Rent and such…

So this morning I woke up early because my landlord was coming over to collect rent. He is a nice guy but it was a bit painful because over here you pay rent 3 months at a time. On the up side he consolidated our payments and had us pay him for gas and water for the last 3 months. I was really pleased with how little that was. So far I have paid about $50 total for utilities (Gas, Water and Electric). For 3 months I feel like that is good.

Lets see, the internet in my apartment has been out for a week so I have ended up spend a lot more time at school because I cannot work at home. I have started taking Chinese classes at school because I felt like I was progressing too slowly on my own. I am going 2 times a day and then am doing private tutoring 2 times a week. I am starting to feel a little more confident after just a week.

I had kind of a bad week with some parts getting better at the end and others getting worse. I got told that I might not get my passport back in time to go home for Christmas (it is at the police station getting my visa changed) but then I got the great news yesterday that they think I should get it on the 19th after expediting the process. Another bad thing that happened, while grading homework I found that for one of my students, copying someone else’s homework was just too tedious and cumbersome so he had broken into the copy room and made a photocopy of someone’s homework that he then turned in for my to grade. I was very upset and gave both students Zeros on the assignment. I began to realize just how widespread this cheating problem is yesterday when I was giving a test. I have 2 versions of the test because my room is so small I can not separate. Every other student has a different test. Yesterday I watched as one student held up their test so that another student could copy their answers and then trade tests with the person next to them to complete his test. I could not believe what I was seeing but I decided not to stop them and then I gave them all zeros for academic dishonesty.

I am getting observed in that class next week which could be interesting. Anyways, I am going to continue preping for my lessons next week so I can do well (students willing) on my observation.