a Thursday

Today started with multiple hits of the snooze button before it was time to get serious, get up and get ready for Chinese from 8-10 (at my apartment, thankfully). Actually, it's English-Chinese exchange. I sat through most of the hour of English thinking how this is a bad idea and I need to swap this tutor for someone who I'll just pay to teach me instead. But, the Chinese hour made me change my mind, at least for another week. I'm probably in this relationship for a reason.

Then, I did two loads of laundry and chatted with my sister before taking off to run a few errands before class. I took some sweaters to get fixed, scarves to be cleaned, got copies of my apartment keys made for my new roommate, and picked up bread, peanut butter and jelly for my class. My sister had talked about burgers and mac and cheese which reminded me that I've been hungry for American food, so I got a burger and fries to go at burger place that's a sad knock off of a Korean chain. I had actually never ordered food there before and when I sat down in my office to eat it, I realized why nobody I know really goes there. It was okay, but not exactly what you could classify as good. In conversation class, we talked about recipes, food words and giving directions while making small pb&j sandwiches. They were happy.

After class, two students I didn't know came into the office asking me to give them a test so that they could pass the class they failed last semester because they stopped going to class. I had no idea what they were talking about, but after talking it over with one of the Chinese teachers, I understood my duty. I had to give them their final oral exam without knowing what class it was for, what they learned that semester, or what their original exam looked like. Right. Makes perfect sense. They can skip out on a whole semester of class and then take an exam from a clueless teacher to make up for it. Their English was good, so they passed. Ridiculous.

I went out to dinner with a fellow teacher who's been here for only about a month. She was gung ho about trying a new place as a sort of adventure, so we went to a dumpling restaurant down the street that we'd never been to. I asked for someone who spoke Korean or for a Korean menu, but neither were available. So, the waitress and I had a fun time. She suggested a few things and I took her up on them, not knowing much more than the category of food they were under. We got two plates of dumplings, one plate of sweet and sour pork with pineapples, and a pot of tea. The pork came because she said foreigners like it and one of the dumpling dishes was recommended because it's their specialty. I think I understood more than I expected to, but there were a few times that she went off on some explanation that I had no idea about. She came back periodically to make sure we enjoyed it and told us to come back because they have many more delicious dishes we should try.

Tonight holds some Korean study and hopefully an early bedtime!