Friday, September 08, 2006

C - in sickness and in health

A few minutes ago, D headed out for an evening on the town with some of the other foreign teachers. I didn't share his desperate need to escape the apartment, though, because I recently caught a cold and have been feeling really lousy. I didn't expect D to stay home and watch his wife Sniffleupagus blow her nose into her shirt all night, but tonight is "a dark and stormy night" if there ever was one, and the wind is rattling our apartment door in a way that is, if not unsettling, certainly far from settling. This rattling door combined with my plugged-yet-somehow-dripping nose are pretty much guaranteeing my inability to sleep tonight, and if D were here, I would probably feel a little bit better/calmer/safer etc. But I will instead spend time with our little blog here and my quickly-dwindling box of Kleenex. (And no, that isn't an instance of a brand name being substituted for a generic one -- I really do have Kleenex® brand tissues!)

I slept so little last night that I asked D to cancel my 8:00 am and 10:00 am classes for me, since he was going to the be teaching one room down the hall at both of those times, but I finally managed to get myself up and teach every class scheduled today. The 8:00 class isn't my favorite group of students, but I got through it okay, and consoled myself with the fact that my 10:00 class is much, much better. I wasn't prepared for how much better they actually would end up being, though; they had written "Happy Teachers' Day!" on the board in perfect English, and on top of that, they gave me flowers and applauded for me.




















Needless to say, all of that made me feel a great deal better! The 2:00 class went on forever, though, because a random graduate student decided that he will be auditing my class for the semester, and he talked with me for what felt like an eternity after class about Jack Welch, how I should teach bible stories (???), and maybe we could go out to dinner some time! Sigh. How I would love to have just ONE female student!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Catherine! I wish I could get some good old fashion chiken soup to you.
Hope you feel better soon. Love, Aunt Rosemary

Anonymous said...

Hi C! Sorry to hear that you are under the weather. It's so funny reading all these stories from you and D, it certainly sound like you guys are really getting into lives as being a "real Chinese"! -- eating tomato and eggs, living with the rattling door, and using Brand name Kleenex (only people who's used Chinese brand Kleenex knows why it's important to get the real stuff):-> Now you just have to stop grimacing at the sight of a spitter! Love, Allison

Anonymous said...

Hey Blue, Hey Green,

Haha, last few blogs have been very entertaining! Enjoying the diversion from in-depth description of last Western fast food chain you ate at ;) (perhaps it's b/c Green's doing most of the writing now?? but I digress...)

totally kidding blue - I love your descriptions of Western fast food chains in China :)

on a more serious note - are your classes all males? i've actually never thought of this, but am curious after Green's latest comment at the end of her blog.

btw, big orange officially sux again now - & they just lost 2 players for the season... wow - colorful post this has become! blue, green, orange...

btw - can you guys see the google ads at the top? curious if you're getting the same ones we are. they have finally changed from discount chinese airfares to "Study Chinese Language" & "Free Mandarin Lessons" - thought you might get a kick out of that.

Feel better, Green... looking forward to more blog-reading!

Your friend,
Blue :)