March 3rd, 2016

March 3rd, 2016

9:30 am on the 10th, talking about the 2nd

Obviously I've fallen behind on my posts- there's been less urgency to complete them right away since I started taking (semi-)detailed notes during my work days. Like, no worries, I won't forget anything important, it's all on the worksheet. And my efforts to catch up while at work have been an abyssmal(sp?) failure. I'm just too busy there, either with preparing for classes or helping students with questions. Or getting lunch. That happens a lot too. And you know lunch is a time waster, what with dropping food back into its dish all the time- thanks, chopsticks. (I'm getting pretty good, but still...)

Okay, let's try and do two days worth this morning and start catching up. Here are my notes:

I was given a work schedule for the coming week at the last minute before leaving Web the day before (I forgot about that) and I was supposed to go to Qingniwaqiao Web Wednesday. Which is THIS day! I started my day with 8 sets of 12-13 push ups, taking a minute rest in between sets... well, by the end I wasn't quite hitting those numbers, but I was resolved to not leave my apartment before I had pushed my body up from that floor 100 times, thereby rendering my upper body useless for the remainder of the day. 

Slightly exaggerating, but whatever. It was fun! Both the push ups and the exaggeration.

I power walked to Roosevelt so I could grab a quick snack at Food Bazzar before attempting to go for a run to Qingniwaqiao Web- at the Roosevelt Food Bazzar they were serving some kind of large wrap for 12 yuan. The wrap itself was weirdly shiny... but I'd never seen this before so, despite my previous intention to grab the smallest of snacks I really wanted to try it. What if they never served it again??- unfortunately, I didn't think about the cost of this wrap and two sticks of meat (each stick about 2.5-3 yuan) until I was already in line to pay. Aaah I don't think there's enough money on my food card... I crossed my fingers, but no, my mistake. So I sort of waved at the cashier person that I'd be right back, zipped over to put money back on my card, and it worked out okay.

The wrap had egg, lettuce, shredded carrot- I think shredded potato as well. And I'm glad I got the hotdog on the stick thing, because I needed the stick to pick out pieces of the wrap that got stuck on my teeth. 

Stopping in at Roosevelt Web, I filled up my water bottle, waved hi to, I think it was just Stella there at the moment, and got out of the building to start my run to Qingniwaqiao at 12:07 pm in my jeans, wearing my backpack and tilly hat, and carrying my jacket- man, what a nice day out.

I set my alarm for 12:30 pm, once that hit I had to consider hopping on the subway to make it to work on time. Once 12:30 hit I switched to walking, but was pretty sure I was close enough that I didn't need the subway- that's assuming I was even near enough to one for the idea to be useful. But I definitely wasn't going to make it if I kept walking, so 12:35 I got back to running.

I was running down Zhongshan Street/Road/whatever but it turns out the road forks and I, I took the road less travelled. By me, I mean. Like, I'd never been there before. 

And this wasn't me being whimsical, I just picked the wrong one... I'm keeping my eyes open for street signs, but I'm not seeing anything. Finally I thought, even though I'd never run to Qingniwaqiao before, "I should be there by now..." so I asked a woman, pointing at the road, "Zhongshan?" and she replied "no, Zhongshan is that way" pointing north a block or so. I thanked her and started running north, taking a minute before realizing, oh, hey, she spoke English.

I got to Zhongshan and it was right where the subway spits you out to get to Qingniwaqiao Web- I was there! Arriving at 12:44 pm (stop the clock on my run), I entered and waved hello to everyone, making my way to the bathroom to change into a dryer shirt, and when I looked at myself in the mirror OH MAN I was so red. Like, I know I get red after a run, but this was too much, chee-ee, so I thought augh everyone I just waved at thinks I'm about to die or something.

Okay, as for my classes for the day, I had a lower intermediate class about Planning Ahead with Mona, June, and Neal, talking about some fictional character named Max and using language to express degrees of certainty. And I wrote: "Max doesn't have enough degrees of certainty to sustain a class." Looks like this was a tough one to get through.

Then came my English Corner- it seems the projector wasn't working, but that was fine by me, I was just going to show some clips from Colbert's Late Night show, instead I talked about my favourite English Professor and some of his method, before switching gears to spend the rest of the time talking about Trumbo, the perceptions of communism in 1950's America to present, and the Hollywood Blacklist. It went very well, and I had the particular attention of Penelope sitting at the front- I think we've had a class together before, but I wasn't sure, so I re-introduced myself after the English Corner. Rather out of the blue she asked me if I knew Marvel Comics stories, which of course I do, and she said she was a fan of Marvel and DC. So that was a cool surprise.

Another surprise I had was that Bradley had come to visit Qingniwaqiao today, so he got to enjoy an English Corner that wasn't Hamlet, and then we went to get lunch together. He was reluctant to go into Victory Plaza- he thought we'd get lost- but I wanted to find Kung Fu Cheese since I told the guy I would visit his store the next time I was there. Well, let me tell you know, I've been to Victory Plaza twice since I was invited to Kung Fu Cheese and I still haven't found the place. Ghost restaurant? I mean, probably.

Instead I once again had that boneless "Ber Da" chicken, which I shared with Bradley, but he didn't actually take that much. And then I grabbed a slice of pineapple pizza that was mighty fine, but Bradley wanted something a bit more substantial, so we made our way outside and to the "Food Marche" place in the mall to the south that I said I wouldn't go back to. Aw, I was too hard on the place, it's okay- Badley showed me a hot rice bowl place, where the rice gets cooked sitting in the hot stone bowl that you carry around and is a lawsuit waiting to happen were this America. Or Canada even, that's how dangerous we're talking.

By this time my lunch break was pretty close to being over- Bradley actually suggested we didn't have time for this rice bowl business. But I was feeling reckless I guess- "Naah, it's fine, we've got time". Long story short, I had to blow on my rice a lot to try and cool it down enough to throw in my mouth so I could pour it on down my gullet and run back to Qingniwaqiao Web. Savour the food I did not. But I made it back with a whole minute to spare before my next class! Yeah man, the master of time management over here.

My next class was a salon on Travel and Holidays with May, Beverly, Cindy, Elena, Jim, Mona, Helen, and KRYSTAL. (Hey, that's how it was written in the attendance sheet, all caps) The different groups had to role play whatever was on the cards, and I think it was Mona and KRYSTAL that consistently took the most time to get prepared- I would say they were the weakest students, but, surprisingly, I think Jim approached me at the end of the day to ask to be listed as "refer" instead of "pass". No one had ever done that before, plus our class was a couple of hours ago at this point, so I was confused about why he asked me- I already handed in the sheet man, talk to the people at the desk.

Then I had a private class with 4 people that I have neglected to write anything about, so I got nothing.

Finally I had another salon class on speculating about the future, with only three participants out of the listed 6: Grace, Lorna, and "Astar" who, appropriately enough, reminded me of Leonard Nemoy. So I obviously had a great time.

After class I chatted with Tyler for a bit instead of catching the subway all the way home, so I had a nice walk back from Roosevelt. - 10:26 am