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Eight months in China has cured me of my Facebook addiction. I no longer feel the need to share mundane everyday things with the world, nor do I have to “Like” what others do and don’t do all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am still a big fan and I do go through the obstacles to log on to Facebook several times a week but I’ve become much more selective of what I share. Pretty interesting since what is happening here on an everyday basis is pretty shareable; lots of crazy, ridiculous things occur each and every day.

Like today when I went with the first graders on a field trip to the National Zoological Museum of China to study the bugs they have learned about in class.

The visit begins with a movie in 4D, yes, you read it right. The movie was completely logically about a dolphin. Well, why not? Though it was all in Chinese, of course, it was pretty easy to follow: Baby dolphin loses his mother and is chased by a shark, makes friends with a turtle and something else….hold on a minute….reminds me of some other movie… Never mind, 4D meant that throughout the movie we would get sprayed with water or puffs of air would appear from the chair in front and suddenly the chairs started shaking, all pretty randomly but then again, I couldn’t quite follow the dialogue. Amanda got scared and started crying and ended up as close to my lap as possible without actually being on it (so embarrassing!).

After the feature the kids were to be scientists and find answers, draw pictures and make observations about the bugs and insects. A paper and pencils were handed out and we started exploring. I had three very clever and studious little girls in my group so it was easy sailing. Up until the point when a Chinese class, of let’s say 40 students, arrived. Though a little hesitant and respectful at first they soon zoomed in on the classes from ISB, taking pictures, posing, doing the little “v” sign with their fingers while happening, as if by accident, to stand next to a foreign student. Most of the ISB students of foreign origin are used to this, this happens every time they go to the city and there are probably pictures of all members of my family in houses all over China (what they say about the pictures when showing them to their friends back home baffles me; this is my laowai friend that I met in Beijing?).

I’m just curious to know what their teacher of these Chinese students will say when they come back to school with a bunch of pictures of laowais instead of bugs.