Weekend Stuff

The last few weeks have been really tough at work. Good, but tough. The students suddenly realized they had to take final exams, give final presentations, turn in papers, redo rough drafts, etc, before the end of the term. (Monday is the last day of Final Exams week - not counting second chance and third chance tests... but that's another post) .

Long story short, I have been swamped in the office. This is partially my fault for being as transparent as possible for my tests. Students knew exactly what they have to do, and realizing it will be difficult, decided they actually did need come see me. Many were also writing students with questions about their final reports. This has resulted in a revolving door of students. From 9am to 6 pm and sometimes later, I have been fielding questions, giving practice questions and giving feedback on papers. On good days I can squeeze drinking coffee in before the 9am rush and buying rice balls for lunch while someone is in the middle of working on a project in the office. I generally eat at my desk between students or occasionally while helping students. Being a good American, however, I have so far refused to skip lunch.

This has made weekends all the more precious. While I wish the last few weekends had been a break from the chaos, they were really more of a staging ground for the following week - still good, though.

Weekends give me a chance to catch up on grading and get laundry done. Of course, always one to procrastinate, I also get some web surfing an blogging in between grading projects. Today a case in point.

This weekend things are finally starting to wind down. I have to give final grades to the 50 reports I collected, but I am finished giving and grading my listening exams and the oral presentations on Monday should be graded before I leave school that day. Its nice to see the light at the tunnel. So nice, in fact, that Russell and I have been putting extra energy into getting organized this weekend. We finally did a good job cleaning the house (as opposed to just straightening). This hasn't happened since before Russell's sister came in November - and wasn't even done especially well then. It is a huge relief.

We have also been doing mega-ammounts of laundry. Three loads yesterday and two loads today. Its almost finished. Of course, the quantity is partially due to washing all the bedding in anticipation of a guest next week. We have also been airing out beds and trying to de-fume the large futon (the one that got the bleach treatment a few months back). We think the bleach smell has been thoroughly baked out now.

Finally, on Saturday night I finished grading my last listening tests while Russell launched into a PlayStation3 game he bought to go with his shiny new PS3 console. We are waiting for Final Fantasy XIII to come in the mail, but in the meantime Russell found a samurai game to tide him over.

Hanging out in a fresh and shiny home with lots of snacks and something interesting to watch felt awesome.