January

Tomorrow I am going to Thailand. It's Chinese New Year break and Stephanie and I are celebrating by spending two weeks baking in the humidity of Thailand. I'm packed and ready to go, and excited, but calm at the same time. Kind of like I was right before I came to China. It will be a lot of fun.

The month of January has been a good one, and a particularly easy one, work wise. As the end of the semester neared, students were madly prepping for exams, as were the teachers. Because of this, I had many unexpected days off while the Chinese teachers reviewed with the students. And then of course I didn't have classes while the students were taking their exams. My students are very high achievers, and would come and tell me their scores, expressing disappointment with anything less than a 95. When I told some of my fourth graders that I got an 83 in math when I was in school, they were all like "whoaaaa!" It was really funny for me, and I kept trying to tell them to chill out about their grades. My students are really funny, and come and talk to me before classes and after classes, so much so that I almost can't finish getting ready for my lesson. I really enjoy it though, in spite of the distraction.

After exams it was babysitting time for a couple of days, and then vacation. All of my students went home or on vacation, and I've had the entire week off. It's been really nice, actually. I've had some days that were productive and well spent, and some days where I've enjoyed just being lazy, watching tv and reading.