Tuesday in Six Points

My Tuesday in six quick points:

1. Three girls all began to cry at the same time for three different reasons. It was like a sprinkler system got set off.

2. I tried using the parrot puppet for the first time today. I was like wielding the most powerful weapon, but instead of hurting people it makes them insanely happy.

3. One of my social studies classes had a lesson on "Symbols of Our Country" from the really American textbook. It was difficult to teach because the kids didn't know my examples, I don't know the Korean examples, and I didn't even know all the books examples. Must go Google what the liberty bell actually is other than 'a symbol of freedom'.

4. A student in my other social studies class asked about if kings are in charge when we were talking about presidents and governments. Then, another student says "Canada has a queen, she is on the money". I was so impressed, because there are Canadians that don't know that.

5. My last class of the day had to do a fill in the blank. They had read two stories, an Objibwe story about dream catchers, and another about celebrating Dawali. This is because we've been discussing culture. The correct answer for the assignment was "The students did a presentation on traditions in Indian culture" and they had to draw a picture of this. Maybe it was the whole American textbook thing but I was really surprised to see everyone had drawn 'Indian culture' as indigenous, not from India. I was a bit shocked that they must've learned that native Americans are called 'Indians', when in fact that is a mistake that a big chunk of humanity needs to let go of. It's 2016, we're pretty damn sure now that the America's are not India, so let's stop calling these people Indians. My class however is far from ready for that conversation.

6. I went out after work to fix the data on my phone. It turns out I have the wrong phone plan, no data. I can't get the data plan until I have a bank account, I can't have a bank account until I get my alien resident card, I won't get that card until the 4th of October. Oh well. In my experience the best phone plan I had was in Ghana, then Indonesia, then maybe China, next Australia, then probably Canada, last would be here, quite disappointing really. But, the guy who helped me tried really hard and was super nice. Unfortunately his store will close at the end of this month, before I get my card.