Crunch time

It happens every year.  The facts are as follows:

1. The end of the semester always has more grading than any other time of the year.
2. On our team, there are four birthdays between December 15th and January 3rd.
3. Classes always end the week of Christmas.
4. Christmas = multiple banquets, multiple performances, and numerous parties.
5. It takes a long time to shop for foreigners in China on a budget.
6. It’s hard buying gifts for people thousands of miles away.
7. It is unbelievably COLD outside.

All of these facts add up to quite a hectic December.  I don’t know what the cold weather has to do with hectic-ness; all I know is that it makes any time outside quite miserable.  I was actually quite on top of things this month until I got knocked off my feet by a nasty head cold earlier this week.  This illness halted all but the most urgent of tasks (which unfortunately did not include cooking, cleaning my kitchen, keeping up on emailing…etc.).  I finally started to feel a bit better today, just in time for two Christmas performances (which I will fill you in on later).  I’ve washed the mile high pile of dishes in my kitchen, and have made reasonable progress on the stack of papers I have to grade.  I’m taking advantage of my current break from grading to update you on a few mundane details of my week, because I know you love mundane details.

On Monday afternoon, for four hours straight, I listened to 50 junior students give their final speech of the semester.  Listening to this last speech is one of the best and worst days of the semester for me.  I love seeing how much my students have improved since the beginning of the semester.  It’s a teacher’s dream to see them stand up with confidence, and without a single filler word deliver a clearly organized speech.  However, listening to 50 speeches in a row for four hours all the while having to concentrate enough to grade said speeches is not what I call a good time.  In fact, it’s downright monotonous in a I-want-to-pull-my-hair-out type of way.

My survival strategy?  A thermos full of coffee and my camera–because anything dull and boring becomes ten times more bearable with my camera in hand.

I came home from four hours of speech listening Monday afternoon, had a quick dinner, met with students for several hours, went to bed, woke up…and promptly went to administer sophomore oral exams for four hours.  Once again, I had to stay chipper and interested through the monotony of 50 oral interviews…one after another after another after another.  Only this time I didn’t have the pleasure of having my camera with me.  I figured it would be a bit awkward for me to point a camera at a student in a one on one interview.

Tuesday afternoon I collected 26 five paragraph essays which I foolishly promised to grade and return by Thursday, so that my students would better be able to prepare for their final (which is also writing a five paragraph essay).  Wednesday, I woke up feeling like I’d been run over by a truck.  I went back and forth between grading a few essays, then passing out on the couch, then grading a few essays, then passing out on the couch…you get the point.  Lucky for you, I did not photographically document the accumulating pile of tissues.

Thursday…Thursday is a blur.  I took drugs.  They made me sleepy.  End of story.  Friday, I caffeinated myself, ran some errands, and then went to our Christmas party with our brothers and sisters.  After dinner, we had our annual white elephant gift exchange.  I came away with a great scarf–the best gift I’ve ever managed to snag at this event.  (Actually I wasn’t supposed to get this gift, but a secret off-hand technically illegal trade at the end of the game secured it…shhh, don’t tell anyone.)

The last mundane detail I’ll leave you with is a teaser.  Saturday night was Sonny and Rachel’s joint birthday party.  This is Rach, about to throw up at her birthday party.  I’ll explain why sometime in the near future.

And lastly, in case you were worried about Karate Kid, he’s still doing quite well.  He’s become bolder–whereas before he would never climb on his rock if I was in the room, he now poses quite willingly for pictures.  This is his favorite afternoon pose: balanced on his belly (or more correctly, his shell), with his legs stretched out behind him.  I think he has secret aspirations of flying like superman.