The China Chronicles

Hello! I've been out of touch due to the earthquake in Taiwan. Our internet and phone lines were down for almost a week, but things are back to semi-functioning now. I gave my last two final exams yesterday. So far, I've only caught one case of cheating out of 200 students, so things are going pretty well. I will be leaving for the States in 8 days. Here is how my day of traveling will go:

7:45 a.m. (Jan. 11) take a bus to the bus station
8:15 take a bus to Guiyang
10:00 arrive in Guiyang
10:15 take a taxi to airport
10:45 arrive at airport
12:50 p.m. take a flight to Beijing
3:40 arrive in Beijing
8:15 take a flight to LA
4:15 p.m. (still Jan. 11) arrive in LA
6:00 take a flight to Denver
9:30 arrive in Denver

...at least in theory. I have recently been told that I don't have enough time in LA to go through customs and make the connecting flight, so I might be getting in as late as 9:30 a.m. Jan. 12. Because of the time change, in Mountain Standard Time (or whatever time zone CO is in), I leave at 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 10 and arrive hopefully at 9:30 p.m. Jan. 11. Thirty hours of traveling! Whew! It's good I'm traveling alone, because I'll probably be pretty cranky by the time it's over. Traveling for a long time has a way of doing that to me. It makes my sister cranky too--that's why we're great traveling buddies :)

Anyway, before I leave, I have to grade my exams and turn in the grades. There are very specific instructions for this. I must grade in red and record the grades in blue, unless a student fails, and then the grade must be recorded in red. I have to give the participation grade, exam grade, total grade, number of students who passed, number of students who failed, and number of students who didn't take the test. Furthermore, if a student fails the class, I have to give him or her a make-up exam. I have one student who is definitely failing, and beyond that, I'm not sure. The student who is failing is a freshman who has been absent for 7 of the 13 classes, including the review for the final exam. Oops. Better luck next semester, dude...

posted by Sara @ 2:40 AM