Blarg arg arg.

This weekend went by much too quickly. Saturday was spent writing, practicing and recording a song for Lee for her birthday. Sunday I cleaned and made dinner for me and Ron, the guy I hung out with at the pub crawl.

For dinner I made pasta with a mushroom sauce and garlic chicken with some garlic bread and a bottle of white wine. For dessert I tried out one of those "no bake" sets they have in the imported section. We had no bake cheesecake that actually tasted ok. I had some leftover cherry pottage that I made with my students last week during the medieval cooking so we heated that up and spooned it on top of the cheesecake. Tasty!

Ron and I had planned to go to the financial building but we ended up hanging around and eating and talking for a long time. Then he wanted to go to Carrefour since I told him I found Disaronno there for cheap. I am very amused that I could find amaretto but even after circling the kitchen department twice I can't find an ice tray. How can I enjoy a tasty glass of Disaronno on the rocks? Maybe I'll have some luck at the Pines store.

Sunday night I tried to get more midterms corrected. Ugh. They are taking so long. I stayed at work until 7pm and I'm still not finished. I hate grading something as ambiguous as writing especially on the IB scale which is out of 30. So one point can be a big difference. If a student challenges me and asked why they got a 23 instead of a 24, I really don't know what to say. Of course I always give them a confident face and a no-nonsense "I'm the teacher" answer, but it still irks me.

I brought in the leftover cheesecake to share with the office at the end of the school day. I figured eating about 2/3 of a leftover cheesecake by myself was a little gluttonous. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I just finished eating my dinner of leftover pasta (that's right mom and dad, I ate leftover pasta....it was ok) and am watching a dumb kids movie to get my mind off of work and stress and my heartburn (which with me is caused by stress).

I had so much fun on Sunday just hanging out with Ron, it made me feel like I was back in college (maybe because he still is). It was great to laugh and have some wine and talk about silly things and cook and have someone enjoy my cooking. But now I'm in a crappy mood. Maybe it's just cuz it's Monday, I have a sink full of dirty dishes, midterms aren't done being corrected, and I don't have the lesson plan set for this week yet.

Sometimes I wish I had taken that job as an assistant teacher at that primary school in Nanjing. I would have spent a lot more time doing fun stuff like dance and martial arts with the kids (that's why they offered me the job) and a lot less time on being responsible for 60 teenagers so grade crazy it would drive any teacher nuts.

Stress and homesickness always seem to come hand in hand. It's like the chicken and the egg problem; which causes which? Either way, together they aren't fun. Also, Thanksgiving is coming up fast and it'll be the first Thanksgiving I spend away from home. Suckage.

Man, I didn't mean for this entry to turn into a rant. I shouldn't write when I'm in a bad mood, I always make things sound worse than they are.