The balance...

...it might not be cosmic, but it seems to work nonetheless.

Quite suddenly the weather turned really COLD. Not quite freezing, but a long way off from the comfort zone.
When I first came here (almost 3 months ago!) I was given a blanket and a single bed sheet. At the time the temperature was still lingering around the summer levels and thus I converted the insides of my blanket into a mattress top to make my bed at least a little comfortable. This left me with a thin sheet for a blanket, which was all I required a couple months ago, but has since proven inadequate to stave off the frigid nighttime temperatures.
I recently asked my boss if the college can provide me with another blanket, which would serve a dual purpose by allowing me to sleep on the couch while Tom stays with me (yeah, Mom and Dad get the hotel, Tom hangs with his big bro).


I was given my blanket today, while at the same time I was given an extra 16 students in my first Friday morning class.
...I will say that once more for good measure: "an extra 16 STUDENTS!"
...It gets better...
The majority of these students do not have the room in their schedule to even attend my class, so they expect me to provide them with make-up work for review and allow them to take the final exam and call it good.

Allow me to make one thing clear, I am NOT accusing Shelley (轲素芬) of any kind of backstabbing maneuver (I've said it before, I'll say it again: She is AWESOME!), but I get the sense that there is some balance being preserved here - I make a demand, I get what I request, and in addition I get more work that doesn't conflict with my contract.

A quick review of my job requirements: my contract stipulates that I will teach no more than 16 credit hours per week, however there is no written clause that limits the size of my classes.


In other news, Dad, Mom and Tom supposedly arrived in Beijing last night, but at said time I was on the South Campus, judging a speech competition for my college and had turned off my cell phone.
One of the contestants was a student of my Friday class, and when it came time for her speech she went free-form and decided to turn some of her attention on me as I judged. She said a lot of nice things, and being that I am somewhat susceptible to flattery I tried to give my scorecard to someone else so I'd have zero chance of giving a biased assessment of her speech.
In the end I kept it and judged as best I could.
She ended up winning second place (along with around 3 or 4 other students).

At the end I was given an envelope which I didn't think to open until today. I expected a generic "thank you" letter... I was right about the generic "thank you" part, it came, however, in the form of a 100 元 bill.
...wasn't expecting that.


Hope Mom and Dad get a phone and call me soon. I don't see them until Tuesday, but I'd like to hear from them before then nonetheless.