Wuxi Goes Wisconsin On Me

Meet my new best friend: His name is Singfun, and he is an oscilating heat fan. Singfun has made the sudden arrival of winter much more bearable for me. (Notice the heat radiating from it ... !)

In the summertime, I didn't realize that the walls in my apartment were about 3 inches thick. Needless to say, it doesn't do much in the name of keeping heat out, especially when they leave all the windows in the stairwell up to the apartments open at all time. So, I purchased Singfun for about $20 USD tonight, and I think I've already gotten a return on my investment.

Yes, the winter weather has finally reared its ugly head in Wuxi. I knew the great stuff we'd been having all the way up until November was bound to end, but it was still pretty hard to accept. One Saturday it was about 80 degrees and I went for a long bike ride around Wuxi; that night, it dropped about 40 degrees and was sleeting as I made my way back from downtown. It hasn't really stopped. While it's kind of nice to feel the brisk coolness of fall / winter, it does make me wish I were curled up with hot chocolate watching football on TV.

Speaking of FOOTBALL, I got to watch the epic battle between Favre and the Pack a few weeks ago! There is a teacher here from Minnesota who's a pretty die-hard Vikings fan, and he had a live video hookup from his brother's house in the Cities, which meant that we got to watch the Packers play in real time! It was pretty surreal getting up at 4:45 in the morning and bundling up to go over to his apartment, but it was highly enjoyable (despite the fact that I kept thinking Favre was throwing interceptions ... Gah. It was too strange to see him in Purple!). I could allllmost believe that I was back home! (Then I remembered that it wasn't Sunday afternoon, but Monday morning, and that I had to get ready for work ...)

 

GO PACK GO! (Can you tell it was 5am? Really? What gave it away?)

I never thought I'd be watching Brett Farve play for the Vikings from a computer in China.

Life is funny.

As long as I'm on the subject of all things fall / winter ... Christmas came early to Wuxi! On an excursion to Starbucks today (always a fun little treat), it seems that Western commercialism is alive and kicking, even in countries that don't really celebrate Christmas. Right on the good old American schedule, Starbucks was introducting Toffee Nut Lattes and displaying snow-covered pinetree decorations and gingerbread houses, while the sweet melodies of the Rat Pack Christmas were sounding merrily throughout the building. It was the most bizzare thing. There I was with my American friends, commenting on papers, eating a croissant and feeling cozy as I listened to Franky croon; I might as well have been in Madison. Globalization is really somethin' else.

All in all, life is still good, of course! I've got lots and lots of grading to do this weekend - it was midterms this week. I'm pretty disapointed with the grades my kids got, however. It's kind of a bummer because we went through that stuff sooo many times. I don't think I'm a terrible teacher, but it's hard to not let those thoughts go through your head when every other kid getting 20 / 100 wrong. 

I've also been keeping busy by applying for summer jobs. I'd like to work for an organization where I can lead educational / adventure trips for high school students. If you have any hot tips, I'd appreciate hearing from you. I hear the job market's not great or something? Heh. So, we'll see how it all goes down ...

Well, I'm going to try to connect to that Western world yet again by Skyping with some folks back home. Thanks for keeping in touch!