Tuesday, November 07, 2006

C - it's the most wonderful time of the year

Lately it's been pretty cold here in our apartment, and D and I have both been frustrated that the heat has not yet been turned on. Yesterday it snowed, and I thought "Ha! They'll HAVE to turn the heat on now!" But no such luck.

With our apartment so cold, I've been spending most of my free time in bed under my very warm comforter. I get in bed with the intention of reading, studying, or grading papers, but of course, I always end up falling asleep. I haven't taken afternoon naps since I was a junior in college, and I'd forgotten how much I hate the feeling of waking up in the evening when it's dark. Sunset time here is quite early -- around 4:45 pm -- so I've experienced this uncomfortable feeling more often than I'd have liked to this week. Today was one of those days.

On top of the fogginess produced by my indulgent afternoon nap, I've got a mountain of paperwork to do for my students, since three of my seven classes are taking their final exam this week. It mainly consists of answering comprehension questions about the movie "Walk the Line", and I was amused to see that the students must have found the Wikipedia entry on the movie. (Incidentally, China just granted access to Wikipedia a few weeks ago, to which I alerted them -- the timing couldn't have been better for my students.) Some of them got the question "What causes Johnny Cash's interest in Folsom Prison?", to which they've all responded "A B-movie called 'Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.'" I then asked them "Do you know what a B-movie is?" They, of course, did not. But I'm pleased to see them researching things on wikipedia. They haven't found the Chinese-language version yet, thankfully -- that would've made my final exam a lot easier!