Looking Backwards...

Sunday, March 22, 2008
Anyone who has been paying any attention will have noticed by now that I haven't written in my blog since early February when we spent the 17 glorious days on Koh Samui. It feels like eons since then. Not only have I been swamped at work, but I've been fighting a low-grade infection for weeks which turned into a definite sinus infection 10 days ago. This past Tuesday I finally decided I need some antibiotic. One of the teachers who has lived here several years told me that I could buy some over the counter antibiotic at the pharmacy a couple blocks from my apartment. Hey, this is China. Whether or not the stuff is real or effective or harmful is not known, but since she swears by it, I figured it is worth a try. I've been on it for 5 days now and am not dead, I might even be a little better. One thing I did discover is that I also have an infected gum, maybe even an abscess. That, combined with the sinus infection have been enough to make me seek out real medical assistance starting tomorrow.

School has been another thing. After 6 months of trying hard, I still don't have a book order approved. Well, I did actually manage to purchase a small order from a local dealer. I did, however, place the big fiction order on condition that all goes well with the poor excuse of a business office they have here. I am beginning to understand that one obstacle is that no one knows how to set up shipping from the States, but tht is only a very small part of the problem.

Otherwise, we have started to implement the International Primary Curriculum ((IPC) at school and this has meant double duty for me putting together a huge book order in two weeks to support it and finding video resources as well. With the second term came new students needing ESL. Even though I didn't sign on for that responsibility, it was thrust upon me; so I now teach 2 full hours of ESL every day on top of my already too full schedule. Moreover, I am now being asked to sub almost every day. Needless to say, it is not possible to delivery a proper library curriculum to all the grade levels at this point. To top it all off, our Chinese librarian is fed up with the way things are at school and has quit. These are just the highlights...the details are even more discouraging.

So... Since I haven't had to to keep up with the blog, what you read from here on out will be looking backwards...starting with Shichahai, Thursday afternoon, personal leave with Dave.