Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Quotidian Nation

Ho-hum.. most of yesterday was dealing with simple things.. getting the copies I needed for my classes since the copy-boy will be gone (again!) tomorrow. As it turns out he was gone yesterday because someone had sent him over to the campus to help the police guide traffic. This makes no sense at all, but I’m not Korean. I think I copied what I need. Then putting together lesson plans which went at a glacial pace, but I will at least have outlines for all of these books by the time this semester is over. This seems like one-time hard graft and then, if the books don’t change, just adapting as I go.

It was interesting to note that one of my classes is heavily dependent on a CD. I say “interesting” because I have yet to step foot in a classroom with a CD player. Given the level of coordination I’ve seen here so far, I have no reason to believe there will be one in my classroom either. Oh well, I’ll figure something out. I will do an interpretive dance. I believe the little beggars will enjoy it.

I have arranged to go observe one of the apparently more successful instructors on Tuesday and I think I should get a much better sense of how to handle the classroom. Nothing went wrong in my class on Monday, but I did come out of it with more ideas on how to begin my other classes, and that’s a good thing. Learning experience I guess. In fact I might ask the guy who lives below me if I can observe his class as well.

Made a little dinner (half a thing of ramen, cucumbers, green peppers, and half a sausage all done up in soybean oil) and now the question is if I want to start Lord Jim before I go to sleep. This is the other good news besides finally getting my office key – I discovered where the big old bookshelf of English books is. Grabbed some science fiction, which I have finished tonight, and Lord Jim because it is one of Conrad’s works that I remember nothing about.

When what to read is the big issue, it’s pretty much domestic blister….

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