I am exhausted! I had to teach the entire day today, i.e. 8 a.m. - 5:20 p.m. straight with the lunch break. (Big chip on my shoulder about this: normally, i have only two classes on Friday morning - 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. - which are still pretty tiring, consindering you're on your feet for three straight hours. But today, i had to make up for the classes i didn't teach during the May holiday. Classes that i didn't know i was supposed to teach since there were no notices/signs in English informing me and other foreign teachers. So, basically, they don't tell you what you have to do, but make you make up for not doing it...grrrr!!! My frustration about this is rather daunting and my only salvation is that we're leaving in a little more than a month and i won't have to deal with an incompetent administration after this) Sorry for the vent!
Plus, we had lunch with one of my classes from last year. This was the only time they could meet and unfortunately, it was on a day that i was teaching all day. Soon after my 11:30 class we walked to the front entrance of the school, where a former student A. met us. She had a car (auto-transmission, first time seen for us!) and was going to take us to a restaurant. Her class is graduating this semester and is treating all their (loved) teachers to a lunch. Another teacher named N. joined us in the car. He lives in our building and teaches English literature. He speaks pretty good English and knows a lot of poetry by heart. He enjoys Keats, Browning, Poe, Shakespeare, among others. He's never studied abroad and all that he's learned was picked up in China. S. was quite impressed with him, not only for his literature, but N. is also a big "Matrix" fan. Once i heard that, i knew we had pretty much lost S. for the rest of the ride. A very animated discussion followed the rest of the way there.
S from now on: The restaurant was a delightful, half-outdoors buffet, filled with various Chinese foods. Other than a big cockroach that flew by the buffet line, it was a nice place. Wish Dad and Mom could've come. The students were happy to see L. Lots of hugging and picture-taking. The students, about 30 present, were quite gregarious. It was easy to see why L. liked them. They liked her a lot too, it was apparent. Talking with some of the students, they weren't sure what they were going to do once they left. One student said that XM told them the certificate they were earning would be recognized around the world, but it wasn't turning out to be as important as they thought it would be.
After lunch, A. drove us back. It started pouring rain along the way. L. dashed off to her afternoon, make-up classes. I went back home, on the way borrowing "Matrix I" and "Matrix II" from N. I spent the afternoon watching them and then L. and I watched "Matrix II" later at night.
