Tested to Destruction - Time for a Break

Monday arrived and so too did my end of term exams at Cheng Kung University.  My school workload reduced considerably and my university workload increased massively.  I can’t say my Chinese revision went well, but every morning I at least started to study at the expense of my usual trips to the gym - I had many chapters of the textbook to revise!  There were plenty of distractions during the day, but I can honestly say that I did work hard during the evenings.

Before leaving for Cheng Da on Friday, I had one last class to teach – both class 102 and I learned about prepositional phrases.  This was a difficult but rewarding lesson for me as the kids taught me the meaning of the English words in Chinese.  For someone with "the attention span of a gnat", to quote my father, it was a long session.  At one juncture, I was grateful that Polan spotted my fatigue and lifted my spirits by reassuring me that there were only two groups left.  If only she could count – four groups stood up!  

Tiring as it was, it was the perfect ‘warm up’ for my final university test and my last day with the Cheng Da class.   I will definitely miss them all not least Dayna and Federico, whom I have got to know quite well.  I don’t really know if I will ever see them again. ☹  So before our final exam, we ate at a Hot Pot restaurant and drank too much Coke.  This may have contributed to a successful grammar test, but I can’t prove it yet as I await the result.

You can see my lovely class below:
 

  

Front row from the left: Midori (Japanese), Dayna (Belizean), 田蘋老師 Our teacher (Taiwanese), Wen Xiang (Japanese). 
Back Row from left: Zhou San (Japanese), Me, Federico (Italian) and Hao Zhi (Japanese)

As we are now into December, my thoughts turned to Christmas at the weekend.  Time to buy some Christmas presents.   (I won’t mention who might be recipients on the off chance that they read this.)  And who better to take me shopping than Winnie?  I really needed her guidance, as I don’t have a history of shopping.  In fact, I don’t much like shopping – that’s inherited from my father. 

I did have one great idea for my sister.  She sounds like she is being a bit lazy over in Beijing, so I thought of buying her some new running shoes.  I entered the Nike shop with the best of intentions, and I spotted the coolest running shoes I have ever seen.  So I bought them for myself.  Yes, I know, go ahead and judge me!

After a relaxing Sunday, I was refreshed for the week ahead at school.  And as I no longer attend the Chinese classes (I am away for a chunk of the next term), my workload is much reduced.  That has left me with more free time to spend on subjects I find interesting (eg Physics).  I have even managed to pick up a book!

One new project this week has been helping out with teaching a Christmas song.  I was quickly replaced on piano by En Rou, who is a far better pianist than I am, but I retained my status as lead vocalist.  I was also allowed to select the song.  I opted for "Fairytale of New York" as we sang it in my Music class last year, and it has more "life" to it than some other Christmas songs.  (Thank you Ms B!)  At the time of writing, En Rou and I have practised it a few times.  I think it should be good. 

That’s it for now - I'll be reporting on a short holiday next time.  Till then…