Day 192: Wednesday at School (3rd day with Zach)

Wednesday I had to go to school, so I couldn't spend the day with Zach and Kerry. I took the 7:15 bus but almost missed it--made it by about 2 minutes. Most of the day was good, but my first class wasn't so great. My lecture on "Character" in The Scarlet Letter went fine, but it didn't work all that well to have two students lead discussion because the other students didn't really want to talk. I had to help them out by getting them to write things down and calling on them. Afterwards, I had my make-up class, and that went better: I had the students do pair-and-share discussion on symbolism in the novel. Amazingly, even though it wasn't a required class, all but two students showed up!!

Then I had lunch--Shuhao, from my Honors class, showed up to my office near the tail end. He just wanted to chat about America and China. He's a really nice guy and we had great conversation. Around 2:30, my grad student reading group showed up. We talked a bit about Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but present-day issues came up as well. That, too, was a great conversation, but more focused on gender studies issues. Blair talked about how much she liked Zach!  Once the group was done, I went to my Honors class. I lectured a bit on the Beat Generation (and Ginsberg in particular) and the Confessional Poets. Then I had the class do some analysis on poems I assigned them, including Ginsberg's "Howl"--they handled it with maturity!

One thing that upset me before I left campus is that I realized my scarf was missing. I went and looked back in the classroom and in the bathroom I went into after class, but I couldn't find it. I hope I left it in my office--I guess I'll find out April 4, when I return to SISU.

When I got hope, Kerry made apple chicken for me and Zach, along with some broccoli. I twas a good, albeit late, dinner. I found out that Zach and Kerry went to Yu Gardens and went to have steamed dumplings. I'm glad they had fun. So, not a bad day overall.

A couple gorgeous pics of the Songjiang campus:

Near the School of English Studies.

Window view from where my makeup class was held.