School Days

Well classes have finally started again bringing my three odd months of vacation to a close, or maybe I should say they have sort of started again since right now I only have 6 hours of class a week. I might get more hours, I'll know by the end of this week, but for now I have basically nothing. My class this time is called "Introduction to Western Culture," though the book says European Culture, which is different from my class last semester as it focuses more on things like ancient Greece and Rome, and more on writers and artists then on historical figures. This class could be fun and I hope I can apply some of the lessons I've learned from teaching a lecture last semester to this class. I had my first class Monday and I liked the students in there. I've met a few of them before, they were Ken's students last year, in fact one of the students in that class is the one I dropped while somewhat intoxicated at a party a year ago. They're juniors now and they have a pretty good command of English and even in the first class were willing to raise their hand when not called on. It's funny that now in the middle of my second year of teaching with classes that I'm much more prepared to handle I still feel really nervious before class. It's always worst before the first class of the week but even before the last one I feel a rush of nerves before I walk in the door.

The weather here has been surprisingly cold in the last week or two. As soon as I got back from India it rained for about 6 straight days, just to remind me how cold China can be. After the rain it actually snowed a little on two different days. One day the snow was like rain and didn't stick, an interesting fact is that people in China use umbrellas when it snows as well as rains, and for the sun of course, and another day it only snowed a really small amount but it was cold enough that it stuck on some of the bushes and trees. Certainly not the weather I've been getting in Thailand and India. I also calculated how much money I had to start the semester compared to what I have now and it's really close. I'm either up a little in actual dollars or down less then $100 if you count the fact that I got reimbursed for a plane ticket that I bought with frequent flier money. Either way it's good to see that with my salary here I can not only afford to buy the things I want in Changzhou, but also to go traveling for months at a time. In this next semester I may also get a part time job sine I have so much free time. I calculate that only working another 6 hours or so a week I can probably save another $1500 to help pay for a new computer.