Day 241: Short School Day, Finished Midterms

Kerry made me scrambled eggs and toast this morning, and then I managed to get off to school on time. And, of course, I forgot my keys, so I couldn't go to my office. So I felt sort of down this morning--about being here so long, about travelling, about needing to follow a better diet--so I decided to see out Curtis, one of the American faculty in the School of English Studies, who invited me to come visit his office in Room 360, not far from mine. He was formal with me--guarded--but quite gracious, and we chatted about SISU and China for about 30 minutes. He invited me back to talk. He's an older guy, with white and silver hair, and he's been in China for 17 years and at SISU for 3.  He teaches writing, cinema, and translation; he's working on a major translation project in addition to teaching at SISU.

After chatting with Curtis, I went to my class. Lily, one of the students from the salon, visited today, and she perked things up by getting into debate with Aleks on The Great Gatsby. That was kind of fun. I did a lecture about Fitzgerald, the reception of the novel, and "The Jazz Age" in America. Then we had the discussion, with the discussion leaders calling on people when needed (which was most of the time). These students just do NOT talk unless called upon to do so. A couple of them volunteer: Aleks, Hannah, Charlotte. But 90% of them won't.  That's why we've resorted to having discussion leaders draw names.  And when they do talk, a lot of them tend to "recite," which I can tell they've been trained to do.

Once class was done, Lily, Aleks, and Shen Ruo Yu hung around me after class, asking questions about "the American Dream" and American history and culture. And I asked them about why Chinese students are so quiet.  Shen Ruo Yu told me that they are afraid of looking ignorant and being embarrassed in front of their peers, which is understandable. It's nice that I have students so willing to talk to me; they even followed me to the bus, which made me feel wanted.

I slept on the ride home, and sleep was sort of the theme after I ate my lunch when I got home (Kerry let me in, so I didn't have to worry about the key). I slept a couple hours, and then finished grading the midterms. The average grade was an 84.32.  There were 9 As, 7 Bs, 8 Cs, and 1 D (from a girl who got exact phrases off the Internet a lot).  So they did better than I thought; I 'm glad I included an extra credit question. Still, though, they didn't do as well as the Honors students.

The next three days will be busy with school stuff--I'm going to have to do a lot of prep early due to our trips next week.

Here are a couple pics:

This is from my classroom. I think the whole thing was supposed to say "BETTER LIFE," but the "R" was missing. It reminded me of Bette, of course.

Walking home from school, I saw this: an argument on the steps of Traffic Court.