Random

Me, Bob (Chinese friend who wants to study CompSci at UBC) and Loic (French teacher) at dinner tonight. Back in September I was sitting outside the foreign students' dorm, reading a book, and Bob came over to talk and that's how we met. Loic joined us and I had to go, so Loic went for a coffee with Bob and they exchanged numbers and from then on Bob often comes out with us.
The French crew: me, Loic (in his crazy pajama pants), Gaetan, Katia and Guillaume. We're in the entrance hall of the foreign students' building, waiting to go eat.

Today went really well. This week has been great, actually. I prepared my afternoon class at noon, but it we had lots of fun. One of my students lent me a CD that's not bad - don't like everything but some songs are nice. It's a British rock group called "I'm a Robot" - has anyone heard of them?

After class one of my students - a shy girl - stayed behind and asked me which class I liked best. I told her I liked all my classes - which is true! She said she thought I liked her class best and I said that it's true I like the people in that class - but then I like almost all of my students! I was really happy though because I have difficulty with that Tuesday afternoon class (they're first year students and their level is quite low) but to know that they think I like them best means that all is well and it just put me in such a great mood.

In Chinese, ranking classes is really important. It's not the first time a student asks me which class has the best English or which class I enjoy teaching most. Apparently teachers talk about their other classes all the time, saying students should try to be like this better class or whatnot. It's supposed to push them to succeed to know that I like other students more...whatever.

My second year students had their midterms yesterday (Monday). I'm not sure how it went, my students didn't comment on them today when I asked them about it. "So-so" was their answer when I asked how it went. I went to check it out at 1:30 PM but my boss told me I didn't need to be there since I had to teach another class at 2 PM. The weird thing is my students told me they wouldn't get their results for their midterms. I don't understand how China works sometimes...

Anyway, this week sounds like it's going to be a good one. I'm glad. Hope you're all having nice weeks too!