Thank God it's Friday?

Don't matter to me

Friday isn't my Friday since my days off are Tuesday and Wednesday.  Comprehendez?

 

Playing Dumb?

It is not too often that I use the word "Communist" in conversation or in class here.  One has to avoid politics.  But the word came up when I was trying to explain "Connotation" to a student who I had thought was at a more advanced level of English.  Telling him about the connotations the word "Communist" had in America, the student looked at me strangely and asked "what is Communist?".  It was the first time I ever had to explain the word and I fudged the explanation.  I then used "Gay" as an example.

 

You don't know what the students know and don't know.

 

Earthquake Relief

A few days ago, the Chinese were asked to donate money to the Earthquake relief fund.  Asking the students if they were donating, I had one student tell me he wasn't because the earthquake wasn't as big as one in '08 -- others hearing this laughed.  Other students said they were mistrustful of what was being done with the money -- saying some officials would pocket the funds.

 

Drunk men on street corner

It was startling to see these three men sprawled on the street corner in my area of Wuxi.  I thought for a second that they had been in a traffic accident, but when they arose, I could see that they were blind drunk.

 

Expo 2010

It's time to be talking about the Expo in 2010.  I am not sure if I will be going.  The wife thinks it will be too big a hassle to attend because of the crowds there will be and the difficulties of finding accommodations.

 

I was told by the students that some Shanghai residents are letting out their homes for the evening to out-of-town attendees and charging a hundred rmb a night or so.

 

Visa for Jenny

I am working on getting a Visa for Jenny so we can go to Canada in June.  It is a pain gathering the documents we need -- fretting about this has made me blog less.

 

Thought

People who think there are too many people in the world can prove they are really concerned about this by killing themselves.  If you really believe in a cause you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself and your life for it.