Women hold up half the sky

"Women hold up half the sky." Chairman Mao said so, which I disagree. I say:"Women hold up most of the (if not the whole)sky."  Peg is teaching English to a tibetan girl who is so smart and so hardworking. She sings at a tibetan restaurant in Beijing from 5 p.m. to midnight every day and spends all her spare time learning English mostly by herself. She write down the English signs she sees in the subway or on the street, though sometimes they can be quite funny. She listens to tapes to correct her pronunciation. Every time she come to Peg's class, we are amazed  by how much progress she's made. I asked her what her husband did when she was studying, she said"watch TV".

It sounds really like my husband. I can not remember how many nights in a roll when I look up from my book, only to hear TV sound from the next door, I realize he must've fallen sleep. So I walk into the bedroom, turn off the light and the TV and come back to read again. Sometimes he wakes up before the soccer games start, but he's not always lucky. If he happens to sleep too much, he will get up in the early morning and read the news about the World Cup online. Then he will fall asleep the next day around 8 pm because he didn't get enough sleep the day before and wake up in the early morning because he slept too much after dinner... Therefore during the time I am awake, instead of seeing him working hard on his goal of learning English, I always see his sleeping face next to an opened English book. 

When I was still in college, once I saw an article about the president of my university, which records his remarks about both male and female college students nowadays:"Female students work much harder in school. They are also very active on campus. Male students don't work hard as they know they don't have to. When the graduation approaches, when the companies come to school to recruit, they say they want males.The females, though they are more outstanding, don't have as many opportunities as males do. It's not only the misfortune of females, but also the misfortune of  males and the entire nation." Today when I am trying so hard to find enough excellent(or ok) males and at the same time selecting 1 female out 10 excellent enough females for TBC, I can really touch and smell the misfortune.

I hate this professor!

This professor from UIBE(in order not to embarass him too much, I decided not to put his name here) is so fucking rude! He is the kind who thinks himself to be the king(or the emperor) and  is very used to order the "servants" to do things for him. Unfortunately I'm not his servant. But much more unfortunately, I have to listen to his order!

Yesterday after 6 pm, he came into the office. Of course I said "hello" to show I'm a civilized human being. But he totally ignored and threw out a question to the three ladies enjoying the afternoon break:"Who can I talk to about the summer school schedule?" Ok I'll forgive you for your rudeness this time. In 10 minutes, he came back again"who knows how to use the system" He was talking about the multi-media equipment in the classroom. The other two ladies in the office didn't know(maybe they did know but just didn't give a shit to him) how to use it. Although I didn't give a shit either, but I had to coz 11 students were waiting in the classroom. I showed him step by step how to turn on the computer,  how to double-click "removable disk" on the desktop, how to press the buttons with chinese characters indicating which is projecter and which is computer. Of course theses procedures are unbearably complicated for him, which I totally understood. However, what I couldn't understand(I still can't) is that I didn't even get a "thank you" from him! Not even after I reminded him by saying"It's done. I'm leaving" TWICE! 

Moreover, this either-stupid-or-lazy-or-both guy left the computer on the whole night. On behalf of all the Chinese people, I severely condemn his flagitious behavior during the energy crisis today!

Unbelievable(no, un-f******-believable).

summer school orientation... This group comes in such a scattering way. We've got 16 students from 10 flights. To avoid going to the airport again and again and again, which would be a pain in the ass, we arrranged host students to pick up most of the students. I'm loving them! They are the cutest in the world. I hope they enjoy hanging out with TBC students. Hope we can get some host students helpers for the fall orientation.

It seems summer students are very nice...

I've made up my mind to update my xanga more frequently. I MUST find something other than my work or the stupid plans(oh no, I hope writing xanga won't go to my to-do list...). There is one thing that makes me in a good mood today, which is to see one of the fall 05 students leaving comments on my blog, saying they are having a TBC reunion in New York this summer. She read my writing last year and she must have thought that was something I wrote recently, so she was asking if I could be at their reuion. Shame on me! America! Sounds so faraway... I hope I can go back someday...

I started to work on the summer school. The more I look into this, the more I feel it is a MESS. Looks like no one is taking care of the academic part. Yes, I can take care of the studens outside the classroom, but what do I know about teaching Chinese, business and other stuff? John left but the new dean is not here yet. Alex is busy working with those ChinaContact groups. We have so many ChinaContact groups which never end. We have so many guests whom we need to wave to during the work every day. Well maybe I'm just too introverted to happily welcome them. But still I feel lucky because it's NOT me who is in charge of these groups. Thank God! Back to the summer school, We've got to figure out all the stuff soon.

It's been such a long time since my last writing! I can't believe it's almost one year ago. Last night I had dinner with all the Chinese students who helped TBC to interview new tutors. I talked with Phoebe who keeps writing hers. Then I felt guilty about being so lazy and started thinking about continue writing my blog too. Then I got an e-mail today from Xanga. I think it's the fate. God is telling me to restart.

I e-mailed all the selected new tutors for next fall. This morning when I logged in my e-mail box, I saw 65 e-mails from them. All of them are so happy"to be one of the TBC family members". I am moved. What sweet students they are! I feel lucky to work with them and to create an opportunity for both Chinese and American students to know each other.

I had a talk with Peg just now, who is being my best friend and mentor in the past 3 years. I have a strong feeling about myself, which gets stronger as time goes by, that I am becoming more and more obssessed with my goals and plans and all that shit. I keep telling myself I should follow my plans and to-do list for every day, and I get mad if someone interrupts. Like last saturday, my plan was to learn new words at night, but Jeff called and invited us to play bowling. I felt so upset that I kept complaining to my husband in the taxi. I did have a good time but just couldn't get rid of the stupid thinking of"learning english is my plan". At work I never want to be interrupted if I am doing things. I never pay any attention to what's going on with others. When my colleagues are chatting or laughing, I never join them. All I am thinking is to "get the thing done". I talked with Peg about it and she suggested me to find something else other than study and work to relax. I hope writing this blog will help!

Nothing is that big deal, Miranda!