cranky.

sorry to say, I'm feeling kind of cranky this day.
I stubbed my toe. It bled.
Of course the day wasn't all bad, I had a reasonably fun Chinese class where we learned that when they really want to express the completeness of an action they continue to add the particle "le" which means you get such interesting phrases as kanle shule, chile fanle, shuole huole, and a variety of other phrases which sound most amusing when said in quick succession.
I had my Yuli Elementary class today, they are so adorable! It was really hot today, and during both of my classes it felt like my face and neck were covered in sweat! ICK. I later discovered that that classroom at least, has air conditioning. We played a lot of games in my class today since I was getting bored of teaching the same way every day (and if I'm bored, my students surely must be!), I actually divided them into four teams and did a series of competitions to illustrate the verbs I was teaching (swimming, jumping etc)
Then my troubles started, as they normally do, at Yuli Jr. High... now I have been having problems with this class for quite some time, and have been trying to communicate a very simple thing to this teacher, and have been told that other teachers have spoken with him on my behalf, since my class has become a rather unpredictable time of some weeks having just the girls (slightly more preferable) and some weeks having just the boys... all I want is to teach a class that is mixed, with the students who really want to be elsewhere allowed to go... I have been trying to accomplish this all semester (between a number of long hiatuses), and today attempted to discuss it with him before the class began, as he was dismissing the girls.... anyways, it was an extremely frustrating situation, and the ensuing class not very fun (particularly for me). At this point I have no desire to continue teaching the class, though there are only three weeks left, so is it better to just stick it out rather than making a statement? It of course means at least three more days of misery... knowing that i can't follow up on any of my material, whether i should basically teach the same lesson again or whether i'll have the same students, or some the same and others not.. anyways, that was my main source of frustration (other than my poor toe) today.

In other odd and exciting news, our friend Marcus is coming to help us for the second week of Jr. High camps we're doing in July (which at this point i must say part of me is dreading)... he's the friend we shared our first 2 weeks in Taiwan with and who accompanied us on our trip to Hong Kong! I'm looking forward to it!

One more thing that I can remember right now is that yesterday while we were eating lunch (a delicious hot pot) I got a phone call from a reporter strange you say... that's what I thouhgt.. anyways, she was doing a story about a retired teacher who has been volunteering to help some of the poor students in the area, and ended up at my favorite school: Yon Feng where she heard about me.... we quickly arranged for her to meet us at my second favorite school, Zhuo Feng, where we happened to be teaching that afternoon and got in a brief interview... It was kinda cool, but a little strange to think that i would be newsworthy

well on further reflection, i only have one class tomorrow, i read the amazing novel Jane Eyre today, and more things are good than bad, thanks be to God in any case.

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