Sauron Jr. Keeps Me Warm At Night

So I've been pretty darn cold at night. We are supposed to get a winter blanket but I don't know when. So far I've been making due with my summer comforter and wearing thick socks and a sweatshirt to bed. But night before last, I kept waking up shivering and figured maybe it's time to actually start using the various heater things I have in my apartment. I checked the weather report and apparently it's been getting close to freezing at night. Oh dear. I figured I would try out the space heater instead of the air conditioner since I only needed one place (my bed) to be warm.

The space heater that came with my apartment looks just like an oscillating fan minus the blades. At least when it's off. When it's on...oh my. The whole back panel glows reddish orange. With the black spot in the middle, it looks like the flaming eye of Sauron. I've decided to call him Sauron Jr. It was a little funky using an oscillating space heater. I put it next to my bed and I would feel this flow of heat from head to foot then from foot to head. I did feel pretty warm and comfy. I set the timer on it to automatically turn off after 40 minutes so I fell asleep toasty and woke up freezing. Oh well.

Last night I was feeling kinda depressed. I had a completely spontaneous video chat with Rose which made my day so much better.

Classes are going ok I suppose. Some better than others. I think one saving grace is how quickly the weeks seem to go. I feel like I was complaining about it being Monday just yesterday and it's already Thursday. It feels like only last week I had to put my water meter readings on my door for the utility bill and I have to do it again tomorrow.

I wish I could get through to my students. This mornings class I gave them the option of discussing the topics as a class or working in smaller groups. They choose the smaller groups. I told them I would give them a strike if I heard them speaking Chinese instead of English and if they could go the whole class without getting three strikes I would end class early and play a game. I gave them a LOT of leeway. It wasn't one strike if I heard any Chinese, I only gave strikes if I heard a LOT of Chinese. They still got three strikes pretty immediately. I talked to them at the end of class trying to impress on them that as much as I wanted to have fun this was still an English class. I asked for suggestions for class rules or ideas on how to encourage English speaking. The only one I got was a student saying that if someone spoke Chinese then they should have to get in front of the class and dance or sing a song. I don't know if I want to use embarrassment as a scare tactic. It's very frustrating.

In lighter news, the older woman in my office brought in a bag of teeny tiny oranges today. SOO CUTE. And I mean teeny tiny. The smallest ones are the size of ping pong balls, the biggest only slightly bigger than that. They are a breeze to peel and so delicious. She gave me six of them. All together they MIGHT equal the size of a normal orange.

I don't know if I already wrote about this, but I am going to a brunch in Puxi on Saturday. Afterwards I am going with some people that were interested in knitting to a craft market where we will get supplies. The plan seems to be to switch locations each time we knit. So one night it would be in my apartment, next time someone else's. These are the people I met at the wine tasting so when it's my turn to host I plan to get some wine and some little snacks and have a fun evening of wine, knitting and chatting. :-)

I think that's all for now. I am enjoying some Chinese sweet and salty crackers and mini oranges. I also have one bag of the candy corn Dave sent me in my desk in case I get a sweet tooth in the afternoons. Yum.

Much love,
Stephanie

A Packge from Dave

Hey look! Another video blog! I got a package from Dave and opened it in front of the camera.

Let me know if the music is distracting.

Love,
Me

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.

Birthday Present for Lee

My friend Lee's birthday was yesterday. As a present for her, I wrote and recorded this song. I figured since it took ALL DAY Saturday I might as well put it here so you guys could see it too.

My singing is pretty bad and I've only been playing guitar for about a year and a half. Be kind.

Video Blog

So umm...I made a video blog. It's weird and it's long and it's probably boring.

But now I know how to do it so it'll probably be easier in the future. Now I just need to find interesting things to record.

Let me know what you think.

Random Pictures of Me

I recently got some pictures from other people and thought I would put them up.

June took this picture when we were playing around with the castle and the doll. Hey mom! I'm wearing the bracelet you gave me. :-)
This is an old picture, actually. June took this picture like...two months ago. I'm wearing a necklace I made after she and I went to the craft market. I never took a picture of it myself, so there it is. You can compare how boring my desk looks to the post I put up a few days ago.
This is from karaoke this weekend. I wish I could remember what the heck Evan is singing cuz he sure looks soulful.
And me singing. I think I'm singing "Love Song" here, but I don't remember.
Anyway, that's all for some pictures.

I am trying to figure out how to get my webcam to record video and I might might might do a video blog entry. I think I need to download something first though...hmmm.

Anyway, love!

Stephanie

November Wine Tasting

Bah! Weather! This week went from being so cold on Monday that I decided to buy a coat, to today wishing I hadn't worn this sweater. Oh Shanghai.

Wednesday evening I had a treat and webchatted with Elysse for about 2 hours. Course I ended up going to be at almost 2am cuz I am dumb face. But it was nice to talk with her.

Yesterday at work was fine. I finished watching A Knight's Tale with class 2. I was playing around with a tennis ball in the last ten minutes of class and was pretending to toss it to my students but did the "drop behind your back" trick. Which they asked me to do again...and again....and again. One student, Jackey, randomly wanted to arm wrestle with me (though he called it wrist wrestling). I asked if he was serious, then I figured why not. I beat him both right and left handed, but I don't know if it's because I really won or because he let me win as the teacher.

I also chatted with Alicia for a bit since I found out that google chat now has a webcam option. I was at work so I couldn't speak but it was nice to see her face and hear her voice during my lunch break.

I went back to my apartment after work for a quick snack to hold me over until I got to the wine tasting. I figured I would take the bus to the subway. I keep forgetting that 5:30 is the worst time for public transport. Ugh. First of all, the bus was so crowded that I had to stand on the steps. Then I had the most crowded subway ride I have experienced so far. I have joked about the people working at the Japanese subway that shove people onto the trains to make them fit. Well...that's what happened last night. I was standing next to a pole at the time and I feel like I should have a bruise running down the entire right ride of my body from being shoved into it by a mass of people. Aiya. Then I nearly got torn in half because I was right on the edge of people trying to get on the train and people trying to get off the train. Anyone here ever making a whirlpool in their pool and then try to hold onto the edge or get out? That's what it felt like, except it was people instead of water.

People are smart, right? Why do they try to shove their way onto a packed train when there is a wall of people trying to get OUT, thereby making plenty of room for them? Why do they instead try to force their way through? The doors aren't going to close while there are still people getting on and off, wait for 9 freakin' seconds! *deep breath*

Anyway, I got to the wine tasting relatively unscathed. I recognized some people from last time. Hehe, there was a guy who came over and said hi to me and I thought looked really familiar but I couldn't figure out who he was. Then I realized he was the one dressed up as Hilary Clinton for the pub crawl. I didn't recognize him without the wig.

Last night was super fun. It was good since I already knew people from last time so I was more relaxed. It made it easier to meet new people too. I was sitting next to Steve, from Australia and Isabelle from Germany. Only in Shanghai. :-) Steve was absolutely hilarious. I felt like a bad student sitting in the back of the room while the owners explained about the wine and Steve was just muttering nonsense under his breath to make me laugh. In one ear I was hearing about how old wines were usually a mix of different types of grapes but new wines are usually only one kind of grape. In the other ear I hear Steve saying, "Mm...that's interesting. Teaspoon. Roofing tiles. Syphilis." I completely lost it when we got our last dish of food, a plate with cheeses, meats, curried pears, marinated olives and a pat of butter for the bread. We were all munching and listening to the owners when suddenly Steve leans over to me and in a half frantic voice goes, "Stephanie! I just ate the butter!" Apparently he thought it was cheese. My cheeks were killing me by the end of the evening after grinning like a moron trying not to laugh out loud.

The wine and food were all delicious again. Isabelle made me feel even more like a bad wine student because she was taking notes all evening. All I wrote on my paper was my Chinese name because someone asked what it was. Oh well. It was still a lot of fun. I talked about knitting and a few people seemed interested in getting together and me teaching them how to knit. That would make me so happy. Also Ron, the guy I hung out with at the pub crawl may want to come to Nanjing with me and Charlotte. He'll hopefully be in Pudong on Sunday. He wants to go to the financial tower and I haven't been so I asked if I could tag along. I also told him he should come over and I could cook dinner. I want to cook something for someone, dang it.

I was writing this entry at work and I thought I wanted to add something to it before I posted it, so I saved it. Now I've forgotten what else I wanted to write about, so it's getting posted as is.

Love!