the plan

I'll be on a plane Tuesday morning for about 25 hours. Hong Kong to Tokyo to LA to Chicago. Ugh. I'll be in the States for about a month. Actually, I hope to be in the Carriben for part of that, but somewhere in the greater North American area anyway.

Who is more in love, the woman who buys a ticket for the deadbeat she married or the guy who spends 25 hours flying from a warm placeto a frozen one? The guy is much luckier.

Wow

I'm sitting here grading things and listening to music. The album by The Gaslight Anthem started, and I instantly regretted all the time I spent last year not listening to that. Just awesome.

Oh, and the grades are excellent.

back

Just returned from a few days in Hainan. To those who don't know, its China's southernmost province. As its a warm island, its often called the Chinese Hawaii, though its a bit cooler. Still got to experience the 80s again for a bit. I got lazy and skipped the Southern half of the island, which is prettier and warmer, but was a few more hours by bus. After 13 hours sitting on a bus,i had lost interest.

My camera has a neat trick where it loses all the photos. Did it again. Night be time for a replacement. So take my word for it that it looks warmer than wherever most of you are and that I look quite appealing while swimming.

Now I just need to give exams thursday and Friday, and I'm done working until the beginning of march. Sweet.

going going gone

mylack of a passport is preventing me from paying my internet bill. So I may go quiet soon.

Enjoy this. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, and inspiring at the same time.
http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/content/dontdivorce

Someone tell me why

On my first day, I was given my schedule, and saw I had 5 phonetics classes. I mentally went over our e-mail conversations, and couldn't recall ever claiming any knowledge of phonetics, so I explained that I, like almost every native speaker, wasn't familiar with phonetics, and was woefully ill-equipped to teach such a class to a group that probably had a decent grasp of the subject. They were skeptical, but eventually seemed to accept that natives don't use the phonetic alphabet. I was told to just help them work on pronunciation.

I then focused on visa issues, not getting paid, etc.

Today I was toldthat myplan to give them an oral final exam wasunacceptable. They need to have a written final, and it must involve translating wordsinto phonetic symbols as well as the opposite, and marking stresses and intonations. Further, the final exam must account for at least 60% of their final grade. I cannot grade on a curve, with me taking the test and using that as an A (Almost every student would have well over 100% my way. I never do this stuff). If I refused to do this, I would be dismissed andthey would take the test anyway, and I would forfeit my airfare money (which might lead to litigation).

So, they are pretty happy, as I've been outwitted and lost an argument, something that hasn't happened much.

Of course, I was not told that I can't give an oral exam as well, and make that count for 80% of the final exam. So tomorrow and Friday the students will be told what the school wants, and given a choice of taking a final that day which is most of their final exam grade, which in turn is most of their final grade. I'm 99.9% sure it will be unanimous we do it my way, and my boss will be kept in the dark.

Last week, I endured an unpleasant lunch in order to help my superiors save face in front of their boss, masking my dislike for the school and not airing my long list of complaints. This week, they are willing to see 200 students have their grades suffer in order to exert some sort of control over me, as far as I can tell purely to stroke their own egos.

There are times I can't wait for July.

I was also told to go next week for a singing competition in Guangzhou. This does entail skipping a day of class, right before finals when i should be reviewing. My immediate response was to say I was going home to sleep. It's difficult to argue that its important I go to class when I am sick and need the rest while telling me I need to skip the same class the next week to entertain some VIPs. As they were unwilling to grant me the day off, it has been decided I will not be wasting a day of my life on that crap.

I'll be spending tomorrow with some students, who wantedto hike in the hills near school. I thought it was about 5, turns out to maybe be 50. I dolike them, and I'm happy to donate time to this group. They were worried I'd be lonely on Christmas. Sweet kids. I might see others at night, but they sound like a fun afternoon

flu

Man, does the flu suck. Thankfully, it seems to be fading. Hopefully I'll be back in class tomorrow.

Cancelled plans to meet a friend for dinner yesterday, so she popped up at my door with vegetables and cooked. So, Tuly is now possibly my best friend. I was hungry, but the thought of standing up for a while and focusing on cooking without hurting myself or starting a fire was overwheliming.

I spent much of yesterday laying on my balcony, enjoying the unexpected warmth and trying to sweat out my fever. I'm not sure it worked, but it felt good.

Watched the Orphanage for a while last night after dinner. The challenege was that its in Spanish, and we could choose between English or Chinese subtitles. We went with English, and I did a surprisingly good job of following along. I've seen it before, so that helped, but apparently my Spanish is much better when I'm delirious. If I'm lucky, I'll be a little ill if I make it to Mexico in February.

Now, my bed is calling

looking up

Seem to be overcoming the flu. My fever broke last night. Had two friends invite themselvesover for dinner. Since they cooked dinner, i can't complain. I was lousy company, and they didn't stay long, but sure enough, about an hour after they left, I felt much better. I guess I do needto eat, even when laying in bed sounds preferable.

And yes, I do have the sort of friends who hear I'm, soto the market, buy food, and come over to make sure I'm eating. I complain about some aspects of my life here, but I know I'm lucky.

Hmm, I was feeling extra happy because i found that wolfgang's vault works quite well in China, and now it abruptly seems to have stopped. It used to be a site full of concerts by classic rock bands I wasn't really a fan of, but after I abandoned it, they discovered there was music after the Allman Brothers, and it turned rather good. Maybe it just hates The Cure. British Sea Power andThe Gutter Twins were fine. Free concerts streaming makes me happy. Not as happy as free food perhaps, but close.

I believe this area is officially subtropical. It gets chilly at night, and will be kind of cold in february, but it's still pretty nice. So I'm fortunate that I can probably head out to the park in a bit and soak up some sun. I'm still a bit tired, and probably should cancel all my plans with friends who have small children, as I'm guessing they don't need the flu for Christmas. Not drinking due to illness and avoiding people with children really frees up my schedule.

May go hiking tomorrow with some students. If my energy level is up to it, that is. Living in the countryside means I am surrounded by endless green hills. I really should take advantage of that. the students raised all different types of hell when rumor said we might leave, so it becomes harder and harder not to like them.