Tuesday

I'm often asked by friends in America what exactly I do. So, if I can remember from yesterday, here's a run-down of a typical Tuesday, Wednesday to follow if time allows.

I have freshman video class on Tuesday from 8-9:30. If I leave my room by 7:50, then I will make it down four flights of stairs, across to the other building, and up three more flights to my classroom a few minutes before 8. Falling on the ice or running into someone who wants to talk could delay the process, but it usually works well. This week, I'm preparing the students to watch "It's A Wonderful Life", so I'm teaching the plot and characters of the story. They also are acting out scenes from the movie in groups.

After that class, I usually return to my room (down three, across the yard, up four) to cram for my Chinese lesson at 10. So I run down at 10 to Chinese lesson in the lobby of our building and return to my room at 11. My Chinese lessons are finished for the semester since both my teacher and I are too busy with upcoming exams. So this Tuesday, I was able to run some errands. I tromped up the hill to the dining hall and withdrew money from the ATM on the second floor. I always feel wealthy when seeing my paycheck in Chinese yuan. Then I went into the little convenience store, also on the second floor of the dining hall. I put money on my cell phone bill and bought shampoo. How convenient is that! Then I gave into the urge and walked over to the part where they sell the yummy burrito/wrap things.

The burrito/ wrap people always see me coming from a distance. They know how bad my Chinese is, so they make me the same thing before I even get up to the window sometimes. They're very friendly, and I'm sure they can tell how much I love those things. The outside is like a tortilla, only fried. That's the greasy part. The inside is pretty healthy with lettuce, cilantro, shredded carrots, ham, and other shredded meats. Like Subway, but not, you can choose what you want inside. Yesterday, I wanted to try it with the boiled egg broken up inside, so I had to work fast with my bad Chinese and pointing skills to add something different to my usual order. I'm glad I did, since when I walked down the hill to my dorm and got up to my room, I discovered it was even tastier than normal. Then I called my parents at about 10:40 (it was Monday at 9:40 p.m. their time).

Often, I have plans to eat lunch with students, but yesterday I stayed in my room and graded writing papers, having already eaten the super burrito thing as brunch. I graded until my sleepiness overcame me, and then I tried to take a short nap. Talk about wild dreams, Ann-Marie! I dreamed of fighting cookie-making vampires.

By 1:20, I was going back down, across, and over again to my next freshman video class. This bunch was a little sleepier and so I had to try to perk us all up as we studied "It's A Wonderful Life". At 3, class ended (I totally can say that in Chinese), and I headed off to my office for my weekly office hours.

Since my office computer is all in Chinese, I rarely go there to do work. I work in my room at my desk using my laptop. However, I'm required to go to one afternoon of office hours a week. I'd like it if the Chinese teachers that I share the office with were there (they have class) or if my students came (they often have class), but most of the time, I sit alone, cold and bored. Yesterday I was prepared. I brought lots of papers to grade. However, I was pleasantly surprised when two of my students from the early Tuesday class came to talk to me. Apparently, they've been wanting to talk to me all year but just now found the courage. Emi and Elena are very, very nice girls. They wanted to ask me lots of questions about America and my life and being a teacher and boys. They brought me cute little surprise gifts, and we are going to eat dinner together before the semester ends. I'm going to show them how to make apple pie, and Emi is going to teach us how to make dumplings. (Three cheers for dumplings!)

So after my very enjoyable office hours, Kelly and I went out in the freezing cold darkness to wait for some Chinese teachers that we were going to eat dinner with. Unfortunately, we had the night wrong and will be eating with them on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. So, we decided to walk to eat Xinjiang (western Muslim region of China) food. This was a risky choice since I'd neglected to put long underwear under my dress pants and was freezing to death on the walk to the restaurant. I was revived by the amazing noodles and the good company. After again nearly freezing to death on the way back to our dorm, we parted company to return to our individual tasks of writing exams and grading papers.

I went to bed quite early at around 9 or 9:30 since I knew I had to get up very early at 5. Even though I was so tired, I couldn't sleep until much later. The dorm was loud, and the Pepsi I drank at dinner kicked in. Eventually I fell asleep, only to dream another crazy dream in which I married Melody's brother.