Daily life

- My salary is not able to be picked up yet, this makes me irked. Cuz they don't tell me to pick it up and then they tell me to and then I go and there's no money. wtf.

- I just got a text saying "skyou" this is Li's version of "Thank you" He also says "sr" for sorry. It's like he's two, uber cute.

- I treated myself to TWO mini Hagendaas ice creams last night from rainbow mall, vanilla and strawberry. They were divine.

- My streets literally flooded yesterday afternoon. They had to put a ladder on the ground so the kids could cross this HUGE puddle. China is weeping but I couldn't be happier.

- I watched two movies yesterday "The Hours" and "Ponyo by the cliff by the sea" "The Hours" was touching and depressing and one of those oscar worthy films while "Ponyo" was a sweet story about a little fish who falls in love with a boy and wants to be human causing huge reprucutions in the process. The films were good contrasts to each other although I think I watched them in the wrong order.

- Sunday is women's day. This is a day that is supposedly international and yet we don't celebrate it in America. Why the hell not??!?! Here I got a rose and chocolate and apparently have a half day vacation on some day. C'mon America, figure it out. Women deserve a holiday. Men do not, every day is men's day.....ya brats.

- Not sure if the news has reached everyone so I might as well post on here. I'm one of the group who have applied to come back next year. Don't be sad, don't you be sad. It is so much better over here, especially job-wise whereas I would be ridiculously hard pressed to get a job in America, here they fall into my lap because I am white, a girl, and a native English speaker which makes me a prime teacher/tutor candidate. (It's true many times they specifially ask for female tutors) And I'm happy. I don't think I've been this happy in a while.

- Chinese teachers have no idea what's going on. It's so frustrating, the one in front of me always talks about how many problems why have with their students not "preforming to expectations". This is stupid because the "chinese expectation" is that every student be good at every subject no matter what. If they're not then there's something wrong with them. This is stupid. I try to tell him over and over again that some students are better at some things while others are better at other things. It's incredibly rare for a student to be great at everything, but that is what they want. They get frustrated and put more pressure on the students who feel discouraged and in turn do poorly on tests, only to receive more scolding. This is the vicious cycle.

- I on the other hand stick up for the bad kids if they are good in my classes. As long as I don't have to yell at them, they're good in my book. I have one boy in junior 1, class 1 who I see in the office, on average, twice to three times a day. I was approached by his head teacher with him in tow after teaching his class this morning and I spefically told her that he is good in my class. I don't have to yell at him. All he did today was make a paper airplane, which I took and promptly put back on his desk. Yeah, this was a little my fault because we were doing an activiy and I gave them all paper, but he didn't do it after that. She told me that his intention was to give it to his friend farther up the row because it was his birthday. I said that was FINE but do it after class. Other than the airplane incident he was a good kid, participating, keeping to himself and relativley NOT making my life hell, which I highly approve of. So I stood there and explained to the teacher in English and then made her translate to him what I said. She mostly did. I just wanted him to hear SOMETHING besides yelling for once.

- My apartment needs cleaning, uber cleaning. It's frightening. I think I will do that next period and then go downstairs for lunch.

- I showed my students a picture of Matt the other day in one of my junior two classes. I asked them to describe him. One student said he looked like Michael Jackson. Class dismissed. haha!