Day 206: A Long Day at SISU

Today was an extraordinarily long day.  To begin with, I got up at 5:30 am, after only about 4 hours of sleep. I was really keyed up the previous night for some reason. I did manage to get a taxi around 6:35 or so--it came fast--and then I made the shuttle bus in plenty of time.  The shuttle ride seems to take forever. It left at about 7:15 and didn't get to SISU until about 8:53. So much for a "50 minute" ride.

In my office, I graded my last few papers--and I was thrilled to discover that I had left my scarf there!!  Apparently, it's not lost forever.  For my first class, Short Novels, I lectured about The Scarlet Letter as a Romantic text, and then the discussion leaders divided the class up into groups for pair-and-share discussion. They talked about such things as the character of Pearl, the elaborateness of the thread on Hester's A, and the character of Mistress Hibbins. It worked pretty well, but we have one more group to hear from next class before we start with The Awakening. I had to talk to a student after class about her TWO plagiarized response papers, and she admitted that her third was plagiarized as well, so could she hand it in next week. I allowed her to do so, but told her that this shouldn't happen again.  

My next event was happier: the "salon" that Aleks (from my Short Novels class) organized. The students were eating box lunches, and one of them was for me as well: fish, eggs and tomatoes, greens, and tofu. I mentioned that most students in the US eat pizza, burgers, and fries for lunch. "Welcome to China," one of them said. My talk was on GLBTQ+ issues--it was pretty much the same talk that I gave at the SISU Brown Bag last term. They were very attentive and asked a lot of good questions. I am constantly impressed by the intellectual curiosity of these students--it was so good to see. I had a great time.

After this, we had my reading group with my grad students. It didn't last as long as usual because I wasn't feeling that great (diarrhea), but we still had some good discussion on Trifles and "The Yellow Wallpaper." However, they didn't ask a lot of questions themselves, and I feel like I guided most of it. I suspect that many either didn't read it or didn't read that carefully. Still, I enjoy talking with them.

Also, I should mention that I got a couple gifts from students today: Rebecca, from the reading group, gave me green sticky rice cakes that have some sort of meat in them (I think fish). Deborah told us that they are eaten on "Tomb Sweeping Day," which is Thursday (tomorrow) in China. Also, Bella, my grad student from last semester left seafood for me on the doorknob of my office--she's been trying to leave it for me for weeks, but we haven't connected--so I was appreciative for that.

Last was my Honors class. It went well. I gave a brief lecture on the reading materials and then split them up into pairs--we had only 14 students there--so a lot of people got to contribute to the discussion. We managed to get through all seven discussion questions on the three short stories ("The Lottery," "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find").  They invited me to join them for sushi after class, but I sadly had to decline: I was wiped out and knew I wouldn't get home until let. On a positive note, many of them signed up to have lunch with me.  :)

The bus home took quite a while--I missed the usual 7:50 745 bus. I was hoping to get on one that came by at 8:04, but the driver waved everyone off. I have no idea why--this happens once in awhile--the driver just won't let people on the bus. I suspect it has to do with the holiday this week: it's "Tomb Sweeping Day" here in China on Thursday, so SISU has Thursday and Friday off. So I shivered a bit in the cold and didn't get a bus until 8:24 and didn't get home until about 8:45.  Kerry had made spaghetti for me. I ate it and went to bed, exhausted.  Slept about 12 hours that night....

Here are some pics from the day:

The students who attended my "salon." Lydia (from my grad student reading group) is on the far left. That's Aleks to her right, behind the girl with the glasses. Lilly, in white on the far right, was one of the organizers.

Pretty flowers in bloom. Taken on my way to the Honors class, right before I ran into Shuhao on his bike!