Finals are here!

大家好! It's that time of week again and I feel a bit scattered. This week is finals week so I've got quite a bit going on. I have "homework" that needs to be turned in by the end of next week. I have to go through each lesson and label which core standard each lesson met. It's tedious and stupid because he doesn't actually want us to say what we did and what they mastered. He just wants some kind of paperwork so that we can submit it for accreditation. I'm REALLY starting to hate my administrator. He's no longer knocking on our apartment door and just letting himself in.... yes even when I'm in a towel on my way to the shower! He started doing it when my roommate's boyfriend was sick. I get that he wanted to check in and see how he was doing but not knocking, inviting yourself in, and waking up someone who isn't even in his own apartment when the residents of the apartment are at work?! That's a bit much. And now I'm even more paranoid to leave the door unlocked EVER even when there are people in the apartment. Clearly, boundaries don't exist. UGH.

Last week we had a 7 day work week and this week we only have 5. The primary students are on break now so it's finally calm at the cafeteria for breakfast and dinner. Unfortunately we can't eat there during the break, which isn't terrible because I'll be traveling most of the time anyway. But still, I need to find places to eat when I'm in Jinan. Spring Festival is coming up and that will be when life will pretty much stop because there will be so many people going home. I hope I'll be able to find places that I can eat at since I don't have a kitchen... I'm a little worried about it but hopefully it'll be OK. I'm super excited for Hong Kong Disneyland! and Hong Kong in general. Beijing should be fun but COLD! Also, incredibly crowded. Then Shanghai is my last stop, which is actually cut short :( My boss made an announcement on Friday that we're required to be at work Sunday Feb 16th instead of Monday Feb 17th. So I'm one of the few people who can actually rearrange my schedule since I can't buy train tickets until 10 days before the traveling date. But for my coworkers who bought plane tickets and can't switch their flight times, they will be required to use one of their allotted "sick days."

Craziness is happening more so than usual here at JNFLS. I'm used to the random, "Oh by the way, this week was switched to a long week." I'm even getting used to the sudden, "This week you'll work 10 days because you will have two days off next week. But next week you'll only have to work 6 days because then it will be the weekend." It just sucks when our plans for a national holiday has to change. It's so hard to plan trips! I probably won't have much to update you on next week since all I'm doing this week is exam fun. But when I get back from my trips, I will have A LOT to catch you up on. Until then... Laters!

Woosh!

OMG where has the time gone?! The Christmas season always goes by so quickly. It went by especially fast here in China because I didn't have any days off until the new year. I performed twice in 2013 in CHINA!! Oh yea!! I choreographed and performed a lyrical piece with a student while another student sang. This performance was for the New Year Charity Concert. Then I choreographed and performed a solo dance for the faculty New Year's party. It was really fun to be able to perform again and I got a lot of compliments that Sharon, Tony, and Jeremiah needed to translate for me >.<

The calendar new year has come and gone. I spent some time with my friends here. It was interesting to celebrate without fireworks... It wasn't that much fun :/ But enough about the past.... Now on to the future with Chinese New Year and Spring Festival! I'm currently working day 3 of 7 today... I went back to work on Saturday and will work until Friday with regular classes. Then next week Monday I will stay late (until 7:30pm) to start giving speaking exams to my students. Written exams start Wednesday and continue until Friday. But I have no written exams to grade this time around. We have Monday-Thursday of grading and working before our winter holiday starts so I'm not really sure what I'll be doing during that time since I won't have classes or grading. Maybe learning more Chinese??? For winter holiday I will be going to Hong Kong for a week, Beijing for a week and Shanghai for 4 days. I'm pretty excited but also a little nervous... That's a lot of traveling during the busiest time of the year here and I hope I'll be able to find places to stay/train tickets!!!! I will be going to Hong Kong Disneyland of course and next year when Disneyland opens in Shanghai, I'm hopefully going there as well. But for now, I'm just focusing on getting through this holiday. So January 31st is Chinese New Year (I will be in HK for that!) and Spring Festival is February 10th (I will be in Beijing for that WITH MY FAMILY)!!!!!! My parents and aunty will be coming to visit for a week and a half and I'm pretty excited to have them up here. My Chinese sucks but at least we'll be in a city that has a plethora of English speakers :D Then I'm going to Shanghai to visit Jeremiah. His mother lives there so that's why he's going there for the holiday. He claims he's from Shanghai but really he's from 4 other cities that spread out across southern China. He just speaks Shanghaihua and has a Shanghai accent :P

So that's all I really have in terms of updates for you... I know my post is short this time around but when things start happening too quickly, I forget what's going on. As you can tell from my post, my brain is pretty scattered. I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time but it's not working so well. I'm too excited for the winter holiday to be here and the fact that I'm finishing up my first semester of working a legit job in my career and... and... and... BEING IN CHINA!!!!!!!! I'm just so crazy right now! I love it here and can't wait to share this culture with my family :D I'll probably update you all next week but the next few weeks after that I may be MIA. I'll try to keep you posted if I can! Until then... Laters!