Mom's Week in Changzhou

It has been so much fun showing my mom around Changzhou!  It's definitely not a touristy spot, which is super nice and kind of funny.  When mom tells people that she visited Changzhou, China, they will be so confused as to why!

Though it isn't a touristy area, there are of course fun things to do here.  One example would be the parks that I posted about yesterday, which are so beautiful!  We also have a few amusement parks that we've never actually hit.  People say that Changzhou is a "small" city, but it has well over 4 million residents!

We have some delicious restaurants here, all of which we took my mom to this week.  A favorite is Grandma's Home which is basically American style Chinese food.  Of course we also went to get fried dumplings and Muslim noodles!  Bailey's schedule on Monday was really open, so he was able to take mom out for lunch and meet up with our friends Monica and Andrew.

On Tuesday night we went to the movie theater to watch the new Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D.  Changzhou is the place for going to the theater, as tickets are about $3 each!

My favorite part of having my mom in Changzhou was that she was able to come to class with me!  She stopped in unexpectedly on Monday and got some pictures of my kids playing charades.

For the rest of the week I had her help me plan lessons and do crafts with the kids.  Let's just say I could not have done the beaded caterpillar craft without her help!

It was really fun for me to just turn the time over to my mom and watch my kids in her lessons.  My mom is such a great teacher!  My second graders got a big kick out of the fact that my mom teaches second grade in America.  They all loved Teacha Trudy (more often pronounced "Judy"), especially when she gave each of them an American coin!

I wish my mom could just stay and help in my classes for the rest of the semester!  The kids are way better when there are two teachers in the room, and it is so fun to have an expert at my side!  I feel very happy that she was able to meet my kids who I have grown to love so much!