April 4th: hotel breakfast and a bout of summeritis
[ posted by mcdeviltoast ]
Day 200
I woke early to have breakfast with Matt and Erin at the hotel. Matt knocked on my door and we went to the primary wing to collect his missus. We went to the second floor, then the third floor. No Erin. We ran into Viola and went to the first floor, when she suddenly remembered Erin was teaching on the fourth floor. We walked back up to find....empty classrooms. We trudged on to the hotel, found Erin standing outside looking salty. We explained the noble and gentlemanly reason for being tardy, but she still gave us a hard time.
The breakfast was decent: eggs, toast, bacon, cereals, muffins, and all manner of Chinese weirdness. The coffee was bottomless and exceptional, worth the price of admission right there. I gorged myself and we sent Matt off back to Nantong. I pedaled Erin back on her bike, affixed myself heavily to my desk chair.
I wrote for a while, then got antsy to be in the sunshine. I walked up to the middle school by exiting through the construction area near the canteen. It probably saved me 15 minutes' walk time. I joined Heather, Rhys and Jeni on the roof. Their whole school was leaving en masse to go "memorize the dead," clotting up traffic and generally flooding the sidewalks. Some impatient people on motorcycles tried barreling through the melee, brandishing their ignorance and lack of forethought like it was a medal of valor.
Heather and I basked in the sun for a while until she had to teach her next class. I went to the music store and practiced my catalogue, then rode home and tried to think of a lesson plan for the week. I flipped through the book Rose had given me, trying to teach them something related, just saw I had already taught some lessons from the book (careers, sick vocab) inadvertently.
I ate dinner, which was not all that good, wracked my brain trying to think of a lesson plan. I got increasingly displeased with myself, and it was discouraging that I felt listless, uninspired. Perhaps it was the 200th day mark, a batch of expat blues, a kind of teacher "senioritis" going into the three month home stretch. "All Together Now" had been my back-up plan, but I had already used it. Taking a page fromthe camp song used the week before, I finally settled on the Bear song, a call-and-response and what's more, LONG tune with easy language. I'd interact with them asking them what they would do if they encountered a bear, if they'd ever climbed a tree, favorite tree, something. It should fill the 45 minutes fine.
I rode up to the middle school and joined the crew at the tents. My left brake broke on the way over which didn't help my mood. Two nan gua bings (pumpkin cakes) and a beer helped me mellow out some. After some fireworks roof antics, Rhys, Heather and I watched "Antz" but I fell asleep before the end.
I woke early to have breakfast with Matt and Erin at the hotel. Matt knocked on my door and we went to the primary wing to collect his missus. We went to the second floor, then the third floor. No Erin. We ran into Viola and went to the first floor, when she suddenly remembered Erin was teaching on the fourth floor. We walked back up to find....empty classrooms. We trudged on to the hotel, found Erin standing outside looking salty. We explained the noble and gentlemanly reason for being tardy, but she still gave us a hard time.
The breakfast was decent: eggs, toast, bacon, cereals, muffins, and all manner of Chinese weirdness. The coffee was bottomless and exceptional, worth the price of admission right there. I gorged myself and we sent Matt off back to Nantong. I pedaled Erin back on her bike, affixed myself heavily to my desk chair.
I wrote for a while, then got antsy to be in the sunshine. I walked up to the middle school by exiting through the construction area near the canteen. It probably saved me 15 minutes' walk time. I joined Heather, Rhys and Jeni on the roof. Their whole school was leaving en masse to go "memorize the dead," clotting up traffic and generally flooding the sidewalks. Some impatient people on motorcycles tried barreling through the melee, brandishing their ignorance and lack of forethought like it was a medal of valor.
Heather and I basked in the sun for a while until she had to teach her next class. I went to the music store and practiced my catalogue, then rode home and tried to think of a lesson plan for the week. I flipped through the book Rose had given me, trying to teach them something related, just saw I had already taught some lessons from the book (careers, sick vocab) inadvertently.
I ate dinner, which was not all that good, wracked my brain trying to think of a lesson plan. I got increasingly displeased with myself, and it was discouraging that I felt listless, uninspired. Perhaps it was the 200th day mark, a batch of expat blues, a kind of teacher "senioritis" going into the three month home stretch. "All Together Now" had been my back-up plan, but I had already used it. Taking a page fromthe camp song used the week before, I finally settled on the Bear song, a call-and-response and what's more, LONG tune with easy language. I'd interact with them asking them what they would do if they encountered a bear, if they'd ever climbed a tree, favorite tree, something. It should fill the 45 minutes fine.
I rode up to the middle school and joined the crew at the tents. My left brake broke on the way over which didn't help my mood. Two nan gua bings (pumpkin cakes) and a beer helped me mellow out some. After some fireworks roof antics, Rhys, Heather and I watched "Antz" but I fell asleep before the end.
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[ posted by mcdeviltoast @ 4/04/2005 09:07:00 PM ]
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The dumbtronica act Montana & McDeviltoast, along with their friends, keep each other updated on their activities. Much fun having by all, and Pockys fear for their lives!