a great schedule

The weather is warming up again (the highs around 35 Fahrenheit) and the moonscape like snow piles on the side of the road are shrinking with the help of the sun and people still working to chip away at them. Two pictures as a farewell to the snow:

On the windy walk up to YUST Sunday morning after the second snowstorm.

I'm loving my schedule this semester. Just 4.5 hours of teaching. The prep time for the 1.5 hour American Culture class takes more than the conversation prep, which I knew it would, but it's a fun class to teach. The book finally came in today, so I'm looking forward to getting my hands on that tomorrow and adding some structure to the semester.

I've committed to going to the gym more and it feels really good to get back into a routine there. I also bought tickets to the swimming pool on campus, which is the newest one in the city (out of only three, one of which I think is permanently closed). I haven't been yet, but I'm gonna try to go tomorrow and try out the hand paddles I bought over the summer (and haven't used yet).

Today, I met with my Korean tutor for the first time. We have planned to meet just two hours a week, but this semester I am going to get my rear in gear and do serious studying on the off days so I can really make good use of those two hours. I started tonight by reviewing what we learned today and when I finish typing this, I'm going to "preview" (do we use that verb in English in this sense?) the stuff for our Friday meeting.

I also met a girl who's a friend of one of my American culture students who wants to do language exchange in Chinese/English. She wanted to meet as often as possible, but I said two hours (one hour English, one hour Chinese) is plenty for now. We'll see what happens. We're meeting for our first study session tomorrow at 8am!

What I need to make more time for is to keep up with the students I got to know at my old university. I made a trip up last week to meet a student for lunch and it was so good to see so many of my old students.

Two unedited pics of my apartment. It's a cozy little place and I'm really enjoying it. I took these last week. In the first one, you can see the red ottoman that doubles as a coffee/pile of stuff table and my nest on the floor where I work on the computer (until I get wireless) and study or lesson plan. I'm not so much of a sit at a table or desk person, but I use the couch when I'm reading.