Day 234: Midterm, Streetcar, and Maus

Made the bus okay today to start the day--that's always good. I had a female cab driver who was a bit chatty with me, even though I couldn't understand her. Got to school about 8:55 am. Dropped off things in my office and hunted down Carol. I had a really hard time finding her office: apparently, it's in another building, and you have to go out onto a roof, through a door, and then onto another roof and step through into a building--but I did find room 411 (somewhat ironic--the code for "emergency" in many places in the US). Carol gave me the exams for the midterm.

I had my Short Novel students make the desks face me. I gave them their exams, played around on Facebook, and read The Great Gatsby while they worked. I didn't see any cheating going on, thank goodness: I was a bit wary of this.Most of them took a long time to do their exams: only one student finished early. I then collected the exams and headed upstairs.

In the afternoon, I was overcome by a bit of ennui: I felt tired and bored after eating lunch. I tried to take a nap but called Kerry instead, and then I just rested. I'm getting better at using the squat toilet, by the way. I'm quite proud of this fact. One thing that was upsetting me a bit today is that the travel agent sent me an itinerary for the summer that looks quite long and complicated. I'm beginning to doubt whether things can really work out...or even if I want them to do so. Part of me is quite tired of travelling so much.

My grad students arrived a bit late, as usual, but 7 of them still showed up. Cora is such a  sweetheart--she brought me a cappucino, which was great, because I happened to be quite thirsty. We discussed Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" a bit and then talked about A Streetcar Named Desire. They seemed to like it a lot. The discussion mostly focused on Blanche and symbolism, but we talked about Stanley as a character as well. I promised to send them some poems to read for next time.

In my Honors class, we talked about Maus I today. As usual, I lectured a bit (this time on postmodernism, mostly), and then they did discussion on some questions I gave them. Because this class is small--14 students--paired discussion seems to work well with them. One girl annoyed me by typing on her computer and her WeChat most of the class. I didn't say anything to her, although I probably should have.

I saw Richard on the shuttle bus going home. We talked all the way back. I really like him; it was nice to have someone to talk to. We also took the 745 back together and talked then as well. He wants to go see a movie with me and Kerry on May 11; I think this could work. It's good to have friends.

So I was in a better mood when I got home, but Kerry was not. He noticed that the McDonald's website is no longer taking cash payments: only WeChat pay and AlliPay. This doesn't surprise me completely because no one in China seems to Kerry cash. However, he managed to call a phone number and order food that way.

Tomorrow: Shanghai Disney!  I hope it's fun.

Couple pics from today:

Inside of the shuttle to the Songjiang campus.

My students, taking their midterm.