May 10; from the fear of being criticized to criticizing

Day 95

I had an open class today, meaning that parents and other teachers were allowed to watch me teach. This, of course, was not my idea. It was something that I had to follow through with. Just the thought of being criticized and watched by parents and colleagues made me uncomfortable. I taught three classes today and of those three classes, only one class had parents watch me. Of the 30 students, only three parents showed up. The parents just kind of sat at the back of the class, being invisible. I'm not sure if the parents didn't care to talk to me afterwards or just didn't speak English, but either way I did not have to talk with the parents. *phew*

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On our way for dinner in Wudaokou, we ran into another foreign teacher who we haven't really hung out with (he's a really busy guy). Surprisingly, he asked to join us for dinner. We got to know him and his future wife more over the course of the evening. They have an interesting relationship for many reasons, but the one thing that stuck out tonight was the fact that her English level was beginner and his Chinese level was so so. (FYI: The girl is Chinese and the guy is Caucasian). If you've watched Love Actually, you might think the whole scenario is super cute but in reality, communication is so important in a relationship and so how can one possibly work if you can't effectively communicate thoughts (do not give me the language of love bullcrap). People who speak the same language have communication problems all the time. In my eyes, communication is more than lacking when two people can't speak the same language fluently -- trust me, I would know.

On the topic of dating and leaving you with something positive rather than ranting, Aunty Tom gave one piece of good advice: if you really like someone, you'll break the rules.