Getting Nostalgic.

There's 4 weeks left of classses at HDU. Which means I only go to work 14 more times. I'm getting really nostalgic.

Last week my friend Jennie ventured up to HZ. We had an adventure (for another time and blog story when I have an hour to laugh and punch at these keys). Her time here ended with an afternoon session of KTV with some students from last year and this year. I basically text messaged random students whose numbers I happened to have in my phone and asked if they wanted to come, told them the name and place and about 25 students showed up for some singin' fun.

I was so happy to see old faces and hang out with current students on a more comfortable level than in class. Looking around the room made me happy. I almost forgot the 2085098347 rants I have had in my classes this year or the times of frustration and heartache over my students. ha. It's funny what hindsight does to you. Impending seperation makes me love a little deeper and appreciate a little fonder.

Here's some pics of the little monsters:

Jennie and Stream with Dante in the background.

Cathy, Lisa, Judy, me, Flora, Tiffany, Flora.

T-Mac and co.
Calvin (a fave) with Emily in the foreground (BFF's).

This week in class we are having fun. It is a nice change from the serious topics we have been devulging into as of late. The weather is [finally] nice so we are taking advantage of it. We are playing scattergories for 45 minutes then going outside with my co-worker's class and playing "never have I ever."

Scattergories is so funny. I've adapted the popular game to make it classroom appropriate (thanks, Jennie for the suggestion!). We use topics like, "things you put in a refrigerator that start with the letter "C", and "thing you pack in a suitcase." The things they come up with are hilarious. One group wants to put a girlfriend, rice, and a bomb in a suitcase. I told them I would never travel with them. And the amount of groups that said animals eat "beer" is priceless. According to other teams, people play "ice-ball" (hockey) and "horse-ball" (jockey). They love it and I love that they love it. It's a sneaky sneaky way to get them to dig into the depths of their vocabulary.

The premise of the "never have I..."game is that the group stands in a circle with one person in the middle. That person says, "never have I ever..." and then fills in the blank. The people in the circle have to switch places (which results in some funny collisions) if they have done that thing the person said. This game causes them to think quickly and listen carefully.

It's sure funny. It is amazing the maturity levels of these students versus Amer.ican students of the same age. These students get bashful and awkward over the strangest things. And most of my 24/25 year olds have never even had boyfriends or girlfriends so you can imagine the squeels when they say "never have I ever been kissed." I feel like I'm playing with 12 year olds.

Also their lack of listening skills is funny when a student says, "never have I ever killed a man" and like 5 students go scrambling across the circle, resulting in heavy questioning by me and a lot of laughs by their classmates.

Of course they target me with sayings like, "never have I ever been on a plane," (95% of them have not) and "never have I ever been to Amer.ica." I hit right back with, "never have I ever spoken Chin.ese to my parents," and "never have I ever had brown eyes."

It's all in good fun. There's so much up in the air and stressful about my personal life right now that it is nice to be relaxed and laughing at work.

But it makes impending seperation that much harder....

Oh HDU, you've taught me to be tough as nails and now you're turning me into a softee.

I keep thinking hopefully I get to do this again in 4 years. When I'm a little wiser. And they'll be callin' me, "Doctor." Ya, that sounds about right.

Missin you dearly.

Walk slow. xoxo.