Bummer

I lost my first kid this week: Will, who used to be named Pewitt. He was a hellion in the beginning, but got much better until the end of the first semester. At the beginning of the second semester he was having a rough time, not paying attention, dozing off. In the last few weeks before he got yanked from my class he was doing tons better, finishing his work early, engaging the material.

Personality-wise, Will was probably my favorite. He never took things personally, which made him hard to discipline, but also meant that he pretty much always had a smile on his face. How can you argue with that?

He disappeared from class a week and a half ago, and we got confirmation today that his mom doesn't want him to attend our school anymore, and that's final. She's crazy, in a bad way, but there's not much we can do about it.

I miss him, and wish that I had had the chance to say goodbye. At least I'll get to say a proper farewell to the rest. Still, I feel like I got the most accomplished with Will. He really turned over a new leaf in class, after being maybe the worst behaved kid in the school for the last three years.

Oh well. What is there to be done?

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After a couple of months of long periods of inactivity with occasional bursts of effort, I have completed my latest model. Martin is much, much better at this than I am, but I'm still proud of what I've put together.
Now to start on the next one!

In other news, I've been thinking a lot about cultural exhaustion, lately. Maybe it's delayed-action culture shock, or maybe I'm just tired, but lately I've really been missing a lot of the comforting things I took for granted about living in the states. Being able to read the signs comes readily to mind. Understanding conversations as I walk through a city. Getting cultural references. It seems like the effort of staying mentally active in a place that encourages me to be lazy is starting to get to me.

I'm tired. I'm almost (almost!) ready to go home.

Thunder

I was walking home from work a few minutes ago, and caught a BRIGHT flash in the sky. So bright and so near overhead that I jumped into the air. Before I landed, the thunder hit, loud enough to startle the hell out of me. So loud that I could physically feel it in my bones. So loud that every car alarm for a block around me went off at once.

Wow.

Woosh

Woosh is the sound of how quickly the weeks are being torn off the calendar. We practice daily at school for the grad show, and that cuts into a big part of my teaching time, meaning that each day zooms past at work.

Katherine has gone home, and I've been going out to dinner with Martin more often. It's good times, but it has meant that I've been swimming a little less regularly. Gonna have to really clamp down on that. I've also been spending more time hanging out with Ali and Kaitlin, though Kaitlin will shortly be getting busier, as she has taken a new job. All three of us are very, very ready to be done with the current school year. 12 straight months of school is fucking hard.

I've kept up writing more regularly, though an increase in output seems to have coincided with a decline in quality. Obligation versus desire, and all that good stuff. I've been taking pictures every now and then (though too lazy to edit and post to flickr). No exciting trips to speak of, besides a ho-hum trip to Fulong, a good day of surfing at Daxi, and an afternoon of dragon boat races out in Xindian. This weekend there is a pool party on Saturday, and I'm considering heading to the coast on Sunday for some more surfing. I'd like to get out of the city. We'll see if it happens.

The weather has been interesting lately. Hot and humid and cloudy, with daily thunderstorms in the afternoon. Pretty cool, though I'd rather be relaxing at home on the couch listening to the rain and thunder than teaching a crowd of unruly children. I guess that's just how it is. This morning I awoke to find ants in my laptop. A less-than-desirable side effect of all the rain.

Keep on truckin', I guess. Muddle through 'til August, when I'm done and it's travel time.

Oh, one more thing: I have an initial phone interview tomorrow morning for a job as a study coordinator at the Menlo Park VA hospital. Wish me luck!