just didn't understand. But I do know they had been together for over 5 years and he had never been to her home and from what I can gather, this is pretty much normal. WOW!

There were tables full of food, heaps of beer and heaps of the horrid Biajio...they call it wine but it's more evil than vodka. It's evil, Evil, EVIL, EVIL I tell you...EVIL! Most males drink heaps of it and it is potent. Last night they were drinking it by the Chinese spoonful. (In the photos, the stuff in the silver bowls is not soup!) This way, you never know how many glasses you have had! Gee, that's a good idea and Shane, why your there, why don't you tell them to mix it with your beer so it tastes better! An even smarter idea. Evil Boy! EVIL! But hey, it was a great time until this morning. Then it became a sorrowful, pitiful, hazy, god please help me morning. But it was good to see Cathy's parents again. I have been around to their house for dinner so the first thing her father handed me was EVIL Biajio. It's a sign of respect so you can't say no to the host.

Anyhow, I stumbled home late and had to draw up 4 butchers paper pages full of English names. Today I read out each name (or the ones I could understand...evil Biajio! I'm sure I was thinking in Chinese and trying to write it!) and Lunar (Chinese English teacher) would explain some of the names like Star and Rayne and stuff like that. The Chinese love freaky names! There is a girl named Chicken, true and she won't change it. What else, Pickles, Milk and other assorted goodies. After explaining what the names mean they still want it.

After reading the legible names out, the kids would then jump up or yell which name they wanted and I'd write it on the board so they could then write it on their English book. We all had heaps of fun. Ofcourse when you have 70 kids in a class there is never enough time, but we managed to get everyone a name. I have one more class of grade 3's tomorrow to get through and Friday it will be reminding them how to say the name...should be fun!

It's been raining all day today on and off so it's much cooler. Some of the kids were saying they were cold! COLD! There I was sweating! Anyhow, gonna go now...

Freaky names like Seth and Biajio full of smiles to you...Shane