School, Tai Chi, and popcorn!

We are getting our first thunderstorm since we have been here. Thunder, lightening, wind and real rain. It will be so nice to have the streets and buildings cleaned of the Gobi sand. We took a bus ride to Carefore, a department store, today and took a short walk to the market. The weather was sunny and was in the 60's and made me think of the weather in MO. It was very enjoyable, made me want to go for a walk at the Nature Center.
School continues to be a learning experience for me. I think now that when I feel like I am boring the students because of the blank looks on their faces and their restless behavior that they just plain don't have a clue what I am saying. When I slow down and try to engage them all from the front seats to the back seats they seem to come alive. I have the opportunity in class sometimes to empathize with them when they try to tell me something and I can't get it because of pronounciation. I ask them to repeat it several times. Too bad they don't feel like they can do that with me. One of my students told me not to worry about it, we are getting used to each other. She also said they would soon get used to my teaching style. I hope they don't too soon because it is still in process!
We are slowly learning Tai Chi and I mean slowly. Our teachers Lee and Xiao Huang ("Schow Hwong") tell us to take it one step by one step "Yi pu, yi pu. (e poo) That is a good thing to learn for all of living. I am working on it. I have been sore in the upper body from this. Karl, did you experience that? Of course you are a ways younger than me so maybe not. We have about 2 years to learn so hopefully we will come home with some knowledge and skill to share.
Movie night tonight. We bought a movie and found some Chinese style kettle corn on the street that we are looking forward to. Have a great weekend.