Day 3 of 30 Days of Biking

I was pretty tired and sore after the last two days, but I resolved to bike to my church this morning anyway. I used my errand bike which is a lot heavier, but which allows me to carry the books I needed. It's only about 5 miles each way.

On Thursday mornings I volunteer teaching ESOL at the church. I have the most advanced group, which is good, because they ask hard questions!  When everyone is there I have 1 young lady from France (an au pair), 1 lady from Ukraine, 2 women from China, 1 woman from Korea and three people from India -- a young married couple and her uncle who also attends.  Today one of our teachers was out for a family emergency, so I

had one gentleman from Viet Nam and another lady from China.  However, one of my original ladies from China is there visiting family, my second lady from China was home sick, and my Korean lady didn't show.

So ... we were reviewing today which was good for the students from the other class.  Our format is that we do pretty intensive grammar, have a break with the other classes and have some food. Then as a group we review a few Bible verses, and 2 or 3 idioms that are linked in some way to those verses. Then we do a

song or chant together. When we return to our group my students go over a newspaper article that I've given them the week before. We hunt for difficult words or concepts and idioms. I try to vary the subject matter. We've done science, fashion, soccer -- but we don't do politics!

Our article we went over today had been brought by one of the students last week. It was about DNA and how forensic anthropologists are confirming that "race" is not a scientific classification. It said that there are more variations with a particular "race" than between races! It provoked a very good conversation. My lady from Ukraine is very outspoken and will ask questions that make Americans cringe. She asked the Indians about the caste system.  Fortunately, we didn't have enough time to go really deep on that one!

After class I thought about doing some shopping while I was out, but I'm really tired, and I didn't have my lock with me, so I just came home.  I think it's time to do some resting...