Things got really interesting at work these days. I went back to the classroom after finishing teacher training but the first couple classes didn't go as well as I thought. It's like I was cursed with dullness once I switched back to full teacher mode and you could tell from students' yawning. The surprise came in the afternoon when the MLI (Military Language Instructor) came to me and said the students had been petitioning to get me back to the team because they didn't want to lose me to other teams. One student even went so far as telling her I was the best teacher in the team. I was really flattered. Talking about the MLI, depsite our misunderstanding a while ago we turned out to be very good friends now through the ICC experience. She pretty much told me all the insider's news of what's going on now. Then the student with family ties to Hong Kong got a 3 in his Cantonese OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) which is equivalent to native like and good enough to teach in that language. Our whole team was thrilled and I was glad to be able to help him prepare a little bit before the test. And today I substituted for the other team teaching some rather new students and the 2nd class of students I taught didn't leave a good impression on me before at the study hall but turned out to be great participants in class today. Even the team leader came and commended to me how lively the class was today. At the end of the day today I was once again touched by that particular student who is among the more matured telling me that all the students already missed me even though I haven't officially left them yet. Well it really surprised me now how much I enjoy teaching these guys now.

The final interesting but strange thing happened yesterday was Michael Bolton showed up in our school!!! He was scheduled to sing but it turned out he was more than half an hour late and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do without a band so he ended up telling (sometimes dirty) jokes! The only joke he told I can remember goes:

A wife asked the husband to take the trash out. The husband said, "YOU take the trash out. You cooked it."

Yeah, I know it's silly but somehow it sounded funny at the time. Anyways, MB seems to be one of the more genuine artists and rather approachable.


Thanks to Katherine for the picture as I didn't bring my cell phone along and I didn't wanna look like one of those stalker fans... ;p