My Name is Luka

No, I do not have amnesia, but I am running out of titles that have to do with the first day of class and introducing myself. I don't know why this song made such an impression on my sister and me when we were little, but we STILL sing the opening lyrics to this song. I can even remember the music video that we watched on MTV with our babysitter, Amy, even though we weren't supposed to watch MTV. Sorry, Daddy.

Today was my first Saturday class. Abby, my assistant, picked me up at my apartment this morning and then we checked in at the office. When we got to our room, the hall was blocked off my police tape, but apparently that doesn't mean anything because we just walked right under it and told someone to open the room. One of the students in my class was one of the translators from last summer, Diana. I was so excited to see her and surprised that she was taking the class because my class is for non-English majors and is very basic to improve their pronunciation. Anyway, after some confusion, we figured out that there was supposed to be a meeting in another building to introduce all the teachers to the students. I got caught in a sea of students flooding into the room when Mrs. Zhang caught me and sent me to another door for the teachers. Of course, I was left without a translator, so I just had to watch for clues about what to do. Little Ten was there and made sure to say hello. He is teaching a class on how to be a good host - like tv or radio show. Little Ten has a radio show and at the dinner the other night told me to learn Chinese so I could come on his show. He also said that he wants me to be his English teacher.

After all of the pomp of the meeting, we went back to our classroom. After I gave everyone (all 35) an English name and briefly introduced myself, there was no time left for the lesson. Oh, well. It's just the way it goes around here! You learn quickly to roll with the punches.

This evening, Mo and I went to another E.C. in the heart of the city. We stopped to get jiao zi at her favorite restaurant and she showed me shop of the shopping areas of the city like where to get good fruit, silver jewelry, etc. The important things! Anyway, this E.C. is for younger people, mainly students, in the city. We got there a little late and the young couple that I had met briefly at the Wednesday E.C. was there. I was immediately surrounded by young kids and some adults asking me so many questions that I couldn't even answer one before they were asking me another. I probably answered the same question three or four times because they weren't listening. Anyway, once all the madness and frenzy died down, I was able to get a core group of middle school aged students to talk to.

One kid asked me quite boldly asked me if I was a C and as I was picking my jaw up off the floor he shared with me that he was too. I have had a few locals share this with me and I am so excited about the work my father is doing here. There is a lot of possibility here and I am just waiting on him to show me where to get busy.

Okay, so I looked up the lyrics to "My Name Is Luka" after I titled this blog and much to my surprise is totally about domestic violence. What a horrible song for children to sing! I only ever knew the first few lines, and didn't even get them right: "My name is Luka. I live on the second floor. Yes, I think I've seen you before."