So far this semester

I'm not even going to try to catch anyone reading this up with life since my last LJ post (roughly 5 months ago!). However, there have already been a series of weird/ noteworthy events since I returned to Shantou almost a month ago. Therefore, so far this semester, I have....

• Resettled into the apartment, first with Jamin as a very temporary roommate and now with Daniel (only slightly less temporary)
• Been sad that Bucket (the kitten rescued last semester) had been adopted
• Been reunited with Bucket for the semester (his new pet human not having factored in the roommate issue when she took him home)
  
• Met 7 new ELC teachers, all of whom are nifty colleagues
• Returned to Xiamen (I went last semester with Philippe and his parents) with 2 of the new group and spent 3 days between the beach and the non-Shantou scenery- it was awesome!
• Gotten 2 leg massages
• Eaten long awaited sushi (far too expensive in Paris)
  
• Taken part in Freshman Orientation, complete with "Going to the Movies" skit and the Hokey Pokey
• Graded 87 oral placement tests and over 100 written placement tests, some of which were pretty entertaining and others really impressive
  
• Have become a level coordinator, which just means I have to send more emails than a regular level person
• Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese-style, by eating mooncakes and youzi (kinda like a cross between an apple and a grapefruit) and staring at the moon
  
• Have had 2 meetings for English Festival and still no decided list of universities who will come compete
• Have prepared and taught 2 sets of classes (and really should get on with planning prep 3 since I teach it in 24 hours)
• Have met, taken pictures of, read quick bios about and assigned homework to 105 new students (there might be 3 more at some point)
• Have had at least 4 students confused about the homework
• Have been to EL where I was interrogated about my dislike of beer, my hometown (France...), introduced to Haerbin, asked about the meaning of my Chinese name (then asked again right after I had answered- it means "delicate/ skillful cloud), had someone snap his fingers at me to get my attention and where it was explained to me by a confused student that because his computer is old, if he looks things up on the internet, he'll get less good results than if he uses a new computer (whaaat?!)
• Have booked tickets to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou for my October vacation (starting tomorrow night, already!)
• Made several trips to Wal-Mart, land of the laowai
• Blended several recipes together to make a new one for Roasted Red Pepper, Onion and Tomato Quiche for a pot-luck
• Hosted said pot-luck
• Swum in both the pool and reservoir
• Been creeped out by a freshman called Benz.

I think that's it! Oh yeah, and...

• Procrastinated away significant parts of my time since I started teaching by doing "useful things" like setting up mail forwarding and this new blog....