Odd Day

This morning I did not want to get up... "Why is it so dark outside?" I should have stayed in bed. As I was heading to school, my 10 min. walk was a little longer than usual because of the thunderstorm. I was trying to walk in a straight line but it was so windy that I was just trying to balance myself. I did make it to school in one piece! The thunderstorm did stop and it was just cloudy for a few hours. And then, right after lunch, we looked outside and there was an orange tint. Thankfully I made it to my next class before the sandstorm. I was teaching in a theatre today so the kids asked me if I can show them a movie before they die because of the crazy weather. They kept saying "2010" and "The Day After Tomorrow".  In Vancouver, I always pack an umbrella and sunglasses. In Dalian, I pack a toque, gloves, sunglasses, umbrella, a hot baby (small hot water bag that I can just plug into the wall to charge and it will be nice and toasty), scarf, layers of clothes, and a flashlight.

I invigilated a Grade 10 English e-exam today during my prep block. Personally I like writing a test in paper form because I'm always scared that the computer will crash on me and everything will be deleted. I walked into the computer lab and everything was going smoothly. They were doing their exams on a netbook in the classroom I was in. The netbooks are brand new so I thought I did not have to worry. However, about 30-45 min. before the exam was supposed to end, about 8 netbooks ran out of battery life, one side of the wall did not have power to recharge the batteries. The students were starting to get antsy and I had to get some tech people in to figure it out. I found other netbooks with battery life and had to sign them back into their accounts and make sure everything was still there. The e-exams are designed to save every 5 second. We had to move students to another wall or into another computer lab. Thank you Will and the tech. guys for helping me out! I can always trust my friendly neighbour, Will, to help me out at home and at work. Everything worked out in the end!