My students

I want to take the time to write about my students and each of my classes. For most, if not all of you, this will be very boring. But I am going to write out every mundane detail anyways. This will be a chance for me to rant and just address and release any frustration I currently hold about teaching. For those of you who have not read my "I'm so depressed!" post on my other blog, long story short, I have been overcome with a wave of inexplicable, intense sadness and I don't know how to stop it. But I figure talking about every possible thing on my mind might help. Let's start with my students, the people I see every day, whether I want to or not.

Let's start by saying, I now feel quite strongly that I do not want to become a teacher. I don't know how many people who go to foreign countries to teach English have a real desire to teach; but before coming to China, I actually considered teaching as a possible career. But I also wanted to have the chance to travel before having to have a real job. So I figured that teaching English in China would give me the opportunity to 1) try out teaching without having to make a big commitment (ie. teach, but not have to teach a full 40 hour week), 2) escape the United States and travel, and 3) learn Chinese (though I don't know how successful I am being with this). But after having taught (at only 20 hours a week) here in China, I am extremely confident, that at this point in my life, I do not want to become a teacher when I return to Los Angeles. A number of reasons, which we will get into later.

Now about my students.

So I teach 5 different sets of students. That is quite a large number considering some teachers here teach only 3 sets of students.

Let's talk about my favorite set of students. They're my CSP1 section (CSP means that they're at the intermediate level of English).

Let's make a digression to explain the classification of students' abilities. My school divides the students into 3 levels. QP is the absolute beginner's level, meaning many of these students would not understand a single sentence spoken to them in English. I do not teach any QP classes. CSP is the intermediate level. Obviously there is a wide range of students in this level. Some of the students can communicate decently in English, and can understand most of what I say to them as long as I speak very slowly. However, there are some students who just string together words, that are obviously translated directly from Chinese. And finally, there are the GES students who are the most advanced in the school. These students can understand nearly everything I say, but again only when I speak slowly, and can respond fairly well in a complete sentence. All those letters actually stand for something, but it doesn't really matter since the abbreviations are only used in my school anyways.

Okay, back to my CSP1 students. I teach these students writing and a class called "World Cultures." I do not develop curricula for any of my classes. I am given text books and I pretty much just teach straight from the text book. I see my World Cultures class everyday, and so of course I am the most attached to them and favor these students over other students. In world cultures, I pretty much spend each week talking about a different region in the world and talking about geography, landforms, cash crops, etc. Imagine elementary school social science class. I love these students. They're super well-behaved. They respond to me when I ask them questions. I feel that they respect me, and I think that they like me. These are the students that I went to karaoke (or KTV as it's called here) with, and these are the students I went to dinner with (in the picture below). And I went shopping with some students in this class. I just really like these students, mainly because they listen to me, they do their work, and they like me, inside of class and out.

Now for my other CSP sections, I only see them twice a week. Writing class only meets twice a week. And quite frankly, I feel like I cannot be effective in it because 2 hours a week is simply not enough hours. And the book is kinda crappy, and the students are at such varied levels, I really don't know what to do to make sure that everyone gets the most out of it.

My CSP2 section is the class with the most trouble students. The overall English ability of this entire section is a lot lower than the ability of my CSP1 section (even though technically they are categorized as the same level, so should know the same material at the end of the year). This class has got the students that skip class a lot and students that fall asleep in class. Also, I'm pretty confident that about a quarter of the class doesn't understand the words coming out of my mouth when I teach. The only problem is, that those students make no effort to pay attention or attempt to understand (because they're either zoning out or dozing off). Even after I explain things and repeat things 2 times, students still don't know what I'm talking about. You're thinking, "Well maybe you're just an awful teacher Wendy!" But quite honestly, I am explaining simple things in the simplest way possible, it's just that some students don't listen. Like today in class, I explained what a topic sentence was to the class. Then I called on Leo to explain what a topic sentence was. He didn't know, cuz um, he was asleep. Then immediately after I explain to Leo and make him repeat a sentence, I call on another student named Penn to give the definition of a topic sentence. And he didn't know, cuz um, he was zoning out. And I just didn't know what the hell to do, because at this point I have explained it 5 times, and half the class knows what's going on, and I feel like an idiot for saying the same thing over and over when most of the people understand, but a handful don't. Do I stop class and hand-hold the ones who don't understand? Or do I just leave them to get further behind?

And the thing is, outside of class I freaking love these students. I've been to dinner with them; I've had lunch with them. I have conversations with them outside of class and I freaking love them. They're pleasant and lively and funny. But in class, I can't get them to be freaking awake. I don't understand. What I should do is give them more hands-on activities. But how do I take the time to do the activities and still make sure that I get through the textbook by the end of the year?

Now for CSP Qinghua, a class that I also see only twice a week.

Oh yeah, did you know that my school has two campuses in Beijing? That means that twice a week, when I go to teach my CSP Qinghua class, I have to commute for 40 minutes each way to teach for a one-hour long class.

I live at the ErWai college campus. And I teach 3 of my 5 sections at the ErWai campus, in an academic building that is literally right next to my dorm building. And I teach 2 of my 5 sections at the Qinghua campus, which is actually quite close to ErWai, but because of the heinous traffic, it takes nearly an hour each way.

The CSP Qinghua class is the class that I nearly cried in front of yesterday. Not because of any real reason. This class has got the largest ability gap of all my classes. There is one woman in the class who is pretty much fluent in English. She has lived in England for several years, and she is married to a British man, so yeah, she's pretty much fluent. I don't really understand why she's in the class, since she's worlds better than the other students. So a lot of the time, I feel a lot of pressure to teach her something, since I feel like she's not learning anything from me. But in the exact same section, there are students who are literally incoherent. I have one student (the one whom I had the infamous "did you write about day or night? yes. did you write about day? yes. did you write about night? yes." conversation with) who cannot form a single correct sentence in the class.

Why isn't she in a lower section you ask? Well I wonder the same thing. And to be honest, process in China is process in China and sometimes it doesn't make sense but you just have to go with it. I know this doesn't make much sense, but I'll write a post about this later. But the simple answer: No fucking clue.

Anyways, this class makes me so frustrated. Mainly because they are so fucking antsy. Writing is usually the last class of the day, and on days that they have writing class, they have to stay an hour later than usual; so yeah, no one wants to be there. And this class especially, expresses this sentiment in a physical way. I have students who are asleep. I have students who are shaking their legs the whole time, checking their watches, just itching to get out. I have students who whisper to each other in Chinese. I have students who are doing homework for other classes. And I just don't know what to do. I just feel completely powerless and disrespected. I just think to myself, "How can you disrespect me so much to fall asleep in my fucking face, while I am standing right next to your desk talking at you?" And yesterday it was just too much for me, and I wanted to cry, but I didn't. And the problem is, that again with this class, I love them after class, and before class, when we're just having conversations. But in class, I hate them and I want to rip their little heads off. And sometimes I do have my little power tripping lectures with them. And it's getting harder and harder for me to be pleasant with them outside of class when they fucking disrespect me in class. And I just don't know what to do. Part of me just wants to show up to class, and say, "you don't want to fucking be here? You're not going to listen to me? You're not going to pay attention? Why don't we all just fucking leave?! Because I do not want to be here any more than you do you little brats!" And these are full grown adults. And the problem is that as a student I have the same bad habits. I don't pay attention all the time. Sometimes I get really drowsy in class. Sometimes I do homework for other classes. And as a student I always thought, "It's not personal." But as a teacher, I am taking it fucking personal. It is so fucking personal. And maybe that's my problem, maybe I should just let it go. And keep talking even if no one is listening. But then I just feel like a damn useless ineffective teacher. And if I just give them games to do all the time, then I'll just feel like I'm not providing them enough hard knowledge. Fuck, life is complicated. AHHHH! When I think about this class, I just want to scream. I want to punish them and make them do 50 push-ups or something.

Next is my GES class. I teach them reading, idioms, and pronunciation. This class is fine. I don't feel much of a connection to this class since I started teaching them 6 weeks into the semester. Also because they're the highest level, I feel like they don't need me as much, so I feel like I'm not teaching them much. I think that they like me (I hate that it's so important that the students not only learn from me, but like me too). There are 3 students in the class who are obviously placed in a level that is way too hard for them. 1 student in particular is extremely socially awkward, performs the worst, and quite honestly might have some sort of disorder. This is also quite a difficult position for a teacher. I have some students who are very obviously depressed and obviously has shit going down outside of class (based on the things that they write in their assignments and their body language in class), but what is my role to do anything about it as a teacher? And these are the students who are performing poorly in class. And this will sound horrible, but sometimes it's not only knowing what the best thing to do for the student is, but caring enough to actually take the time to do it. And so far, I haven't done anything. And with the one socially awkward student in my class, she is obviously ostracized by the other students. Often when I tell students to work in groups, she is left out from the group so she works silently alone. At lunch, sometimes she sits in the classroom by herself. During the halloween party, she wore this completely bizarre costume and either danced by herself or sat alone in an empty area. And of course as a teacher I make an effort to talk to her, to spend time with her, to do work with her, but I am also human. And as awful as this sounds, I also hate having to put in all the effort and energy to deal with someone who is very very awkward and has a very very low ability for speaking English. So it's true, I want to focus on the good-looking students, on the students who perform the best in class, on the students who are outgoing and likable.

And lastly is my Sunday class. Yes people, I have to work on Sundays. This is what happens when you work for a private school for adults (with a president that really only cares about making as much money from Chinese people as possible). I work from 9a-12p every Sunday. Only 3 hours, but it still puts a damper on my weekend, since it pretty much means I can't go out on Saturday night since I have to wake up early on Sunday. Part of me is kinda grateful, cuz I always feel so productive when I wake up early and have the afternoon free; but still I hate it. This class is quite small (only 4-8 people each week) and each week seems to be a different set of students. I really don't think it's effective for them, but I guess any little bit helps. And I teach these students business. Hah. Again, I pretty much teach the textbook, and go through exercises so it's not that difficult. But I usually only prepare for the upcoming class the night before or the morning of the class, so it's definitely not my A game. Sometimes I'm bored by my own teaching, so now I've decided to just focus more on speaking activities. Though I hate the fact that I pretty much teach my students materialism (half of my activities involve them trying to sell a product).

All this drama and pent up frustration over just 20 hours a week. Gosh, you must seriously be wondering what the big deal is. But seriously, these classes are pretty much all I think about; that is when I'm not thinking about how annoying some of the other teachers are or about how much I miss my family and friends and college and L.A. or about how I'm an incompetent/unproductive ass who is wasting away. So yeah, you can imagine how all this can bring a person down.

Seasons.

Living in Beijing has proven to me that 4 seasons, in fact, do exist. Having lived in Los Angeles my entire life (in fact, the only times I have not lived in Los Angeles have been when I've been living in Beijing), I thought that winter came when I had to switch from wearing skirts with my flip-flops to wearing jeans with my flip-flops; when it went from 80+ degrees in the summer to a whopping 60 degrees in the winter.

And being in Beijing now, in autumn, I feel pretty excited to experience a true fall and winter. Autumn really is a beautiful season. The trees on campus are turning golden yellow, and the leaves are drying up and falling down.

It started getting cold about 3 weeks ago, but I think I've been adjusting well. And when I say cold, I mean cold by L.A. standards. The temperature here is in the 40s and 50s during the day and drops down to the 30s at night (I'm still thinking in Fahrenheit). I was really cold in the beginning, but now that I've started wearing my pea coat, with scarf, beanie, gloves, and leggings under my jeans (yes folks, we have to wear long underwear every day), I've gotten better at adjusting to the cold. Maybe in a few weeks I'll break out the infamous ear muffs.

But it is only going to get colder. Colder and dryer and grayer. I am not looking forward to the days when all the trees in the city will be barren branches. And I'm thinking that it will probably snow here in January. Though I'm dreading the idea of living in snow and cold, to be honest part of me is a little excited about it. I want to experience it, and prove to myself that I can be hardcore and handle the cold. And then I want to run back to L.A. and stay in the sun forever because after a few days of being cold, I'm pretty sure I'd trade in my long johns for a pair of flip-flops.

But for now, I walk around Beijing decked out in my autumn gear (I need to buy more layers for true winter weather) thinking, "I am so intense. It never gets this cold in Los Angeles, even in the dead of winter. Look at me, I am super hard-core./ Omg omg it's so cold. I wish I had a ski mask to keep my nose warm. Ahh I hate wearing long underwear!" Yes, I'm deep, I know.

esl learners say the darndest things

Correcting student homework is a giant pain in the ass, but what makes it less painful is when I come across a hilarious sentence that a student writes. Sometimes the hilarity happens accidentally (since the students don't fully grasp the connotations of certain words). Sometimes it's just outrageous since Chinese culture is definitely different than American culture, and what's considered "appropriate" is just completely different.

For example, one of my students Joe, wrote in his homework... (the assignment was to practice using "because" correctly)..."I want to find a wife because I'm very lazy." HAH! Well, at least he's upfront about it? WOW is all I can say.

And on a less slap-in-the-face patriarchal note, another student for a similar assignment, practicing using "because" (The students were supposed to pretend they were teachers and write a letter to the government requesting more money) randomly signed his letter "Jack Sparrow." I laughed outloud at this one.

There are a bunch more, but I didn't take the time to write them down (since I'm usually scrambling at the last minute to finish it all in time).

Happy post/ Photo mania!

Since I haven't uploaded any photos in a really long time, this is gonna be a big one (hah, overused The Office quote here). I've decided to date the photos and present them in reverse chronological order (with captions!)

Friday, November 9, 2007This is a photo of my world culture class (some students are missing). The teachers decided to treat the students to dinner because they won the Halloween costume contest. We ate at the restaurant above the swimming pool on campus. Yummy in my tummy; though it would've been yummier if I didn't have to avoid the spicy dishes because of my sore throat. Wahh.


Saturday, November 3, 2007
Some of my students invited me to go shopping with them, at 8:30 in the morning! We took the subway and bus for over an hour to go to TianYi market (which is the same market I ventured to when I was abroad). We only stayed there for 20 minutes because the students didn't like the clothes, so we took the bus to another market. There I bought a bajillion and a half pairs of earrings for myself and my little sister. Then we ate hot pot. We ordered wayyy too much food. I didn't get the boots or the coat I had been longing for. The students were majorly disappointed.


Friday, October 26, 2007

Halloween Partay! I literally spent over two hours searching for the perfect dance party '90s jock jams mix to play for the kiddos. This is me with some teachers. The teachers wanted to go for the beauty pageant contestants from each of our states, but I wanted to dress up and embarrass myself in front of the students so I tied a bunch of balloons to myself and went as a bunch of grapes (A California grape from Napa Valley!). I don't think any of the students could guess what I was. And then some snotty boys starting chasing me and popping my balloons.

My boys! All these boys bought the same costume. Cute as all hell. I heart these boys so much. They were too shy to dance, and just kept shoving their friends into the circle.

Sunday, October 21, 2007
This was on a Sunday afternoon after teaching at the Qinghua campus. That's the new CCTV tower in construction. Kinda crazy huh? They're in the process of building a part that is going to connect the two leaning towers.

This is a mock-up of what the final product is going to look like. Crazy huh? Oh yeah, just imagine a layer of brown pollution and a bunch of other buildings covering half of the structure to imagine what the real thing will look like.

Seriously, this is just an example of why China is so amazing. After buying a knock-off power cord for my laptop, I found these two men trying to balance this mess of metal frames and poles on a tricycle cart.

Saturday, October 20, 2007
My third time at the Summer Palace ever. I've got to say this was my most favorite time at the Summer Palace. It was a nice sunny fall day, and it was so relaxing. I could just lay on the rocks by Kunming Lake forever.

Check out the gorgeous sun on the gorgeous lake through the gorgeous trees. And paddle boats! I didn't go on one since we didn't have enough time.

My third time to the Summer Palace but this was actually my first time on this bridge and the little island area. Pretty stuff.

This is the marble boat. That's right, a boat, made out of marble. It looked a lot dinkier than I remember. Yes I just called a marble boat dinky.


Sunday, October 14, 2007
My first ride on the new Number 5 subway line that opened up a few weeks ago. This subway line is ni-ice. I'm talking nice. The other subway lines in Beijing are really old, and so the train cars are dirty and worn. But in addition to the trains being brand new, they made the station all tourist friendly, with Beijing advertisements all over the place and Chinese art and everything.

And of course, part of that means making things look really "Chinese," like traditional Chinese, as shown by the banisters of this staircase. P.S. That person on the left is posing for a picture.

I felt really cheesy and touristy wanting to take pictures of a new subway line, but then I reached the platform and literally every single person there was taking pictures. I think everyone is really impressed by how clean it is and that there are sliding doors (which none of the other lines in Beijing have). There were soo many people taking pictures it was kinda ridiculous. In fact there were people taking pictures of people taking pictures!!! Redonkulous. And inside the train they have the poles that jut out in three for more handle space (like the ones in Bangkok), and an electronic light that shows what stop is coming up next.

Saturday, October 13, 2007
Partying for Tori's birthday. It was a theme party, so it explains the outfits.

Monday, October 8, 2007
Dinner at a delicious sushi restaurant. The restaurant reminded me of something I would find in L.A. It was sooo yummy, and there was avocado!!! I went a second time and gorged myself on tons and tons and tons of free sushi. I found out the owner is a Chinese American guy from SoCal, who is not so generous since the "free" dinner didn't end up being free after all (it was still free for me though since I bailed before the check came)

Sunday, October 7, 2007
"Reunion" dinner (from the National Holiday vacation) with the teachers at Vineyard Cafe. I got lovely red wine and delicious cheesy lasagna from this place. LOVE it.

Sunday, September 30, 2007
Woke up at 4:30 am to go see the flag-raising at Tian'anmen Square. Look at how dark it still was! This was at 5:30 am for the 6:00am flag raising. There was already a crowd. And this guard was literally falling asleep while standing up. I felt sorry for him. Who knows how long he's been standing out there in the cold?

Even though it was the national holiday weekend, the flag raising was pretty uneventful. I mean, it is exactly how it sounds. Guards march out holding the flag, they play the national anthem and they raise the flag. I bet it would've been better if I could actually see something. Too bad practically everyone is the same damn height so all I could see was the back of people's heads. And personal space is non-existent here, so I was pretty up close and personal with some Chinese people.

They had all these special floral arrangements and decorations on Tian'anmen Square for the National Holiday. Behind me is the Monument to the People's Heroes. And the giant picture? I actually have no idea what that guy's name is, but I've seen his picture on a lot of stuff, especially Chinese school books in the states. And yes, it was cold cold cold that morning and everyone was looking at me like a freak for wearing flip-flops.

The Olympic countdown outside the Chinese National Museum. I've never been and it's closed for renovations until years from now. I am bummed, and feeling stupid for not going when I was here two years ago.
Guards marching across the street to enter Tian'anmen Square.

After hanging out at Tian'anmen, I found my way to a baozi (steamed bun) shop. Since it was so early in the morning, they were unloading lots of veggies. Here is a bunch of bok choy. Omg, I've never seen so much bok choy in my life. I kinda don't think they wash veggies before cooking them here, just speculation though. The guy is using the cleaver to slice these bunches of bok choy.

Saturday, September 29, 2007
In the lobby of the Forbidden City concert hall for the Chinese fold music concert.

Look at the outfits! They're uh, kinda awesome, and pink. The instrument on the left is the plucking instrument.

Friday, September 28, 2007
A night out at Area bar. This place was gorgeous. All these curtains and beds to relax on. It felt like a nice club in L.A. that I could probably never afford.

So we showed up ridiculously early and of course were the first ones there. We assumed it would be more happening as it got later into the night. But we ended up being only 1 of two groups of people there. But it was soo much fun cuz it just meant that we dominated the dance floor. :-)

Yayyy all caught up on pictures!

the joys of teaching

Sometimes teaching is just one big power trip. One of my faults is that I definitely do not check my moods at the door. If I am in a bad mood, I teach in a bad mood and take it out on my students. I get impatient and at times spiteful. It is absolutely horrible. Earlier today, I think one of my students was talking on her cell phone. (I'm not really sure if she was, but she had the phone to her head. And I was not happy with it). It took me 15 minutes to realize that she didn't even have the workbook that we were reading from. I seriously considered stopping the lesson, embarrassing her in front of the class, and kicking her out. But instead I just decided to give her a workbook silently. It might have worked to embarrass her anyways since everyone in class noticed. And for the rest of the period I stood at the back of the classroom, which was an interesting experience.

I have horrible chalkboard handwriting. Apparently people take classes to learn how to use a chalkboard effectively. I think I need to take that class. I write so slowly, and my handwriting is so messy; it's embarrassing.

In other happy news, I am getting a cold sore on my upper lip. It is not pretty. So not not pretty. Luckily, I have some cream that I brought with me from the States, so it's preventing it from breaking out in a giant bloody open sore. But that's not to say it won't eventually happen. How embarrassing, especially in a profession where people are looking at my mouth all freaking day. Perfect timing though, I get a horrible sore throat (to the point where I have to suck on cough drops during class in front of students) and then I get a cold sore. It's funny how the immune system works.

One more thing to add to the list of reasons why I hate having a job: Still having to work while you're sick.

Gosh, what a downer post. I swear I'll give a cheery-er post next time, with pictures!

Hodge Podge

which could potentially be really awful depending on who actually reads my blog.

Just random recap of my weeks here since the last post.

Today, I saw a couple having an argument in the middle of campus. The woman was in tears and loudly groaning and occasionally slapping her partner. And of course the first thought in my head was, "Just break up! Just break up! Break up!" Then I realized how insensitive I was being. They're probably in the process of breaking up, and I remember how hard something like that is, so then I mentally chided myself. And the second thing I thought about was why they would be having such a private conversation in such a seemingly public place. Then I remembered that maybe a public courtyard is more private than doing it in your dorm room, since nearly everyone lives in a dorm room with at least 5 other people. That's right people. 6 people to a room! 3 sets of bunk beds, and that's pretty much it. I don't know how they do it. And every day I feel that lucky to have my own bedroom and bathroom.

It happened, for the second time. I started laughing in the middle of teaching. Today it happened in reading class, when I got really excited about telling the students about Left Eye (from TLC) and her fire incident. The article we were reading was about why some people start fires on purpose. The first time I cracked up in class was a few weeks ago when I was teaching my writing class at the Tsinghua campus. Now you have to keep in mind, I teach writing to three sets of students. Usually, the students are done with classes at 3:20 pm. But once a week (for a set of students, twice a week), they have to stay an hour later, and take my class. So you can imagine how antsy they are in my class. During this one period in particular, the kids were all over the place, would not listen, just stared off, whispered to each other, and it was just too ridiculous. I think sometimes students don't realize the view teachers have of the classroom. I'm standing at the front of the class! I see you sleeping/staring/talking! And they act soooo surprised when I call on them when I know they're not paying attention. At one point the whole situation was too funny, I was just in complete disbelief and had to just start laughing in class. I don't think anyone else knew why. I tried to hide behind my book, but it was just too strong.

I've got this horrible sore throat. I'm not sick just yet, but I'm sure it's coming. I've been screaming a lot. Not yelling at the students. Just projecting like crazy. Reasons. 1. The acoustics in some of the classrooms are horrible. Just echo like mad. 2. Sometimes I get really annoyed at the students not paying attention, so for some stupid reason I just think, well if I talk louder then they won't be able to sleep! 3. Talking louder helps my pronunciation, at least I think it does. It's a lot easier to do the clear-talking, patronizing, enunciation when you're half-way screaming. I can't help myself. I don't think the students notice though. I think they just think I'm trying to be really clear. (I have gotten compliments on my pronunciation. GO California accent! P.S. I'm the only teacher here from California).

Sometimes I think I'm an awful teacher. I have reached that level of impatience where I've resorted to singling out and embarrassing the students who don't listen. Common technique. I'm at the front of the class talking. Student A is obviously not paying attention. Student A is outrightly talking to another student while I'm talking. Whoa, major disrespect. What makes me more evil is that while this is happening I'm thinking, "Student A, what the hell do you think you're doing talking while I'm talking. Of all the damn people in the class, you of all people should be paying attention," while I mock their inability to speak English properly in my head.

Then I call on the student. I ask, "Student A, question question question." Silence. Again, "Student A, question question question." Still silence. "Student A, question question question." (If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of repeating myself 15 times). Then I step up the assholish-ness to a brand new level. "Student A, do you know the answer?" Silence. "No?" Silence, occasional shaking of the head. "Why don't you know the answer?" "You don't know the answer because you were talking, while I was talking. (Imagine lots and lots of pausing and nodding while I'm saying this) Why are you at this school? Why are you learning English? If you actually want to learn English, then you need to pay attention in class, RIGHT? You can speak Chinese anytime you want after class, but when you are in class, you need to speak in English, OKAY?" Then I continue on with my patronizing slow teacher-speak for the rest of class. And I feel so awful that I have to just look at the rest of the class and only look back at Student A occasionally. And at the end of class, I feel absolutely exhausted and drained and like a big fat meanie, which I am. And that is why I deserve to have a sore throat right now. But seriously? You'd be surprised how many students fall right back asleep/go right back to not paying attention right after I called them out on their shit.

Oh Wendy and your procrastinating, slow to change ways. I finally cleaned up the pile of laundry that has been sitting on my floor for the past 2 weeks. ie. I re-hung all my dirty clothes because I'm too lazy to actually do laundry. I think few people would guess this about me, but I'm actually really disgusting. For the past 2-3 weeks, I had been wearing worn dirty socks, every day, because I didn't want to do laundry (in my defense, laundry is a major pain here in China, since there are no dryers. And the washing machines here really suck and everything comes out with lint all over it). But yeah, I still need to sweep up all the dust and hair that has accumulated over the past few weeks. This morning a woman knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted a cleaning service (since our dorm building doubles as a hotel, and I think I'm living in one of the designated "hotel" rooms, so she probably got mixed up that morning), but I said no because I was too embarrassed about my room (and cuz I was in a rush).

I'm thinking about getting into astrology. Completely out of character I know. But something about this non-sense kinda intrigues me. I'm a cancer. Cancers are apparently really emotional, sensitive, clingy, social and reserved, full of contradictions, procrastinators. I would say all those are true about me except for the clingy part. But then again, I know that this zodiac stuff is written to fit practically everyone, and people always only pick out the points that are accurate to focus on. But yeah, still fun.

I've kinda sorta been drinking a lot of Long Island Iced Teas. That's not really healthy. Granted it's a step up from my previous drink of choice (vodka redbull), but yeah, that's not saying much as far as my class/taste level.

Oh yeah, I got a massage two weeks ago, and it pretty much felt like someone beat up my back. It was awesome. And I was majorly sore afterwards.

And I went shopping with some of my students this past weekend. It was fun, but exhausting. We went at 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday! By choice (of course not mine, but still.. their choice!).

Also, today I discovered this awesome chicken lettuce sandwich type thing here. A sandwich!? The thing I've been craving. It's kinda a cross between a pita and a burger sandwich. They slice fatty roast chicken off a skewer, mix it up with lettuce and onions and douse it in sauce. They stuff it into a round pita bun. And we eat directly from the plastic bag. Golden.

Hey everyone! I got a new niece! I am now the aunt to 2 nephews and 2 nieces! And for anyone that missed the memo, I'm going to Mexico in May of 2008. Puerto Vallarta and maybe (probably) L.A.

Too lazy to update

But I wanted to tell you that I got a new student in one of my classes named T-Mac. Yes, T-Mac, after Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets. I had to have him write his name down on a sheet of paper, just to confirm what I actually heard. He wrote his name down, and told me that the hyphen was for "decoration."

Just a short post on the English names my Chinese students have picked for themselves. Some are straight-up bizarre. The ones that are the worst, are the ones that are perfectly common American English names, but that the student can barely pronounce. And as I've noticed with native Chinese speakers, those are the names with a bunch of R's and L's and TH's. I once met a student named Carl, and it took about 3 and a half minutes for me to figure out what his name was, even after he spelled it out for me.

But as for the really bizarre ones, I have a student named Winy, pronounced just like the name Winnie, but spelled Winy. Oh yes, intentionally. Here's the story. Her Chinese name is Ying, which is translated as the verb "to win." So she used that word, win, and added a Y at the end because her name Ying begins with a Y. Uhhh....Yep, makes perfect sense to me too.

Other favorites: Stone, Penn, Rainy, Maizie, Rocky, and Condy. I've been meaning to ask Condy if he knows about Condoleezza, but I keep forgetting.