By that I mean balloons. My family was kind enough to send a care package. Within the package were animal balloons. Blow them up and then twist them into animal shapes. This has proven to be a huge hit with the students. The students call them “Pow Pow”, as in “Give me a pow pow.” I checked the dictionary and the chinese word for balloon does not look like it is pronounced “pow pow” so I think the students are refering to the noise balloons make when they pop.
Right now the balloons are given out for a job well done after class. I don’t tell my students when I’ll award balloons, but I do. I wait for my students to start being unruly. It happens that they stop paying attention and nothing I seem to do gets them to focus anymore. So I check to see who is still following class. These are the students who end up getting balloons. I’m hoping that this reward trend will get them to focus more in class in hopes of getting a pow-pow.
In other news, my pants aren’t fitting me very well. I’ve already got some new ones being made at the tailors, but I suspect I’ll have to order another batch at the start of next month. I haven’t checked my weight lately, but my waist is atleast down a size if not more. Given all the stories I was told, I expected this to happen sooner, but the junk food seems to be slowing the process down. I’m not planning on getting rid of my old pants though. Most likely I’ll bring them back home to put in storage. That way if I come back to America, I’ll have pants that fit once I regain the weight.