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JISHOU, HUNAN — It’s 11:33 am on Jan. 1 here. So far, 2012 looks good. The sun might come out again, breaking a week of dreary skies. I have a four-day weekend, giving me enough time to catch up on all the grading I have to do.
In other good news, I reconnected with someone I haven’t talked to in months a few days ago. I was elated. I have three invitations to spend Spring Festival with friends. I have a short-term teaching assignment in Jiangmen, Guangdong province, next month. And I will visit Zhuhai and maybe Macao soon after that.
The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades. Cheers, everyone!
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JISHOU, HUNAN — It’s 00:27 here on January 1, 2011 (1/1/11). Sorry, I missed posting at 00:11 — too busy responding to text and QQ greetings from students and friends.
On a more serious note, one of my freshmen, Laura (Liu YaYou 刘亚尤), is worried about her dad. He has been ill for some time, and will have a serious operation very soon. She’s already lost her mom. Please hold her and her family in the light. Thanks.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — I’ve been busy these last few days getting ready to close up shop for the Winter Holiday. My last exam — for the Western Civ classes — is next Friday, and I’ll have a week to read those exams and hand in grades before I jet to the USA for a three-week stay.
My free time, which is not that ample to begin with, has been taken up by giving oral examinations to more than 120 freshmen and sophomores, two at a time for 15 minutes each. This year, I’m using a combination of the Cambridge IELTS and BEC speaking tests: IELTS prompts for two student partners. That way, the students can do the talking while I carefully listen and evaluate pronunciation, intonation, grammar, vocabulary, rhythm and speed. After two years, I’m finally getting a handle on this oral English stuff.
I’m calculating those students’ final grades this weekend (I only have a few left to examine), so the remaining Big Tasks are (1) reading the Western Civ students’ last unit test and (2) reading their final exams. I included a short essay on the final, and I gave them the three possible essay questions earlier this month, so I expect to do a lot of reading after Jan. 7.
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 New Year's fireworks as seen from my friends' roof  One of my better shots  Another good one I’ll write something more substantive later on.
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