It's been four months since I first came work at the DLI. For the past month it's the so called Instructor Certification Course but it's more like a review of all the things I've learned at the Y. It's a little strange going back to student mode after being a teacher for a while. As I'm in the middle of teacher training and rereading my MA thesis these days when I look at this top-10 list from a T-shirt I got right after my graduation I can't help but laugh to myself as it reminds me of how it was like being a student doing all the hard work day in and day out.

"You might be a grad student if..."

1. You find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade."
2. You have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
3. You start referring to stories like "Snow White et al."
4. Everything reminds you of something in your discipline.
5. You look forward to summers because you're more productive without the distraction of classes.
6. You regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.
7. You appreciate the fact that you get to choose which twenty hours out of each day you have to work.
8. You are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
9. You look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.
10. You wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication."

I miss my students already and I think they me too. Once in a while I go back to do demo teaching and we are all so excited. Then the news came I'm being moved to a new group with a brand new group of students with a new office. It's hard to believe I'm already quite attached to my current group and it will be a little hard to leave them. Anyways it has been a nice learning and growing experience for me along with these fun military students. One of the highlights of my teaching this group is when I showed them some bilingual signs found in China and they found them amazing, entertaining, and shocking at times. One student even pulled out his camera phone to capture the images!!! And I swear I have seen a couple of these in China!!!