Semester Finished

It is over, with my grades submitted I have finished my first full semester as a professor here at Guangxi Uni. It has been a busy few weeks, with seven day work weeks fairly common. Though now, with the exception of a couple of meetings and proctoring one exam next week for another teacher who has to split his exams in to two rooms, I am done. 

I have a meeting with the Vice Dean tomorrow about ways to use more tech in the classrooms and flipping some classes, and a meeting with my reading coordinator about next semester. On Monday I am proctoring the exam as I said, but as I don't have to grade it I hand it out, collect it, give it to the student's teacher, and am home before noon. Since I have volunteered for these things I can't really count it as scheduled work, so I am happy to say that I am done.

It has been a solid first semester, though a steep learning curve. Changing countries and starting a professional job at the same time is an adjustment to be sure, but so far I think I have been okay at it.

I do have to hang out in Nanning until the end of next week basically in case students need help or an exam needs proctoring, but really I have very little to do. After three months without a break I am not quite sure what to do with myself, though sitting inside on a cold, rainy morning with a cup of coffee seems like a good start. After that I head to Guangzhou (Canton) for two nights before finally getting to Manila for three weeks with Yen and her family in the Philippines.