Hey everyone! It's been quite some time since I've had the opportunity to update, so I thought I would give a quick rundown of life in HK from the past few weeks:
1) Papers, papers, papers - Much of my time in the past few weeks has been devoted to the editing and grading of my students' papers. Since I last posted, I have graded approximately 40 papers, with about 40 papers coming before that. It's craziness! I'm starting to get the hang of grading papers quickly - when I first started, it was taking me about 45 minutes - 1 hour to grade a 5-page persuasive paper, but I'm slowly reducing that time. Or perhaps my students' papers are just getting better, and thus I do not need to make as many comments like "It's not clear what you're trying to say here - clarify!" As I was slugging through these papers at first, I was grumbling a bit, thinking what a thankless job this was. However, many of my students go out of their way actually to thank me for the comments and feedback I give to them, and to say how they really feel they are improving in their writing. I can't believe it never occurred to me when I was in school to thank my teachers for grading my papers, but now that I think about it, I think I owe a lot of people big thank-you's!
2) Information Day - I had a major flashback to my tour-guiding days last Saturday, when hordes of prospective students flooded CUHK's campus to be convinced that this was the school for them. I was stationed in the English department and was able to meet many potential English majors, some of whom were more comfortable than others speaking in English with this chatty American. Many of the prospective kids were curious about how they could improve their English, and we all suggested ideas like watching American TV shows, watching English movies with the subtitles on, and listening to American music. When one student said that the only English writing they had tried to read in school was Shakespeare, we immediately said, "No, try something easier! Then work your way up to Shakespeare!" So we recommended easier books like Harry Potter, Twilight, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Pride and Prejudice. Apparently this was the approach several of our current students took to improve their English, and clearly it yielded good results! Who knew Twilight could be so valuable? :)
3) Football, finally: Last night, after a particularly long week of work, I ventured downtown for the first time in a couple weeks to have dinner with my friend Brittany and then to meet up with the legion of Hong Kong Texas Exes for the UT-OU game! I had been looking forward to this all week long, and I'm happy to say that the experience did not disappoint! The HK Texas Exes had rented out a restaurant in Wan Chai, and about 30-35 Texas fans converged on the site. I got to meet some fantastic people, some Hong Kong residents as well as some current UT students who are studying abroad in HK, so there was some great company. As everyone knows who watched the game, it was an ugly, UGLY game, but a win's a win!! I cannot even begin to tell you how good it was to watch football and to hang around Texans again. I will definitely be making this a tradition!
Here I am after the game, elated but absolutely exhausted and ready for some sleep!!
All in all, it was a pretty spectacular evening!
Not a whole lot else to report as of now, since I've just been knee-deep in the job for the past couple of weeks. Next weekend should promise some exciting times, though, as I'll be celebrating my 23rd birthday on the 23rd!! I'm currently in the process of deciding what to do for the occasion - mainly just deciding on what fancy restaurants to try! I'm also buying myself the best birthday present ever this week! Hope everyone has a great week this week, and I'll be back again soon!
xoxo,
Jenny
What is this mysterious gift to self of which you speak?
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