And I'm baaaaaaack!

Today it snowed in Qingdao.  This is unacceptable seeing that it is March and it has been below freezing for four months now.  Otherwise, I'm pretty much settled in and have started teaching again.

I have a whopping nine classes this semester, seven of which are the same as last term.  This means I have about 500 students total.  There are pros and cons to having the same students.

Pros
- I don't have to learn 500 new names.
- I don't have to re-train the students to do what I want.
- They are used to my voice and rhythm of speech.
- They know I mean business because they saw the grades I gave last term.

Cons
- I can't reuse lesson plans from last term.
- Those that I failed or gave bad grades to may be harboring ill will towards me.
- I have to think of new tricks, games, and methods of keeping them in line.
- More work for me, basically.

International Women's Day 

 Obesity competition to Celebrate Women's Day in China

Nevertheless, this week started out pretty nicely with Monday being International Women's Day.  I received a nice card and a flower from one of my classes and then was bussed over to a ladies' luncheon hosted by my university for all the female employees.  It was a huge lunch complete with karaoke and raffle prizes!

After the lunch the women were given half of the day off and there were buses going downtown and to various shopping areas but I totally missed the memo on this (I was told about the lunch about 5 minutes before I had to get on the bus) so had no money and came back to campus.  Some people get the whole day off!  America should really take note and celebrate the holiday.  I also got a chance to see my boss drunk at lunch, so that was a bonus treat. 

And the weirdness starts...

Chinese students are trained from the time they are young to stand up and greet the teacher in unison but I have been spared this form of mass forced screaming until this week.  Basically, when the bell rings, the class monitor shouts (in English):

"STAND UP!"

After which all the students say,

"GOOD MORNING MISS ALISON!"

Then the monitor says,

"SIT DOWN!"

And they sit down as I laugh at them and then they nervously laugh at me, because they know that I think this is all very funny.

I also had some students that decided to rename themselves over break, including:
- Naruto
- bluice (I convinced him to go by Blue, complete with a capital letter and not a fake compound word)
- Lone Los (previously Andy Zhang who tried to name himself Amvipe last semester, a pretty brilliant attempt at phonetically spelling out 'MVP')
- Danny Nowitski (previously just Nowitski but I think he realized that it was a little ridiculous so he added a first name to his sirname)

It is tuesday and I am already over half done with my teaching hours this week. I guess that is what happens when you have two classes on Monday and FOUR on Tuesday.  Meaning, I am teaching from 8am to 5pm with only a break for lunch.

Otherwise, I'd really appreciate a slice of chocolate cake, a curry puff, and a hot fudge sundae right about  now.