When it Rains it Pours

Lets start with anything good or exciting that has happened the last two weeks…I decided to buy a juicer and have been making juices for breakfast--completely irrational but I'm finding i have a lot more energy.

I went out with colleagues last weekend, had some really good Indian food and walked into a "bust" of cops who were shutting down a bar because of a previous incident and because the bar is not safe and does not have the appropriate documents (conclusion--chinese police are not intimidating at all…)

I discovered that Subway and Burger King are both located in the same area--both new developments in the last few months in Jinan.

The pollution has been ok so I've gotten a chance to run outside.

Other than that, I feel like I'm trapped back in a hole.

Thursday last week i locked my keys in my house (my door automatically locks) while i was taking out the trash. Luckily i ran into a coworker and got into our office to find the spare set of keys--but seriously 1.5 hours later…ugh

Yesterday morning I woke up to a lovely message from Chase: Fraud alert. Ive been struggling to get ahold of them since and am an anxious wreck over the $500+ purchases on my credit card :(

On the school front, I have been back to work for 2 weeks and Im ready for the next vacation. A teacher had lung problems (prob due to the unhealthy pollution situation here…) so Im now teaching AP Human Geography (I did originally have World History on my schedule--which is not AP but it would be so overwhelming to figure out where the students were and to continue teaching without reading about EVERYTHING that has happened before--history teachers you'd understand)

So between 4 different classes things have been…busy. And really frustrating. I teach 2 classes to the senior 3's who do not show up to class and do not do the assignments I give them. It seems like a large waste of my time to spend planning the lessons and teaching their class, but I guess I'll see how this week goes and go from there. ( I swear if i have subpar attendance I am going to talk to someone about dropping the class)

Human Geography has been a struggle because the last teacher just gave them words and definitions so that is what they are used to. One student told me i am giving them way too much information and its hard to take notes--plus they don't like participating (in true chinese fashion) not to mention they said i was giving them too much work. (If you want to succeed on the AP test, you're going to have to practice doing free response questions and gaining a better insight of human geography kids!)

Attendance in that class has been pretty poor (this is where i miss the american system where the administration takes care of attendance issues) and i feel many students are going to take a while to adjust to me.

So I am really struggling with my class schedule and feel like I've been working all hours of the day. (Result--some pretty motivated job searching haha)

Any sunshine and happiness would be welcomed with open arms right about now.