Almost... almost... almost...

(for those who have seen "Family Guy" episode "North by North Quahog", guess the next segment in the title)


Why am I late this time you ask?

A matter of days prior to my family coming to visit me here in Wenzhou I was asked if I would kindly vacate my apartment for a week or two while some maintenance workers did some work on my bathroom floor in order to stop a water leak that was leaving water on the step outside my apartment door... a leak that seems most likely to be coming from somewhere in the wall near my kitchen or quite possibly from some source above my lodgings (though admittedly that is more opinion than fact).

Now a matter of days preceding my finals I have been asked by an entire crew of men to leave my home while they tear up my bathroom floor and plug up the leak. In the meantime I've been moved to a hotel room on the South Campus that regrettably has no computer, thus I have no software to upload the pictures that would substantiate my grievances.

...the good news is I finally finished grading the evening class I taught for the Foreign Language College this last semester, so 3 of my overall 15 credits worth of classes are accounted for.

...Now to observe the finals and collect the midterms of my other 6 classes.


Last night (Thursday) I spent at the apartment of my friends and colleagues, Julie Luo and her husband Mu. We steamed eggplant and dipped it in a sauce of garlic and ginger, made a soup with potatoes and pork, and ate raw cucumber and lettuce (first time in a while for me).
The food was great, and afterwards we used a microphone in the living room to sing songs - not officially karaoke, but fairly close.

Now I'm preparing an assignment for my students to make sure they keep practicing English over the break, and give me something to work with once they get back.


Sunday I'm going back to Julie's and we're going to make latkas for Hanukkah... now if only I had a menorah it would be complete. Maybe tomorrow I can go find one after I take care of some important business matters - like sleeping undisturbed and making some lessons more than a few days or weeks in advance.
...with luck maybe I'll get some time to do some martial arts and Chinese learning too.