Monday blues

My 26-year-old student, Jack (he didn't give me his name in Pinyin) making the noodle dough.
A better view of my kitchen...snazzy-looking eh?
The other student who came to "help cook" - I feel bad but I forget her name! She's stirring the mutton-noodle soup that was so delicious!

Well, usually Mondays go well but I found this Monday tiring and stressful. This morning I had nine students in my class so for the first hour we simply had a conversation and we went over the students' mistakes. My second class of the morning was tiring because the students were noisy and non-attentive. The problem is that I like my classes to be interactive and I think these students are used to learning super passively. If they don't know how to speak, it must be the teacher's fault and that's the end of it. It frustrates me. I try to get them to participate in some interesting activities but they certainly don't show any enthusiasm. My last class always goes well, I just hope they're getting something out of it. I'm not looking forward to working another six hours tomorrow...sigh.

What I need is a good night's sleep.

Yesterday I went to an art district called Dashanzi (http://www.benoa.net/beijing/dashanzi/). It's a cool artsy neighbourhood. It used to be an industrial area which has now been renovated into many art studios and galleries. You need to walk outside from gallery to gallery. There are little shops and studios and cafes and some of the galleries turn into clubs at night. I went there with Josh and some of his buddies when he was in town back in early September - so long ago it seems! But we didn't see much. This time I saw only one of the places I had already been to - the rest of them were new to me. And the place I had already been to had changed its exhibition so everything was new, in fact. This art district is big! There's so much to see!

Today is Monday which means the end of the teacher's strike in B.C. which means my mother goes back to work and also my friend Lucas can get to sub again. Sorry, they're not called subs any more (how demeaning!) but TOCs (Teacher On Call) - that should be TsOC.

Tomorrow is Tuesday. I just hope I survive in OK condition...before I collapse.