Blerg. Sickface.

First off, Dave, my bed is queen sized. I think?

Ugh. I think I feel worse than I did on Friday. Bah. Please excuse this entry if it seems rambling or weird. My brain doesn't appear to be on.

I got through my two classes on Friday relatively easily. The students were kind enough that when they saw I was pretty sick they shut up so I wouldn't have to yell. The parent's day thing was interesting. I can't remember how many parents came to talk to me. It wasn't a ton but it wasn't none, either.

Two of the parents that came to talk to me spoke only in Chinese. Two spoke about half and half and one spoke pretty good English. I think that's how many it was? 5? Anyway, it was kinda cool to meet some of the parents. One came over with a student from class B and I'm guessing it was her grandmother who said to me in Chinese "She really likes you!".

The only thing that bothered me is that EVERY PARENT asked the same question, "How can my student improve their English?" As though I had some magic serum in my desk that I could just give them. Nobody seemed to think that "hard work and practice" was an acceptable answer.

After parent's day ended, I went back to my apartment and stayed there. I knitted and had some of my turkey mush leftovers and went to bed at like 10pm. I woke up quite a few times but only accepted it at noon. I did nothing all day Saturday but knit and watch Friends and shower. Zeno had said that we should hang out if I was feeling better. I wasn't feeling better but I needed to go out to eat since there wasn't much in my apartment. I called but she didn't answer. Luckily as I was heading out she was heading in. Her phone had been off for invigilating. We headed off to Carrefour together with the intention of eating at Yummie House, a new restaurant, but the Subway there was having a buy one get one free sale so we went there.

On the way there/while eating/on the way back we talked about a bunch of stuff. We made tentative plans to travel somewhere during the new year's break (apparently I get the 1-3rd of January off??) We talked about being teachers and we talked about books and TV shows and such. After dinner she invited me to my place to borrow a book since I finished the ones I bought. I borrowed "Me Talk Pretty One Day" which Nate's mom recommended to me this summer but never got to me. Zeno also suggested "Coming Home Crazy" which is about an American who comes to China to teach English. It's about what he experienced in China and what America felt like to him when he came home. Should be interesting to read since I'm...living it.

After that I asked if she felt like watching "Pushing Daises" since I had suggested it to her. We watched 2.5 episodes. In the middle of the third one she said she wanted to go to bed so I headed back to my apartment, leaving the DVDs with her. :-) It felt really nice to hang out with Zeno. I feel like I said this before but I really hope she actually likes hanging out with me and isn't just being polite. I think she's funny and kind and a lot of fun.

I woke up like a half hour ago and still feel terrible. Ugh. If I still feel bad tomorrow I'm going to the school clinic. I still have one more week of classes on the current topic but my brain has run out of ideas. I have no plans for this week and I hate doing work when I feel this crappy. I don't want to be a lazy/bad teacher and just show movies (as much as my students would love it). I should really do my lesson plan now so I can spend the rest of the day taking it easy.

UGH. I was hoping I would feel well enough today so I could get some Christmas shopping done. Next weekend I'll be in Nanjing so I'm running out of time. I feel so lazy and worthless. I HATE being sick.

In cuter news, I got this e-mail from one of my students yesterday:

"Stephanie:
I am so sorry to heard that you got a cold .Do you feel better now?
Please take care of yourself. Maybe your family mumbers aren't in Shanghai.But you still have we, we are your best freinds.
I am looking forword to having your interesting class,and see a healthy Stephanie.

Yours
Simon"

Some of my students drive me crazy, some always put a smile on my face.

I suppose that's all for now. I hope I feel better next time I post.

Love,
ME