Oh, life.

6:00 -- alarm which gets postponed for half an hour.

6:30 -- alarm which means I really need to get up so that I can eat yogurt, read some from Job, check emails, make sure the things in my backpack are in order, and be at Danielle's by 7:30 so we can prep...

7:45 -- get to the classroom for the first class of the day that I'll teach.  There are almost 50 students and today Danielle is there to observe.  There are things that I wish didn't happen -- like when I totally forget an activity and so the flow of the whole lesson makes no sense.  Or all of the chatter.  There are awesome moments, like skits that make me laugh so hard I'm nearly crying.  And there are things that make me insanely happy, like my student Luther, who has decided to keep the name and is sitting near the front today.  And speaking to me in English.  And trying.  In this class I also solidify lunch plans for later in the day when I'll eat with two of my students, Cassie and Cindy.  Class starts at 8 and is done at 9:40.

10:10 -- next class, and this one (my middle one on Thursdays) goes really well.  Which is a pleasant surprise as it was not a fun class last week.  I wonder about how when I said, "Report on a news story," my students apparently heard, "Relate a ghost story or an epic-length joke," but that is the worst part of that class probably, and I can deal with that.  We can talk about who-what-where-when-why in connection with ghost stories.  It makes me laugh that the ghost stories come up in the class where I have students named Fairy and Vampire and Specter.  (The sad part is that by week 4, those names feel normal.)  And Britanny gives me a piece of White Rabbit candy, which I love.  She hurt her arm last week and we talked about it some and today she's in the front row.

noon -- lunch with Cassie and Cindy; I eat soup with noodles and eggs in it and we talk about places we want to visit and college and where we're from and what cities in China we like.  And what is important in a man and advantages to being single.  And then we part ways with wishes for everyone to have a good National Holiday (which is next week.)

1:30 -- my last class of the day.  On the way to it I finally met the neighbor who lives below me, a Japanese teacher who was an electrical engineer before he came here to teach.  This last class is the first one where I get to experience the great feeling that comes when the dean for your department casually walks in and says, "Oh, by the way, I'm going to observe your class."  ...yeah.  Anyway, it was okay... not great but... okay.  And then it was done.

3:25 -- I'm in my office, doing random stuff because my brain is mush (that's slang that we taught some students a week ago, in case you were curious).

4:25 -- I head back to the dorm and decide to check mail first.  The sky has turned dark grey.  There's no mail, but it starts pouring as I get out of the library/post-office area and head back toward my dorm/apartment.  So I take off my socks and shoes, slip across stone parts, and run through the grass.  Much the amusement of Hilary, who is watching me from her window, and of our cleaning lady, who is standing and watching me.  Then I go upstairs and talk to Hilary about the day, run back down to my apartment and change into jeans and a t-shirt and flannel.

5:00 -- meeting Grammar for dinner in the cafeteria, which turns into a long meal with conversation about everything ranging from stereotypes between Chinese and Americans to our plans for our lives to what's difficult about college to... everything.  I love cafeteria conversation.

6:45 -- raiding the resource library for some new books.  Next week is National Holiday, which means that there are no classes... which means potentially that I can sleep, get ahead on lesson planning, take a day trip to Shenyang with teammates, and get to see the girls from Harbin who are coming down.

It's about 9:00 now, and I'm falling asleep.  It's been a busy day.

And that is my life.