Turkey Day Deux

Jennifer and I had a rather pleasant Thanksgiving day meal at the S(mile) & N(ice) Hotel. I ate duck in place of turkey, although I'm not much of a fan. I also had sushi, potato salad, eggplant, and Thai spicy soup. Tasty, but not so traditional.


Nathan came up this weekend and I busted out the Thanksgiving food mom had sent to me. We had green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, and stuffing, corn, and peas. All made in the wonder that is the microwave. It was pretty darn tasty too.


We spent most of the weekend doing our usual dvd shopping and watching, eating, and being lazy.

I've just spent a few hours putting together a couple power point presentations on birthday's and pronunciation for my kiddos. I'll try them out tomorrow on my secretary's.

Feeling better, though I did wake up to a coughing fit last night due to a ridiculously itchy throat. I am, however, recovered for the most part. Mild phlegm in the back of the throat.

Just had a nice skype with mom to hash out our plans for her trip here. Looks like Beijing and Harbin are a go. We're going to freeze our butts off.

Bed for me!

You don't have to read this...

I've just been perusing the online goods since I'm DONE GRADING MIDTERMS! Huzzah.

New things that I heart can be found here (burgundy), here (magenta), here, here (red), here (teal) (black) (burgundy), here (red) (magenta) (grey), here, here, here (red) (teal), and here.

I'm ready for Nathan to be here.

And I'm still sick. Awful.

And everyone ate pie... except Jessica

Why is there no pie in China?!?!

I got lots of nice 'Happy Thanksgiving' text messages from my students today. It's nice to know they care.

I'm posting pictures of my secretary's hand turkeys, and some pictures of my BE3 class working on their hand turkeys. This has ended up being a really fun project, and you should hear their gasps of surprise as I hand out the colored pencils. Pretty funny.


My kids have been giving me copies of the school photos we took also. I love it! Please take note of how I am one of the few who is smiling. To the right of me is Max, he's my co-teacher and helps me out with stuff, and to my left is Hanz, head of the English department. This is my BE3 class in it's entirety. I have them split into two different classes though, so it's not quite so overwhelming as it appears.


Remember how I said that Jennifer, Cary, and I were going down to David's pizza place to take pictures for his brochure? Well Jennifer and I went in there the other day and were asked if it was us who was on this brochure by a customer, and it was! We got copies:
Why he chose this awful picture of all of us, I have no idea. I look like an alien or something. Freaky.

We're still not really sure what the dates are that we'll be getting out of school/starting the new semester. I hope we find out soon, I'm on the verge of burnout.

My laptop is pretty dead. I've installed all the stuff I can, but it shuts itself off after a maximum of 5 minutes being on. It's not the blue screen of death anymore, just... death. I can't get the battery to charge, and since that's a new (for the most part) battery, it's got to be the laptop itself which is at issue and not the battery.
I have decided I'm going to buy myself a new laptop next year, after mom has visited and we've gone on our trip. I'm leaning towards the Lenovo Ideapad S10. It comes with a built in camera, is light (only 3lbs), easy to carry, and comes in pink. I'm also going to get an external harddrive since all my pictures and powerpoints are on the computer the school has provided for me. Factoring in how long it will take me to save, I'll be looking to get the notebook around March. I am still keeping in mind that I would prefer a mac, but at this point, it's unnecessary, and a smaller laptop would do just fine and also be much cheaper.

I'm sick, which is unpleasant. Nathan, Jennifer, and Cary have all managed to give me whatever they have. My throat has been sore for the past couple days, and lecturing hasn't been helping. Hopefully it will be better by next week, because we're doing pronunciation which means I'll need to be able to talk for the full two hours. I also have that snot that doesn't come out your nose but gets stuck in the back of your throat. I know you wanted to know that.

It's pretty terrible to hear about Mumbai. My heart goes out to everyone there and who has been affected. I hope that Grandma and Grandpa will be safe on their trip!

Hopefully I'll finish my Christmas card painting this weekend. Nathan will be here though, so I can't promise that will happen.

Right, I'm going to grade some papers, and if I have time, see if Jennifer wants to go to the S&N Hotel for some buffet dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm jealous you get to eat pie and turkey and pie and more pie......

No update

Too many papers to grade tonight.

xoxo

Everyone is thankful for the food and their parents

Jennifer and I just got back from eating at New York pizza. I had a long island iced tea, but it was a bit strong.

I taught Thanksgiving again today to BE3. This is what they are thankful for:

"I am thankful that my parents love me! I love them, too. Also thank you, Jessica! Because you give us the chance to paint the Turkey. I like painting very interesting!"

"I am thankful for my family, my teachers, my friends, and all the people who help me!"

"I am thankful for my partent give me wonderful life and my teachers' and friends' helps. I love them loves."

"I am thankful for my mother of giving me live and love, for giving me too much."

It's been a pretty uneventful day. I bought new paint brushes which will make the Christmas card painting much easier, since before I only had three paintbrushes and the bristles were splitting.

Crap. I have a ton of papers to grade. Better get going.

Gots so much to do.....

I have to grade papers and work on Christmas cards, so this will be brief.

Had a great time making hand turkeys with my secretary's today. They seemed to really enjoy my Thanksgiving lesson, we did tongue twisters, arts and crafts, and talked about what we're thankful for. Good times.

I'll take pictures of their turkeys soon.

My secretary's are thankful for:

"I am thankful for my parents! I want to do my best and make them happy."

"I'm thankful for God. thankful for Love from my parents and friends thankful for teachers who teach me many things. Thankful for everything. I'm happy."

"I am thankful for parents gives my life."

"I am thankful for you teached our draft the largest turky. This day I am very happy and wish you can teach our more useful things."

After class I took more pictures with my BE1 kids. Then had some rest and relaxation before heading to the art store to get more supplies.

Now it's dinner time along with grading midterm papers. I have to work on my Christmas cards too.


Man.. that Thanksgiving food sure looks tempting.

The truth is...

It was a great weekend but went by too quickly.
Nathan and I took a couple of his friends to eat Thai food. They didn't seem to like it that much. Shame. We also went to Metro to do a little shopping. I bought a Christmas stocking and a new dvd player. It's working great so far, I'm enjoying the 4400.

We went out Saturday night, but it was pretty low key. Just a few drinks with Nikolai, Peter, and Nik's girlfriend.

I'm looking forward to next weekend. Seeing Nathan again and enjoying a Thanksgiving feast. It will be delightful.

Nathan and I have been debating about where we'll live next year. It's looking like either Jiujiang or Nanchang. We want to live together again, but we both like our schools and areas. Quite the dilemma. We still have plenty of time to decide though.


May I just say? Gorgeous! Beautiful! Umm Yes!
I've got some Christmas cards to work on.

Can you ask me an easier question?

Tonight was the last round of speeches. One of my students, Ivan, gave presentation about a laptop. He was a great salesman, I want one now! And they're only 3999rmb. Not bad at all. If I can find one, I'm all over that. We only had 11 presenters and I didn't ask a single question the entire time. They kept looking at me, but there was really nothing to ask. Everyone did pretty well, and those who didn't, well, I wasn't really able to decipher what they were saying anyways.

Tomorrow we take pictures! I guess I'll have to make an effort to dress nicely. I'm thinking about chopping my bangs since they're down to my chin now. I have some scissors around here somewhere...

I did some more online 'shopping' today. I.e. I went online and put things in my online shopping cart to see how much I would spend. (Note: nothing was actually purchased.) Walmart is having a fabbo clearance sale. Want to see my goodies?
Even if you don't, tough, this is my blog.

You can check out the goods here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
All that goodness for only $51. Free shipping too. Nice.

Then I meandered over to Target to check out the clearance there. (You do know that if I was in the states right now I would be in the actual stores anyways, right?)
Found some more fabbo goodies you can see here , here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Total was $42.41. Not bad at all.

Why do I love shopping so much? I think it's because I'm a bit bored here. Plus I have no friends who want (operative word here) to go shopping with me. Perhaps another reason to move to a bigger city next year.

Class interviews/midterms went well today. I have many students who want to own their own business someday, mostly selling clothes. One student wants to own a car factory. A couple want to be fashion designers. All very interesting stuff.

Tomorrow I head down to Nanchang. Very exciting indeed!

Be a miracle...

Speech contest went better. They didn't badger me to ask questions this evening. I did ask a couple questions and I made the poor girl so nervous she couldn't answer the question anyways. One of my students got first or second place though, which was fantastic. She's a really great speaker and did fabulously on her midterm today as well.

I found these 'cup' soups at the store awhile back and have just started trying them. The tomato one is delicious and goes really well with a grilled cheese. Yum.

I've been doing pretty well at fighting my desire to go shopping lately. Ok... that's not true, I went shopping yesterday, but for Christmas presents! Not for myself! I really want a couple more pairs of boots though... and some sweaters. I've been 'windows' (ahahaha... get it? windows... like... never mind) shopping at the Forever 21 website. I pretty much love everything at their store.
I hate clothes shopping in China (purse and shoe shopping are another story). Nothing fits here, at least not in Jiujiang. I can't wait to go to Beijing and hit the Pearl Market. Get some jeans, polo's, purses. Mom and I most definitely will be heading there, I think.

I started painting Christmas cards today. I had a few disasters but a couple of them turned out cute. They're nothing fancy, but better than anything else offered over here.

The other day I bought a few new pens and today I discovered that one of them says, "Welcome to the terrific horrific teenage world." It's my new favorite.

Tomorrow I have two classes, plus the last day of the speech competition. Looks like it's going to be a busy day, but I like those.

Somewhere in the distance I can hear fireworks. Just so long as they're not right outside my window, I'm okay with them. Nathan told me I should throw water out my window onto them next time they shoot them off, but when they're that close to the window, perhaps it's just a better idea to keep it shut.

My brain is tired. I just spent an hour and a half trying to decipher what these speakers were saying, so I'm going to relax and paint some more.

What did you say? I know you didn't just say that to me.

Today is Tuesday, November 18, 2008. Liiiiiiiive from Jiujiang, China, your host, Jeeeeeeeessica.


Day one of midterms went okee-dokee. To say it was a success may be a bit much, but everyone was 'interviewed', papers were turned in, and we watched Mama Mia.
The only naughty thing my students did today was leave class early. Um... no, I didn't say you could leave early. Especially with the inspectors here! !@#$%$@#!!!! What are you thinking?!?! They're going to get an earful next week. The ladies who did stay got a nice bonus on their midterm exam.

Jennifer and I went lunching at McD. Their curry nuggets are just too hard to resist. We did a good thing though, and walked back to campus. I bought some Christmas card making supplies, so look for those in your mailbox in December. Addresses are welcome and needed.

This evening I judged a speech contest. Now this was an interesting experience. First of all, I was told I would have to ask no questions which was good because I couldn't understand but three or four words out of the students mouths who were giving speeches.
Then... after 8 students had finished their presentations, all of a sudden one of the commentators comes up to me and tells me I have to ask questions! WHAT?! Ok, so let's get down why this is not fair. First of all, there were 6 other judges besides me, the teachers of these students. They had alllllll gotten copies of the students speeches a few weeks ahead of the competition so that they could come up with questions to ask. Jessica got NO COPIES.
Reason number two, the students read from their power points which were also about as understandable as their speeches. I'm supposed to come up with questions from that? Are you joking?
And finally, the students speeches were three minutes long or less. Three minutes or less of incomprehensable speech does not give me much to work with, if anything at all.

I managed to ask one question to a student I could understand, and the second question I asked was CORRECTING the question of a teacher. And the student still couldn't answer it.

The head honcho came up to me after the contest and told me I should be prepared for tomorrow. Excuse me? I know you did not just tell me to be prepared. How about you be prepared by having a copy of the speeches for me? Hmmm? Tomorrow I may tell him where to stick it. Then walk out.

I was considering staying here another year, but I must admit that this certainly makes me question that. Nathan's school is looking more and more tempting after all. Plus the added bonus of us being able to live together again. We'll see how tomorrow night goes.

Best dinner yet

I just made grilled cheese sandwiches with onions melted into the cheese and cold lettuce on them. Absolutely delicious.

I'm watching Stick It. I forgot how funny and cheesy this movie is. I love it.

Taught my secretary's job interview stuff today. They seemed to have fun and we laughed a lot in class. It was a nice, relaxed interview.

Tomorrow Cary and I are judging some presentation by the Trade kids. Apparently that's the plan for the next couple days.

Midterms start tomorrow! Exciting!


Do you like the new layout?

An update

This weekend was very nice. Nathan came up from Nanchang, arriving around 8:30pm at my apartment. We were both tired from teaching that day, so we decided to have a quiet night in, watching movies instead of going to a club.

The next morning we woke up relatively early and lazed about until we decided to go downtown for pizza and to hit the arcade. We ate our fill then decided to go to the dvd store, as this is our usual practice when Nathan is in Jiujiang. On our way to walking street we saw huge crowds of people, they were all watching a presentation being put on by a photography studio. Nathan and I found a picture that we both liked, a sort of 1930's Shanghai gangster look, and agreed that when we get engaged that will be our engagement photo. It was pretty awesome. We also saw a man selling furs on the street, which was really sad. All from endangered animals too. Nathan told the man that he liked the furs better on the animal. When we finally made it to the dvd store I bought Sleeping Beauty (the Disney version), Wall-E, Wanted, Mama Mia, and Hancock. I think that I will show Mama Mia next week to my students during midterms, because they really seem to love musicals.
It was a really nice temperature outside so we decided to walk around walking street. We meandered into the arcade we had visited a few weeks ago, and entertained some of the local kids by playing a kill the zombies type of game then some basketball. We did manage to beat the zombie game, although I think perhaps is was more a game of how much money do you have (you have to pay if you die and want to come back to life to keep playing) than a game of skill.
We walked home from downtown, taking a route I had never walked before. Luckily we managed to find our way back. Earlier we had decided we wanted burritos for dinner, so we stopped at Lian Sheng to stock up on tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and spices. The fresh produce was so cheap! We were still full when we got back so we watched Narnia 2, and Smart People so we could finish digesting the pizza from earlier.
Making the burritos turned out to be interesting since I didn't have a can opener. Nathan eventually busted the can open with a swiss army knife type thing. Luckily he didn't hurt himself! I think we didn't end up eating the burritos until midnight, but they were delicious!

Nathan left today. Since it's midterms week, I really don't have anything to prepare. I went to an art store with Nathan and stocked up on supplies for Thanksgiving week. I'm going to have my students make hand turkeys and write down something they are thankful for. It's tradition!

Oh! Yesterday I got a package from Leslie for my birthday with the book Three Cups of Tea in it. I'm pretty excited to read it, and I know Nathan is too. I also received a package from mom containing what will, at some point, be delicious Thanksgiving food. Apparently a container of fruit broke open during shipping, alarming the Chinese customs agents who consequently opened the box, took note of the items in the box, then taped it all shut with their official tape before sending it on to me. The broken container of fruit was still in there, just drained of all the syrup which usually preserves it. Ah well.

Cary is going to check with the S&N hotel to see if they will have a Thanksgiving buffet. It's unlikely, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Next weekend I'll be in Nanchang. I'm going to see if Pearl wants to do some Thanksgiving shopping with me, so I can pick up a can opener and anything else I may want to add to my feast.

I'm off to watch Wanted.

Dvd, Dvd, Dvd

I've had quite a bit of fun teaching job interview stuff to my kids this week. They all enjoy learning how to shake hands and how to answer interview questions.

I've been missing trapeze a lot lately. I have not a clue in the world how I would go about trying to find a trapeze here though. I'm guessing I would have to get one in the US then have it shipped here.

Jennifer and I went dvd shopping today. Found some good stuff, a few new shows to watch when I finish the 4400. I also got Jenna's Christmas present, which was good.

Meh. Sleepy.

A Good Evening

I've finished Boston Legal now and have moved on to the 4400. I'm a bit sad Boston Legal is all finished with.

This evening Jenn, Cary, and I went to the pizza place to take pictures for David's flier. Except... David is in Beijing and there was much confusion about what was supposed to be done. We took some silly pictures with his staff which will most likely have to be re-done upon his return. I probably blinked in more than half of them. I also had a Chinese child put in my lap a couple times, but she was just adorable, so that wasn't so bad.
Then we headed to Lian Sheng so that Jennifer could get juice. I bought bread and candy, because that's all I eat anymore other than McDonalds and pizza.... and curry.... and velveeta. Surprisingly I've lost weight being here.....

Cary and I decided to go to Le Nest to see if it was as crowded as everyone was saying it was. It was. We threw back a couple Buds, then were invited to the table of some new Chinese 'friends', one of whom I think may have been the owner of the club. We shared some drinks with them before departing.

I'm heading back to Le Nest on Friday because they're having a foreign DJ come in to perform and I have high hopes he'll be quite good. The DJ this evening wasn't bad though, and we only had to listen to three songs sung by a Chinese performer.

My ears are still ringing and I'm feeling a bit topsy turvey so I'm going to drink some water and head to bed.

I rather do enjoy going out for a drink on weeknights.

P.S. SSDD3: Deadjournal has hatred for me and won't let me post on your blog. Just wanted to say good luck in your search for a dog, and be sure to check out pure breed rescue dogs too. :)

Eat, sleep, repeat....

Nanchang was largely uneventful. Nathan and I ate a lot of Thai food, partied with friends, and watched a lot of tv. That really sums it all up.

Today I taught job interview information. It went over relatively well, although I'm not sure how much they absorbed. I was exhausted all day which was unfortunate, but I've napped now, so perhaps that won't be the case tomorrow. We did practice hand shakes and I made everyone shake my hand. Girls here have wimpy hand shakes, haha, so I had to toughen them up. It was funny and they all enjoyed it.

Tomorrow Jenn and I are going down to Davids to take pictures with his staff for some fliers he's having made. Hopefully he'll treat us to a free bbq chicken pizza in return. Yum, yum.

I believe that I've caught up on my e-mails now.

I also finished Pride and Prejudice, so I'm off to start the book mom bought me for my birthday. I'm rather in the mood for more books from that era now, I've finally grown to appreciate them. Plus, Pride and Prejudice must be one of the most romantic books ever written. *Swoon*



Much love.

Returned

I am returned from Nanchang, but rather busy making my job interview power point. I shall have to update about the weekend at a later point. Suffice to say, it was a good one.

Goodnight!

Quickie...

Just a quick entry before I run to the train station.

Since I shall not be returning to the US of A this coming summer, I've decided to plan a trip.

Right now my plan is to go to Sichuan where I want to see the new panda reserve, then on to Tibet, eventually ending up in Bhutan where I want to see the Taktshang Monastery.

I've found a new blog which is a good read: http://bryceandmallory.blogspot.com/
Definitely check it out, their travels sound amazing.

That is all.

Well then.....

I give up on trying to teach references, they don't get it.

I'm off to Nanchang for the weekend, and since class has been canceled for me on Monday, I shan't be back until Monday evening. I know you'll all be sad not to have updates.

I don't look forward to teaching all day tomorrow.

I got nothin'.


P.S. Yes, size small. :)

Also... I would like the Twilight books for Christmas.

Obama!

Well, today history was made. Obama was elected president. It's so crazy and wonderful all at the same time. I look forward to seeing some positive changes start occurring in the country now.

I was a lucky bunny today, indeed. I received not one, not two, but THREE packages from friends and family.
- Three delicious blocks of velveeta from Dad and Renee
- A gorgeous shirt and workout dvd from Lauren
-A giant box full of cookies, goldfish, cute fish shaped ice cube tray, tortilla chips, a couple somewhat moldy gourds, and granola bars from Rachel

Fabulous. I am rather spoiled. :)

Today I taught references, resumes, and cover letters. The kids just don't understand references. It seems everyone gets jobs through their guanxi (connections) and that's what they think I mean. It's been rather difficult attempting to explain that this is not how it works in the U.S. but I can't come up with a more effective way of teaching.

We got paid today which is lovely. I shall slip out to do some Christmas shopping at some point and mail those off so they get to their various destinations on time.

I think I might make myself a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.

Updating early today.....

I'm updating early so I can have a relaxing evening watching Boston Legal.

Mom said that people have been wondering about Christmas presents (already!), so I figured I would list some things I would like and/or need:

-Contact solution - Opti Free
-Crest white strips
-Suave sweet pea and violet deodorant
-The Trapeze Diaries - Marie Carter
-The Early Arrival of Dreams : A year in China - Rosemary Mahoney
-The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
-Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
-The Good Women of China - Xinran Xue (looks amazing!)
-I've also picked out some awesome clothes which can be seen (listed in order of would like most):
here, here, here, here, here (in lavender), here, here (in magenta), here, here, here, here (wine), here (navy/cream), here (navy), here, and here.


I was farting around on the internet reading blogs and one of them mentioned this site where you can morph your pictures with your partner to see what your children would look like. So... I did it for Nathan and I. And the results were amusing.

I don't really think they look much like us at all, but it was a fun experiment. It's unfortunate that they have inherited my large forehead. Haha. They look a little bit like aliens.

I've made it through 2 seasons of Boston Legal already. I only have four, so that stinks. It's such a good show.

Today I lectured about resumes, cover letters, and references. I'm pretty sure they still didn't get it, even though I made a power point, took two hours to explain three documents. I don't know how to get them to pay attention. I guess we'll see how they do for their midterm, they're required to bring in a copy of each when I interview them. If they get a bad grade they'll probably start paying more attention.

I'm off to loaf.

Well I was going to go to bed, but they are setting off fireworks 50 feet from my window again, so I'm going to give a quick update.

I'm sleepy.
Good times teaching my secretaries about American universities today. This week the rest of the kids are learning about cover letters, resumes, and references. So exciting.
Next week we're learning about job interviews, and the week after that are midterm exams. We live in such exciting times.

Hope everyone has been rocking the vote. I, of course, missed the deadline which is rather unfortunate.

Jennifer bought me snuggly pajamas for my birthday today. They are wonderful. I'll post a picture later.

There are really not enough hours in the day.

Goonight and good luck.

It's my party...

Nathan arrived around 8:30pm on Friday. Qiao, Jennifer, Nathan, and I (dressed as an angel) immediately headed to Le Nest (a club) to meet David who was already there holding a table for us. The place was packed! It was a rather grand time in which we danced and stood for many hours. I even ended up breaking a heel! Good times indeed.





The next day we slept in rather late. We decided to go dvd shopping and have McDonalds for lunch. Tasty. We were pretty successful in our dvd shopping and came away with some good finds, including Teeth.
We headed to the pizza place with Jennifer and Sophie around 6:30pm. Hamlin dropped off a gift for me, but unfortunately couldn't stay. David also had plans, so it was just the four of us. It still ended up being fun, and I'm glad I got to experience Sophie trying pizza for the first time.


We went to the grocery store after pizza because I wanted spaghetti sauce, but didn't find anything.
We returned to the apartment where we bid goodbye to Jenn and Sophie. Nathan and I spent the rest of the night watching movies.

Today was my actual birthday and I spent it alone for the most part watching Boston Legal and playing on the internet. I opened my gifts before Nathan left this morning, and I got some great stuff.



Sophie and her friend came over for about half an hour to make me long life noodles for my birthday which were delicious. She also brought me a nice cactus.


Cary was also kind enough to bring me a small cake and nice umbrella.

Now I've got to make up a lesson for tomorrow and continue working on my laptop. It's quasi-working at this point. Thanks again for the disks, Grandpa.