theft

I woke up this morning and as usual checked my email and found that the head of my department in the school had emailed me and informed me that the students in one of my classes had shared the answers.I can see it from two sides. One they cheated. To they pooled their resources and studied together. Now on the one hand it annoys me very much as I hate cheaters but on the other it isnt as if the exam was multiple choice. It was essay and short answer. I feel like lowering everyones score but then I think they did in fact memorize all the required information so they should get the points right. But is memorization enough? Did they learn anything and is it my job to care? I think I will just leave their grades where they stand and be a super pain in the ass next term when I am their writing teacher. Just another adventure in the life of a teacher.

land of the

Yesterday when I arrived into L.A. I had about an hour and a half to clear immigration and customs get to my next ticketing counter and board my last flight. Plenty of time. So my checked bag(no liquids on the plane)is the last bag out onto the conveyor belt so that killed 30 minutes of my time. Then customs and immigration. The go to another terminal. Another 10-15 minutes. Self check-in saves time right. I proceed to get the boarding pass and go to the agent to give her my bag and she tells me that i need to pay 15 dollars. Now when I bought the tickets there was no fee. Which I calmly explained to her. She being both a bitch and working at american airlines counter in l.a. got all pissy and said everyone pays. So I told her I just want to make my flight and I would deal with it later and I mentioned I was really tired from the long beijing to l.a. flight. Oh well if you are from an international flight you dont have to pay just give me the boarding pass she says. So I give her the pass from Beijing and she says I will be right back just need the manager to override the fee. 10 minutes she is gone. I now have 30 minutes until my flight leaves. She finally returns and stickers my bag and I ask will it make it onto the flight? I hope so she hisses. I leave and go towards security. First round no problems, then the waiting line and I get through the metal detector and my bag gets pulled for secondary inspection. 7 minutes later they return my bag in complete disarray. My flight is being called over the intercom while I stand and watch them patiently pick through the books and electronics I carry onto the plane. So after a mad dash a la o.j. on the old hertz commercial i run up to my gate as they call the last group to board. I made the flight and as a small favor for all the hassle I even received my checked bag on the other side. Miracles do happen.

what a difference a day makes

I am officially in america. after 23 hours and 48 minutes of hard and arduous travel I have made it back to the US. Now it is time for me to sleep. I will post a few of the stories in the am. but now i need to sleep. good night. sleep. sweet sleep.

and he's off

Thats it last post from the front lines going back to the U.S. the recharge and get a glimpse off the other side. And of course to eat tacos.

i wonder

As I have been preparing for the long journey back to america I have encountered something which I find particularly odd. If I want to buy US dollars ($) here in china they cost me 6.84RMB . If I want to buy them in america they will cost me 6.2RMB now that doesnt sound like much. Let us say that you have $100. You could get 620RMB in america or 684 here in china. Where would you shop? For me it is exactly the opposite, instead of paying 684RMB(what i get paid and exist in) to get $100 in china,I can pay 620RMB and get the same there. Even dollars are on sale in america. What a country. Anyway I learned all this because there is a limit for how much RMB to $ that one person can exchange in a day. Everyday. Pointless.

slowly

Today I tried to get a haircut from the little old guy that has a chair setup under the highway that I live near. Now that may sound strange to you who have never seen the mobile barbers of asia, but they are in most of the asian countries, innocuously tucked into a corner waiting for a fool to sit down with their long flowing locks. Now it would also seem that such a business model would be hard to make a living from right who is going to trust some guy to cut their hair under the highway? Well you would be surprised, when i arrived there was one guy getting up out of the chair, and two waiting for their turn, I got into line and began the wait. The old dude took forever, like a week to trim the hair around the ears. I sat and watched prepared to wait it out. Then came out the straight razor and suds. I kid you not. So I said to hell with it. I went out to find a real barber. Now I have seen the barber pole spinning near my house so I went to go to that place. Turns out the barber pole in china can mean anything one was a "massage" parlor the next was well I sure for the right money they would have done anything a man wanted, the next was closed(this is the only one I was sure was a barber shop). Then defeated by a slow old guy, two houses of ill repute and one closed store I finally found a barber and got a haircut. The adventures never stop.