The internet in my room is still down. This upsets me greatly, since I have to meander down to the nearest internet bar and fight with the teeming masses (who are playing Counter Strike) to get a computer. But now that I'm on a 'puter, I'm not getting off for a while. So let me tell you about the past week.

It's been rough. Apparently there were some problems with the grades that I gave to my students last semester. My boss knew this. Rather than talk to me about it, he gave my phone number and my address out to ALL of my students, so that they could get in touch with me. This upset me, since he's the one who told me not to give this information to my students. My phone had been ringing off the hook, students kept "popping in" at inopportune times, and I spent most of my free time trying to sort through this gigantic mess. Eventually I unplugged my phone - I had given all of my students my email address, but they'd rather call, so this way they had to email me - and spent as little time as possible in my apartment. Yesterday was the last day to change grades for the past semester, and the madness has thankfully stopped. The worst part was that I'd resubmit a grade, and it would take two days for the registrar to change it officially (and notify the student of the change.) So I kept getting upset calls and angry emails and late-night visits from students that I'd already helped. 'Twas frustrating. But it's done now, and I can move on. Hopefully.

My classes are much smaller than last semester, and the students seem to be a little more confident than the previous ones. I'll be spending more time this semester doing lesson plans, since I don't really have a textbook. It'll all work out, I hope.

This past weekend I helped Mike and Christie move in to their new home - I was impressed by how fast it went (although I wasn't there for all of it) and how easy it is to find. It is very conveniently located, and there's even a coffeeshop (which makes great smoothies) right outside their door - ah, the extravagance. That's a word I'm surprised to use.

Wednesday night I hung out with Jared, and when we were walking back from the restaurant, we stumbled across an rink where a bunch of people were playing hockey. We were invited to play, and I had quite possibly the best time that I've had in China. I'll mention this, because I'm sure that Jared does on his blog - I had forgotten to wear a belt, so my pants kept wandering in a general downwards motion, especially when I would try to sprint.

That's all for now, I have to run to my next class. I'll fill in more later.

My internet connection is down in my room. This happens much to frequently around here, and since I prefer to cut and paste my blogs out of Word, I'm out of luck. I have a diatribe prepared - it's all ready to go, nice and informative - but it'll have to wait. So I'll do less than give the highlights - I'll give two. I'll fill the rest in later, when the internet is back up and purring.

The first is that I now have my schedule for the next semester (starts on Monday) - I'll be teaching 14 hours - 8 hours of post-grads, and 6 of master's candidates. I will not have any of the same students this semester - there's no overlap. I also am without a night class - my latest class ends at 4pm. So I'm happy. My schedule could change but hopefully, it won't.

Second - This morning I sat in on a taping of a tv show. I was one of the "experts" (Mel and Jared were also experts.) who gave his/her opinion about learning Chinese. I still don't know why I was there, but it looks like I'll be on tv, so all in all, it's a good thing. The taping was done in a coffee shop outside of Li Gong Daxue (the place where the Calvin students study) and it was very informal. I ended up with two new - free - Chinese dictionaries, so it wasn't a total wash. That's all I have time for at the moment. Sorry.

Here’s what went down in the last week and a half – my apartment is spotless – almost sanitary. I’ve spent an enormous amount of time studying Chinese – I’ve memorized four hundred characters since I’ve returned from Kashgar. I also acquired salsa – this was harder than it sounds. It took me three long, hard days of visiting import shops all around Beijing to find the right salsa. I’d been given a large bag of white corn Tostitos (that’s a long story that I shouldn’t tell without getting permission. I’ll ask and let y’all know how it works out) before I left for parts distant and I wasn’t going to eat them without the proper salsa. Beijing has food from all over the world, but Mexican food is few and far between. There is one restaurant (which I know about, there are probably more) that sells Mexican food in Beijing; it is unlike any Mexican food that I have ever had. That’s not a good thing.

Wednesday night I went to Tomato, a new Italian restaurant in Wudaokou, with the Brassers and Jared English. The food was good and the company was great. Afterwards we went to Sculpting in Time, a coffee shop next door to Tomato that is known for its slow service, and discussed handwriting – theories on and what ours looks like and used to look like. After that we went to Wisdom, an adult toy store, according to the sign. It had numerous games and brainteaser-type puzzles – we didn’t buy anything, but we looked around for a good, long time. When we had finished, the Brassers took off for home, while Jared and I headed back to my place to watch Fight Club, a movie that Jared had never seen. That was the extent of my past week and a half. I could write more, but this is it for the moment.