Day 111, 112, 113, and 114: Last Full Week of Classes

Monday started off with getting up a bit early, working on my blog, fixing breakfast, and then deciding to go to Campus A early. I had to bike to Campus D to catch the bus first, though.

At Campus A, I sat outside, finishing grading the manufacturing processes exams for a while, enjoying the beautiful view.

My view as I graded

Afterwards, I went to try to finish a drawing of the view below. I spent around an hour doing that, eating my sandwich for lunch with it, and then headed downstairs to work on stuff on my computer.

Interesting little bug

After Heat Transfer, I went back to Campus D to meet my friend Heather, who I had gone to the English class for children with. We had a dinner meeting planned before I left. I quickly scanned in the completed manufacturing processes exams first to get one other thing crossed off my list.

I got to the dining hall, and realized that I had told her the wrong number of the dining hall. I corrected myself, and she said she would be there soon. After she got there, she said she couldn't find me, which I found hard to believe. (I really do stick out like a sore thumb here.) I sent her a picture, and it turned out that I was right the first time!

She finally got there, and feeling a bit embarrassed, we went upstairs to eat. We got stuff from the place with pot soup, and pointing to a menu, Heather told me that I had accidentally ordered pig's foot soup! Not happy with the texture of it, it was still ok, and I ended up eating that, and taking home most of the dry things.

Heather and I talked for about an hour, about everything that I had done over my time here, my feelings about going back, the differences, what I missed at home, what I would miss here, and similar topics. Toward the beginning of the meal, I gave Heather two rose pens from duct tape, and she had bought me a traditional Chinese dress! At first, I was shocked at how small an extra large was, and didn't think it would fit. Heather reassured me it had more than enough space, and looking at it laid out on the table, it looked like it would.

After dinner, I said my goodbyes, and said that maybe we could do this again before I left. We happily went our separate ways, and I headed home, working a bit on grading heat transfer homework before bed.

The Chinese dress on me

Tuesday started off with going to print off the heat transfer homework that some students had had to email to me, and then sitting outside for a bit to grade.

I was wearing a skirt, so I tried to walk up the path to find a place to sit on concrete. I didn't succeed, so I gave up, and eventually just sat in the grass.

Where I ended up

I sat there for a little over an hour, grading and such, and then, getting tired of it, I decided to go to the JCI office and see what they needed my help with.

I went in, and almost immediately regretted it. They were confused why I was there until I showed them Suri's message, and then they said that we should have had one of the Chinese TAs with us.
I told them that the time I had was right then, so if they had anything for me to do at the moment, I would greatly appreciate it as well. They handed me a folder with lots of papers, and directed an assistant to take me into the other room.

She started explaining that what I was to do was count up the points on old tests and make sure they were added right. The way she was explaining was getting on my nerves as well, it seemed a bit condescending, but I realized it was because she was trying to make sure her English was right. The thing that really got me though was that I had to make rubrics for tests other people had graded years ago based on how they graded all the tests. I knew that would take up way too much time, and I decided to wait and see how I felt at the end.

The assistant was reluctant to leave me alone in the room, but I told her I was fine, and she eventually went to lunch. I went through one stack of papers, and by that time, I was tired and hungry, so I went to the cafeteria for some tomato bread and tea.

After eating a bit, I went to digital design lab, and started talking to Suri and Alexandra about the work at the office, and how tedious it was. Then they told me that they had been doing it for a couple weeks without any extra pay (because they get paid by the month, not hour), and I felt bad about it. I promised to go again within the week (and Dom even left lab early to do so). I stuck around though, trying to get some of the stress out by working on philosophy and reading.

After lab, I wandered around a different way, and took a bike ride around a different path, looping around eventually, and making my way towards the second dining hall to get some real food.

Getting in there, the people acted like I didn't know what I was doing. I appreciated the help, but it is always a bit annoying when people try to help you with things you already know.

Dinner

After dinner, I had my office hour. As soon as I got off of my bike, I had a student come up to me, and ask for her Manufacturing processes test back. I had told the students to come to my office hour to get their tests back, so I expected a lot of people. I gave her her test once I got into the office, and I settled in. I finished the book "Me Before You" while I was waiting as well (great read, by the way, highly recommend). Soon after, Hardman came in, and he also had questions for the statics final on Friday. 4 other students followed suit, and I spent my entire office hour answering questions (a couple of them several times because they came in at different times).

After my office hour, I stayed in the office a bit to work on grading more heat transfer homework.
I then went home and passed out pretty quickly.

Wednesday, I went to Campus A early in order to get motivated to grade the heat transfer homework. I ended up taking a phone call on the bus, and sitting outside to finish it. Afterwards, I worked on finishing up the homework, so I could hand it back for their last lecture, and give them time to use it to study for their final.

View of the entire area of where I was sitting

I went inside for heat transfer, having completed everything, trying to get Blackboard to work so I could grade labs, and failing to get the internet to work too well. After class, I headed back to Campus D with Wei Wei for the last time for our last weekly meeting. Nick, Jessica, and Will had office hours for Prob and Stats though (because that final was the next day), so they couldn't make it.

It was a bit shorter than normal, but Dom, Sean, Wei Wei and I talked for a while about other things outside of the direct meeting topics. Dom also thought to ask if we could get paid for our travel time back home, and Wei Wei said he'd check, although we all had our doubts.

A rare sunset in Chong Qing

I headed home instead of getting dinner, because I had leftovers. Wei Wei dropped by a bit later to exchange salt that had gotten mixed up due to the BBQ, and I worked on a few things before bed.

Thursday morning, there was no models lecture, so I got up, graded some models labs, watched some manufacturing processes videos, and headed out to the office to get some more of that paperwork done around lunchtime so I would be in the office alone again. I got one stack done (actually, surprisingly finding that some of them were added wrong), and then locked the door as I left, turning the handle upwards to do so.

I went for lunch again, getting some more tomato bread and a coffee, along with a pear, and went to the office for some grading of the models exams before my office hour. Dom decided to hold his office hour somewhere else, but I told him to let the students know I'd still be in the office.

Two groups of students came in to get feedback on their GUIs (which were the same two groups who had come for help with the other project). I tested everything, and gave them each three things to improve on.

After the office hour, I headed back to the gate of the apartment in order to meet up with the others to get to the dinner that the JCI office had planned for us. I ran into Alexandra, and we walked over together. I thought that we were going to get a ride over there, but we ended up walking once everyone had gotten there (except Wei Wei). It was a bit cold out, especially wearing the Chinese dress Heather had given me, but it wasn't too far of a walk.

I had a good discussion with Pablo on the way there. When we got to the restaurant, we found that the JCI office workers were already there, and the professors sat with them, while us TAs sat at a different table.

It was a fish hotpot, cooked with a bamboo hat on top. The fish came first, and then there were vegetables afterwards. At the end, we had some pumpkin dumplings (and even took some to go), as well as a tofu dish, and the sweet doughy sticks as an appetizer.

Throughout the dinner, we were talking about the great times we had had throughout the semester, and where we were going to take them when they got to America. Nick and Jessica were talking about county fairs, and how much fun they were. Dom was warning them about the food, and the people (mostly jokingly), and I was in the middle of both, but more on Jessica's side.

We agreed that we would also pick them up from the airport when they came, and we joked about lots of other stuff throughout the night. I have to say, it was one of the best dinners that I've had in China. We headed back, and it was sprinkling. I walked under Alexandra's umbrella and chatted with her about how I would feel when I went back.

Pumpkin dumplings

Getting home, I worked on things for a couple hours and headed to sleep, satisfied with my night.

-Zoe