Yes "weeks"- plural.
Today my students had a Chinese test for 60 minutes. We have been instructed that they cannot, CANNOT get up or go to the restroom. I cannot start teaching even if everyone is done. So students were finished in 12, 20 and 22 minutes. It was a looooooooong time for them to sit quietly and read a book. They did it though! Only one thing went horribly wrong... everyone asked me questions! I know slightly between 4 and 5 words in Chinese. I can read slightly less Chinese, between 0 and 0 words. There happened to be two big mistakes/misprints/typos on the test. Since I can't leave the class and the Chinese teacher is running between 6 classes, help was nowhere to be found. After about 7 minutes, I grabbed a teacher who was walking by and asked her to find and send the Chinese teacher over. She promptly gave them the answers and said that it was a bad copy.
Don't you just love watching kids sweat every morning for 60-80 minutes over a test!
And...(I know, never use and at the beginning of a sentence, but it's my blog and I'll write what I want and have Janet correct me later)...And it is raining so my kids have to stay inside for break and lunch and snack. It is times like this that I wish I was one of those horrible teachers/people who like to punish kids. They are getting punished today by the rain and the tests and it makes me miserable.
It gets better/worse! I can type this because they are in the midst of a second, surprise test (given by their EPP teacher)! Hooray! They are taking an EPP (English Preparatory something) test right after their Chinese test, and right before I give them their English written test tomorrow...and Monday. "Two English tests?" you ask... Nope 4!
To add to the joy of test weeks, the weather outside has looked like this for the last 4 weeks:
I found that it was the same image whether I made it in paint or took a picture.
I did get 2 days of intense sunshine and thought I might die of heat stroke in Saigon though. I went down for my second softball tournament. This time I went with my Hanoi team, the Bad News Bums. We tied for last place but had a great time. Due to peoples' work schedules we brought our infield but none of our outfield. We had some really great guys fill in, they were great to hang out with and I'd love to grab a beer with them again. They don't play in the local league and were a little bit out of practice.
It was fun to see the same guys I met during the September tournament. They were pushing to have a Hanoi or halfway tournament. Personally, I'd like to do the halfway tourney. That means we would be in Danang or Na Trang. Both in central Vietnam and both by the beach! Either way I hope our outfield comes, it is made up of 4 tough guys who can field and hit the ball like it insulted their mother.
Despite our atrocious losses (19-5, 15-0, 17-0 and 14-5) I went 10 for 12 and stood tall at third base, we just couldn't put 3 base runners on in a row without getting 3 outs in a row. If you're a score keeper, I actually went 9-12 because of a FC to put a guy out at second.
I also got my new bat right before the tournament!!
This bad boy right here:
It is USSSA legal and feels sweet to hold, but it is still in the plastic.
As Jeremy, our PE teacher who also lived in CWE only 3 houses away from me in the mid 90s, and I were taking practice swings in my classroom at the end of the day (as any good teacher does), I got an email from our captain.
"Another quick note from the tourney. No outside bats, all bats will be provided."
Crap.
Our spring season starts in March so the bat will stay wrapped up and unused until then.
We recently went to Indonesia as I'm sure everyone knows from our well written, in-depth, riveting opinion altering post. If I had to pick a last meal, I'd have some oysters, crab, rendang, flying fish roe, rare/raw steak, wings from Jeffersons and Buffalo Wild Wings and Indo Mie rasa Kari Ayam.
So I brought back a bunch of Indo Mie to Hanoi. This morning I opened a pack to make lunch and not one, but TWO bumbu/cabe packs were in it! I shouted "Aww Hell Yeah!" just like Will Smith in every movie, and Janet commented that she hadn't seen me that excited in a while. If you've ever had Indo Mie, you know how great this morning was. It was GREAT! I can have an extra Kari Ayam meal!
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