Thursday’s are always carry that strange feeling with them. They are the “neither here-nor-there” kinda days. You know you gotta work but then your mind is already half on Friday, and you know that the weekend is coming…and that 48 hours of unadulterated bliss is going to follow and well…Thursdays just seem too packed in the horizons of most days – to be passed through as soon as possible before the REAL day on Friday! My Thursday’s though, strangely, seem to be fairly good on most days. I tend to feel happier on Thursdays for the simple fact that Friday is coming! My mind though, is far far away from work. It is already dreaming of sloth and slumber, of fun and relaxation and all the little things that make life worth living. Makes me wonder why we ever work so much! Can you imagine 5 days devoted to work? In most countries, in most professions, those 5 days rarely move beyond the work world.
At least, here in China I am fortunate that teaching offers the blessed bliss of time in a teacup. I can gently swirl Time around in my teacup, watch it float by in a haze of movies, walks and talks – the most I have in a day to work is 6 hours! Today was one such day – I was caught coming late to class by one minute (yeah, one minute) by the sour Mr Ni – the head of the English department who doesn’t utter a word of English. He gave me a look that made me want to scurry into some dank damp corner of the Xinjiang desert. My classes though, weren’t a wee bit moody today. Two different lesson plans for three different classes and they all worked like a dream. The key? Give them a worksheet and ask them to memorize! Chinese learning at its best – cram, cram and more cram, we love it all the more! I, as a teacher, don’t mind. It makes my job easier! Oh! In the evening, tried watching a disaster of a movie called “Unaccompanied Minors.” And quite frankly left me with the vague feeling that the director fell asleep while making the movie! Do not ever venture, even through torture, into watching this movie!
I cannot rest this day go by with the last snippet. The Internet company sent someone to connect another modem to my laptop – it wasn’t as easy as they figured as my laptop could not read the Chinese characters. They were left looking at a series of beautifully placed question marks. The genial guy left in a hurry to get inspiration from outside and in came the darling of the students, Spoon! The hot shot of the campus – half the girls seem to be in love with him as he is the certified eligible bachelor and general man of the town! In case I forgot to mention, he is also the PC-repair guy, exceptionally proficient in deleting any programs that you may have been unfortunate enough to download on your system! He flung his jacket in dramatic fashion on my bed – sat down to survey the laptop. I sat behind him to keep an eye and ensure he doesn’t do his usual deleting! Phone rang – Birdie ran to pick it up and Spoon asks “Is that your husband?” General cry of nervous laughter from him before he corrected to “Did your boyfriend call?” Birdie mumbles something…and we generally get around to talking about Chinese boyfriends. I woefully complain that Cissy has promised to find me a Chinese guy soon – and Spoon jumps in with the most startling proposal I have ever received! “What do you think of me as your boyfriend??!!!. More nervous hahahahaa laughter. I subside into stunned startled laughter. Phew…just another day. Just another day in China.
(Check out Spoon in the pic)
