Happy Halloween!!!!!

Happy Halloween! (to those of us in the world that celebrate it!)
I’m writing this at 7:30 a.m. after having finished two games of Spider Solitaire, one and one, while I wait for work to begin and the Internet to click on at 8:00 a.m. Every Friday, I take the bus in at 6:45 a.m., so my time there this morning is normal. I almost missed the bus this morning while I was talking to Genevieve. Not blaming her, I just always underestimate how much time it takes to get from the 16th floor-which is actually the 12th but they don’t have floor number 13 or 14-down to the bus. I’ve had to take the bus morning bus three out of five days this week. Usually it’s only Friday mornings with the director’s Audi at 9:20 a.m. every other day. However, this week was all kiddy-whompis (has any actually used that word in a written context? Lol, I never have. It seemed like a good word until I tried to spell it out!)
Monday started as usual, but Anna came along as well to watch Samuel’s basketball team play against the R&D Center. I was told to be downstairs by 9:20 so we wouldn’t have to worry about get stuck at the gate to the LG campus at break time, 10:00 a.m. We sat outside for 15 mins and still no driver. Because I managed to lose my cell phone sometime last week, no one could call me to tell me that the driver was sent on an errand and would be a few mins late. I used my cell phone from the states, which is able to call land phones and cells only on the first time, probably for emergency purposes. I got a hold of Vivian and by the time she called me back, the driver had pulled up. Since we were running 5 mins late, the driver tried to step it up and make up for lost time. However, when we got onto the main drag, we came across an accident and a bit of a traffic jam. From what we saw, it looked like someone had run into an ambulance. Anna and I chuckled about it briefly, then realized that the ambulance was there to pick someone up. As we passed the scene, which had no cops, no tape or flares, we saw that the van which we originally thought had hit the ambulance, had actually hit a tricyclist near a residential area. I don’t know if they actually lived in the area, but why they were on this major highway was beyond me. I’ve seen a number of people walking or riding their bikes on these roads, even at night and without any lights. Not safe. Obviously. The tricyclist was on a stretcher by this point, but moments before they had been up the hood and through the windshield before resting on the concrete. I’ve never seen anything like that before. We hadn’t actually seen the accident happen, but I’ve never seen anything here worse than a fender-bender, let alone an actual bloodied body. Not here, not in the States. It looked like an older person, and (of course) they didn’t look good. I’m a little surprised that it took over a month to see an accident like this. Supposedly, and I believe it watch people drive here, China will see as many as 1 million traffic related deaths by the year 2020, so says John Pamfret, the author of Chinese Lessons. That’s an intimidating thought! (Yes, I just did a citation, lol)
Anna and I arrived unscathed and late enough that the gate was open and the 10:00 break was over. Samuel arrived at the same time we did and as Anna went to watch Samuel warm up, I went upstairs to work.
More of the same number crunching data collecting, so nothing fun there, but I did decide to have Halloween all week! I put together a brief about the history of Halloween and then a bit about what we do now and some pictures of the most popular costume themes. My Intermediate class seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t get a chance to share it with my Advance class because I decided to stay home sick on Tuesday. Didn’t get too much accomplished, which includes not sleeping. I had just enough energy to putz, but not enough to actually go anywhere. I hate that limbo! I finally wore myself out at 4:15 p.m., so I laid down to rest for a bit. 5:00 p.m. I get a call from work saying they want me to present my survey results for the president and need to be at work early. Bleh! I was woken up for that?!
I got up and went to work the next day. Every asked how I was, if I was any better, a few pity looks. I must have looked worse than I thought! The director whisked me off to his office in front of the heater and told me to stay in there where it was warm. About 8:15, we get the call that the meeting is postponed until 10:30 a.m. Okay, no surprise there… I go back to my desk and putz around some more. I put up the daily idiom and slang, and had a co-worker correct me (not a student). Turns out I wrote “Sick as dog” for the example instead of the “Sick as a dog” like the first sentence said. Not a huge correction, but the fact someone had the guts to correct me was pretty neat.
I did some work, tried to look up the Youtube clips for Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, a little Facebooking, and physically yo-yoed throughout the course of the day. Since it was the party/fun day for the intermediate class, I didn’t want to cancel class a second time this week. I started to feel better near the end of the day, so I put in a 12 hour work day and toughed it out. It also turned out that I would need to put in another 12 hour day Thursday. The president cancelled on us all together, moving his Wednesday 8:30 a.m. meeting to Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Oh, well…gives me a chance to make up some time.
I taught the class Bingo, which they REALLY had fun with, and they colored Halloween pictures, and did anagrams and crossword puzzles. Turns out that my students are actually learning something! Albeit, “Dracula is the King of Vampires” probably won’t get you far in life, but it gives me hope that they are taking in other things as well.
Thursday was pretty similar to Wednesday, but I was feeling leaps and bounds better thanks to my trusted friend antibiotics! I may have spent more time on Facebook trying to upgrade my H20pia realm than actually working, but I did get quite a lot accomplished on my report. Probably won’t be finished today, since I decided to add more details to it, but I should have it finished by early next week.
I did a little prepping for my advanced class, another Halloween party and a bit of Halloween info since I missed Tuesday. When it came time for class, I only had one student! We decided that I should try to catch the bus, but by the time I got downstairs (I was literally running through the halls and down the steps trying to catch the bus at the gates) the bus was across the parking lot, pulling through the gates. I climbed the steps back to the office and asked if LG would pay for a taxi home. Mr. Shin, my Korean manager said they would, but if I waited ‘til 6:30 a company car would take me home. I said that wasn’t a problem so I sat and tinked around on the internet…woot.
But… while I/we were waiting, I was invited to dinner with the group by the director. I figured I didn’t much else going on, and I’m always one for free food, so I accepted. It was with the Koreans and a few of the Support people. Looked like a fun crowd and it turned out to be a great dinner. We had Hot Pot, my favorite dish in China, which consists of a pot of boiling broth on a hot coil in the middle of the table and lots of fresh ingredients on the side, which you add, cook and eat a few at a time.
After the men (mostly the Koreans) had all gotten liquored up, I was asked by one of the managers if I was free on Saturday night for dinner with the rest of the managers at his house. A little strange… but I said I might be. Then he asked if I knew how to play cards. Ah! Got it. And yes, I can play cards. “What do you play?” “Poker.” “Good! What Kind” I listed off an assortment and he seemed thoroughly satisfied. “Good! Bring lots of money!” We’re playing 7 card stud, which is not my best game, but I think after a little refresher I should be fine. Supposedly a couple of the managers are “professionals”. Fine by me, but I said I would teach them Texas Hold ‘em and then we’ll see how the cards fall.
I may or may not take them up on the offer…still waiting to hear from Samuel and Anna to see if we’re going to Beijing this weekend. I’d love to go, but I’m still not feeling the best. It’s only 9:50 on Friday morning and I’m feeling worse than yesterday. Darn sinus infection! Then again, it could be the antibiotics starting to take their toll. Who knows.

Well, still have a lot of stuff to catch you up on. Maybe, hopefully, this weekend I’ll do something more than sleep. What a thought!
Pics and more blogs to come. Love you all!