Rant

It's hard for me to imagine a more challenging week than this one. Let me explain...
First of all, on Monday we teach from 7:40 to 4:40, but this week was even longer because we had a meeting afterschool to welcome the ministry of education representatives here to inspect the school. I came home simply exhausted and then cooked up some spaghetti for a potluck with Anita and Yiming. After dinner, Anita and I went out to Manjitan for a foot massage, which took away some of my stress, but meant that I wasn't as planned and prepared as I wanted to be for Tuesday.

On Tuesday, I was scrambling in the morning to prepare all my materials and get my binders ready for the ministry inspections. The vice principal was supposed to come into my class during F-block, but got sidetracked and couldn't make it, so now he's going to surprise me sometime. It was such a hectic day, but thankfully I got a package from my parents in the mail which gave me the energy to make it through the day. I stayed late after school on Tuesday to plan and get organized and didn't get home until late in the evening.

Wednesday was crazier than I was expecting. I was called to TOC for another Math 10 class, so I lost one of my prep blocks. Then I had a meeting at lunch time and was running around in the afternoon. After school, there was a staff meeting for pro-d for new teachers and at 5 I ran my tutorial. There were tons of kids there, trying to get caught up on old assignments and ask questions about their tests. I felt like I needed a couple of clones to get everything done. I rushed home at 6:45 for our potluck and just crashed. I felt so bad that I didn't have time to contribute food to the potluck and I barely had the energy to eat. Right after dinner was over, I headed back up to the office to get ready for Thursday, and as soon as I got home, I fell asleep.

Yesterday, we had the Maple Leaf Angels club meeting at lunch and again I was running around beforehand and couldn't even get to the meeting on time. After school I ran my tutorial and again it was packed. I was so exhausted afterwards that I left a bunch of stuff in my classroom and just came home for dinner. Somewhere in the craziness of this week, I lost a ton of stuff. When I get stressed out, my brain can't hold all the information it needs to and I start to forget things. Early this week, I lost my USB, which contains all my teaching materials, my students' grades, and pretty much everything that was on my computer. Last week I tripped over my computer's power cord and pulled it face down onto the floor. The monitor cracked, but I managed to snap it back together and it seemed to be working reasonably well. Also early this week, our shower floor cracked and we couldn't use the shower for a couple days. I also can't find my attendance sheets for this week. I have no idea when I lost them or where I might have left them (I think I lost them on Wednesday because I remember writing down the attendance for that day). Even worse, last night I lost my cell phone. I've been trying to call myself, but I can't find it anywhere. And to make matters worst, yesterday I lost my laptop computer. So I didn't have any of my lesson plans or materials for teaching today. I had to scramble this morning to put everything together. We had another meeting at lunch today, so I didn't have time to eat until just now. I am so thankful that it's the weekend.

During lunch today, our Maple Leaf Angel club sold newspapers to raise money to buy winter shoes for children at an orphanage in Dalian. It was a good reminder for me that I am so blessed just to have things like a cell phone and laptop in the first place. I really have nothing to complain about - I have my health, a great job, wonderful family, and such good friends. Some days like today it's harder to keep a positive attitude and count my blessings, but I have to, or else I'd go crazy.