Nearly There

These next few days are leading up to some important events here in sunny WeiHai.

1.) Saturday is Shanda's Christmas Party which promises to be, if nothing else, an experience. I continued to be amused by the trickles of Christmas here, such as the ginormous Christmas tree in the lobby of my building (surrounded by banners in red with loads of Chinese characters). A picture can only appropriately describe the scene. Despite the Christmas decorations, I have failed to come to terms with the reality of the situation--Christmas is ten days off and counting...

2.) Exams!!! The first week in January will bring my first ever experience proctoring exams. Whoopie!!!!! Neal, Rachel, and I met last night to write the Sophomore Writing Exam. We had a great time thinking of terrible ways to amuse ourselves during the proctoring and grading of the exams. Example: one of the exams (there are two different versions) requires our students to write a compare/contrast essay. One of the essay topics is as follows, "There are three teachers in this room. Choose two of the teachers and contrast them." Doesn't sound too bad, especially considering we are two females and a male. However, you readers are missing a vital part of the puzzle--we plan to dress up exactly the same making the contrast be quite difficult (and hopefully amusing).

3.) Visit from America (my father). I am half-heartedly working on a trip to Qingdao and from there a flight to Xi'an. Things look dismally expensive, however. The entire country is on holiday!

Other news:
1.) As you all know, I am not really all that "into" reading magazines, but I found a treasure at Rachel's house last night. It is a magazine called Psychologies. It is put out in the UK and it has lots of good reads--I think I might even have read the advertisements. Check out the link above. Grand!

2.) I have finally finished all the book lessons in my Junior Writing class, so now I can have a couple of weeks of interesting lessons. First on my list (that will kick-off here in 40 minutes) is a lesson on the great writer Jorge Luis Borges. I will dazzle my students with questions of identity and existence. I hope it will spur good conversation. Wish me good luck!