Redeeming Spring

If you were to ask me what my favorite season is (although surely we could find something less inane to have a conversation about), spring would not come out on top.  I love the crunching leaves and crisp blue skies of fall, the lazy days and flip-flops of summer, and the smell of woodsmoke in the air and colorful scarves of winter.  But spring? I'm allergic to it. 

But just when I get dragged down by burnt-put student (and teachers) and stress over the next year's plans, I wipe my streaming eyes (I wasn't kidding about the allergies) and am reminded of the beauties of the season. All of these blooms are right here on campus; I took all of these pictures walking home after class.  Maybe spring has redeemed itself.  

Game Night with Class 1203

Although I often do still play perennially popular Uno during my game nights with students, I try to get that over with as quickly as possible (boy, does that game get old after a while!) and move on to more-interesting-to-me games,   One of my favorites recently has been dominoes. When I first started doing game nights my first semester at HZAU, I stuck with simpler-to-explain games like Uno and Spoons, and while those are still fun, I've found that it's not as challenging as I thought it would be to explain more complicated games.  Many Chinese people play card games, and enjoy learning new ones.

Here a couple of photos of Nathan and some rather blurry girls from class 1203 playing both Spoons (my downstairs neighbors really love it when everyone starts squealing and jumping around over that one...) and dominoes. I already knew Nathan  was a bright student from his work in class, but he really has a talent for games, too, as he beat us all mercilessly in both games.

Spring Already?

Usually in March, I, like most people, am moaning about winter going on forever.  When will spring ever come?

But this year it seems that spring has snuck up on me; I am surprised by the warmer weather and the first new leaves.  For once it feels like winter was short. I guess that's natural; December was unusually warm and sunny, an extension of fall rather than a beginning of winter.  And while I did have some cool weather (although only occasionally really cold) weather in Yunnan, Singapore was comfortably in the 80s and Indonesia was downright hot, straddling the equator as it does.

Once I got home, I was granted one sunny day of transition before being plunged into my three days of real winter, starting class with a dusting of snow and steady sleet.  But after that the highs were mostly in the fifties again, and we never saw another flake of snow.  So while the calendar says it's mid-March and the willow trees are budding along the lake, I am still expecting snow and feeling the need to wear several layers.

*Snicker*

Hehe. I'm still laughing to myself...anyone passing by probably thinks I'm a bit nuts. 

Soooo...last night after our study with our friend Ezra, I settled down in front of my computer to look over my lesson for today.  Before getting started, like any true procrastinator, I wandered over to facebook to see what was going on in the world.  I pulled it up and started to scroll but there were several people I didn't know on the feed. And a conversation with Kevin I knew I had never had.

Micah had left his facebook signed in on my computer.

 

Jackpot. 

Now, a nice person probably would just sign him out and go on about her business. But who could resist such a golden opportunity? I immediately texted Tammy and Chrissi, who share my enjoyment in poking at Micah, to exult over the possibilities.  Decisions, decisions...[insert evil laugh here].

I mulled over what I could do in the back of my mind as I added grades to my gradebook and rearranged a few slides in my powerpoint.  Status saying something silly? Been done so many times. Changing the profile picture to something hideous? Meh, I don't really want to do something so embarrassing that he would really get mad. 

Finally I decided to make a new group- "Micah's Fan Club." Made from his account, it looked as if he created this self-adoring page about himself. I added all the pictures I could find without working too hard, and added a description of the album that said, "I know, I know. Everyone tells me they just can't get enough of seeing my face. I know these few photo aren't enough to satisfy my fans, but it's a start. But if any family members or old friends wants to add any childhood or awkward teenager photos, it would really complete the collection!" 

I also created a group event for noon today labeled "Adoration of Me" with instructions for the groupies to send messages, on the group page or by text, expressing their admiration for him.  I hope he got several; I've been in class all day so I haven't been able to monitor it as closely as I would have liked. 

The whole was an extremely obnoxious and over-the-top attention-seeking mess. So my next step was to send invites to the group to several of our friends here, and a few people elsewhere who he has spoken of as good friends.  Only twenty-three or so... 

I got congratulatory messages this morning from Tammy and Chrissi.  If no one else did, at least we enjoyed it.  I thought I might be able to keep it going for a while as he doesn't check his facebook too often, but I got a code-red message from Tammy during the lunch break that he had found out. 

Actually, that's probably for the best. I want to see his reaction while it's still funny. :)

Okay, I'm grinning like a crazy person to myself again sitting here on this park bench.

Sunlight!

Look! There is sunlight coming in that window! True, it's a bit weak, filtering down through a haze, but it's still nice to see after days of rain and drizzle.