Tuesday, not much went on. I didn't even leave the house. I was still experiencing some sinus issues from the pollution in Nanjing, I think. And I really don't want to get sick before we go to Tokyo. I graded some of my graduate students' papers that were submitted early--they were pretty good. So far I haven't given anything lower than a B. We made a lot of pork chops for dinner: enough to last for several days, and I packed up a lunch for my long day on Wednesday.
I got off to what I thought was an early start Wednesday. Took a taxi to campus and stopped early to ask Grace a couple questions, and then waited for the 12:20 bus. But no one was around! This is strange, I thought. So I look at the bus schedule........it turns out the pickup was on Lian Hua Road, NOT ON CAMPUS. I wished Grace or someone else had mentioned this, but even if they had, there's no way I would have made it. It was really my own stupid fault. So I called Kerry and thought about what to do: I could wait until the 4:15 bus, I could take the subway, or I could take a taxi. I opted for the taxi because that way I still had a chance to get to campus at a reasonable time, around when I promised the students I'd be there. So I used Didi...with the help of a guy in one of the international offices, who suggested I go to the student dorms. I followed his lead. The taxi driver called me, and of course I couldn't understand him, but I said, "Dalian Lu," and we figured things out. He picked me up--what a long ride! It was 166 RMB. I was in such a hurry to get out of the taxi that I think I forgot my change. He kept saying, "Zai jian, zai jian" to get me to leave, but I wanted to make sure I had all my phones and such. I had him drop me off at the campus instead of at the dorms. I showed my ID to the security guard as I went through, and he just smiled and nodded--no problem there.
A picture of a beautiful flower (in January, folks!), taken on my way to the cab:
Then I went on to my office. Mostly I just waited around. I ate my lunch, and read my book on Helen Keller. And of course I kept my coat, hat, and scarf on--it was FREEZING. No heat in the building Some students started to come in around 4 pm or so--mostly to drop off papers. Cora came in right before I was about to leave; she wanted me to take a second look at her paper.
Here's a selfie with Cora:
But then I went to the Administration Building around 5 pm. I collected some more papers from students there. I also collected some paperwork from the Honors office; apparently, they want me to record how many students score which percentages on the final exam, and what the highest and lowest score were. I wonder why? After this, American Lit. students began to trickle in; all arrived on time except for Circle. Before the exam, I had the students take a picture with me. Then I went over some basic rules and then we began the exam. I mostly looked at my phone and read and kept track of time. At one point I had a Facebook video that went off by mistake..oops! A bit after 8 pm, the two women from the Honors College came in and said they needed to "lock the door"....so I couldn't give the students until 8:15 as promised. Oh well. I still made it to the bus. There were only about 5 people; I had never seen so few. I also made good time with the 745 and managed to get home about 10:08 pm. I had a very late dinner (leftover pork chops) and I was done for the day.
Here I am with my American Literature class!
Thursday two main events went on: a Chinese lesson with Deborah and dinner with Mark. First though, I graded parts of the American Lit. exams: questions 1 and 2. So far so good. Then Deborah came over at about 2:30 pm and did a review session with us: we covered everything from "Let me introduce...." to directions to taxi interactions to post office interactions to market interactions. A very useful class. Then we got ready to go see Mark. We had planned for Mark to come see our apartment, but we just didn't have time. We went to the Westin for dinner--I wanted him to have some taste of the buffet--but I can honestly say that I was a bit disappointed. The offerings paled in comparison to their usual Sunday Brunch buffet that I was used to: only about 1/2 the cheeses, 1/2 the seafood, 1/3 of the Italian, 1/2 the Indian, and so forth. Just very limited, for only about 30% less. Still, Mark, Kerry, and I had a great conversation for over 3 hours. We are going to miss Mark so much. I feel that he's a very honest, open guy and very easy to talk to. I'm hoping that we can stay good friends with him; it will be difficult with him in Kentucky and us in Minnesota. Sometimes you just never know: I've met wonderful people before that I never see again. So his departure makes me sad. We did give him a letter telling him how we feel; he seemed to appreciate it. Before we left, he said, "You're gaining three Mahoneys." This made me feel a bit better. I just hate losing people, especially people as kind as Mark. After we got home, I really didn't feel like grading or anything. It was a sobering evening.
Here's a final pic I took of Kerry and Mark:
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