Gonna Drag Wynn to Chinese Culture House Today

I have a feeling she's not going to like it, at least at first, based on how she has resisted contact with Chinese-speaking people on the first couple of opportunities we've had.  The married couple at Chinese culture house are teachers and are both from Kunming.  (I have not met them yet, but have corresponded by e-mail.) We are going there with the goal of setting up English tutoring for her.  I think once I make her go, this family will be a good connection for her.

She is extra grumpy this morning.  I don't know why.  Maybe because we've turned her world upside down.  Maybe because she's 14.  Maybe talking with her foster mom this morning increased her homesickness. Maybe just because everyone has grumpy days.  Big exasperated sighs, moving things around . . . firmly, kicking at the dog.  Meanwhile, I'm thinking of confiscating her headphones so she can't tune us out and must participate with family more.

Yesterday, she asked if she could stay home, so I left her with her Dad while I went to work.  He found some streaming Chinese TV.  (We have reliable internet again - it's been barely working for a while.)  So he sat in front of it, and watched her curiosity grow and her peeks into the computer room increase, until finally, she broke down and got the translator and "spoke" to him.  :)  Good plan, Dad!

This morning, she wanted to watch again, and I was unable to find the channel she wanted.  She kept whacking the translator in front of me with "Not this."  I would go to the next bookmarked channel and ask, "This one?"  But I was wrong over and over, and her sighs and thumping things around got louder and louder.  I made her stop kicking at Karma and said that the dog could lie at my feet, under the computer desk, not bothering anything.  Wynn said, "Ask it to leave," and I answered, "She will leave with me. She likes to follow me," so that ticked her off too.  So Michael came to help find the right streaming channel, and I left, demonstrating that Karma would follow.

OK.  That's just this morning.  That's not a picture of her overall personality, which is, in fact, expansively generous and kind hearted.  She brought the translator on Monday with the message, "I have an idea how to make brother's birthday even more special.  Would you like to hear it?"  Yes! I would!  Her idea had to do with making it a surprise party, not mentioning his birthday, until you "bring him to table, eyes covered, and candle, and start to sing."  Well, it won't work that way since there is a party planned in the afternoon at Jump N Party inflatable playground, but I still love that she thinks about these things.  What a sweetie.

She is talking to the kids more and more, but she is self-conscious and still uses NO words with the adults or if she knows adults are listening.  (Except at the clinic, she says "Hi," and "Bye" to other therapists now, and she doesn't seem to mind if I overhear her talking to children.)  If she continues practicing with the children and avoiding adults, I may end up enrolling her in school sooner than I anticipated so she has peers to practice with.  She started giving Chinese lessons to Gabrian and Ari in her room.  She told me (wrote) that she was teaching them to say their colors in Chinese.  She asked me to follow her, and when we got out of earshot of the family so she felt less embarrassed, she asked me to help her say, "What color is this?" correctly in English so that she could continue their lessons.  At the dinner table, she pointed to a pink cup for Gabrian to say "pink" in Chinese.  She looked very proud of her accomplishment and said, via translator, "He learns very quickly."  Cameron then took the translator and typed, "You learn very quickly, too."   It was a nice moment.