New semester: day 1
Today marked the beginning of the new semester. It was a morning filled with two classes comprising a very manageable total of 46 students, all of whom were typically warm and receptive to humour; I can see we’re going to get along just fine.
The new foreign language building houses multi-media classrooms with moveable desks/chairs, not to mention offices and photocopying facilities for teachers on the fourth floor. It’s also aesthetically pleasing, having a traditional courtyard design. I’ll post a picture at some point.
Unaccustomed as I have become to waking up at 6:30 in the morning (due to late nights during the holiday), I felt the unusual need to take a nap in the early afternoon. This left me feeling groggy with a headache; I really need to master the art of taking a power-nap.
My solution to grogginess was to shoot a few hoops on the basketball courts. The Chinese are passionate about their basketball and the courts are normally a hive of activity during daylight hours. However, a bit of rain on campus in China has much the same effect as cleaning products on the roaches in my kitchen, leaving a surface free of all life forms.
Consequently, I was able to enjoy an uninterrupted hour of NBA fantasy followed by 30 minutes on the Astroturf soccer pitch, after which I was thoroughly soaked and I still had a headache. There will be no afternoon nap tomorrow; that’s a promise!