Back to the Grind

It was a good break... full of sitting around, watching movies, eating, and later on grading a million papers. And yet, like many breaks, it's almost refreshing to get back to work... if only because one can easily become bored with nothing to do. When you start spending too much time with people - even people you enjoy spending time with, it can easily begin to feel like a job unto itself. So suffice it to say, I'm a little glad I now have a real excuse to say "sorry, I can't come" now. It beats lying.

The students today were... how can I put this delicately...?... completely lifeless. Yeah, that'll do. Just utterly dead in the water... Not that I can say I blame them, really. It's their last break for 2 months, and heck, they're freshmen. What can you really expect from freshmen? Nevertheless, I'm hoping tomorrow's classes will be slightly less bleak and zombified.

I hear there's some disappointment from me not taking pictures over the break... but really it because I didn't go anywhere! I think the most exciting place I went was with Nancy to pick up a cellphone.

Speaking of which, I got a cellphone. that's right, I'm actually en communicado once again! It's a cheap little Nokia... only ran me 299 RMB, and then another 100 for the # and activation. My monthly plan here is 18RMB/month, and it's 0.25RMB/minute to make calls. I get 200 free outbound text messages, and then they're some piddling surcharge after that.

So, to sum it up, the who activation/phone cost was roughly $38, with a monthly charge of...oh... $2.50. And calls (at least domestic) are about $0.02/minute. Not only that, but I can take this (or any) phone and swap out it's SIM card to whatever country I'm in. Phones in the US are locked down, and cannot be used outside their company's call area at all... unless you pay$50-60 dollars to buy the "unlocking code" from a third party... which quite frankly sounds more than a little fishy.

My God. Cell phones in the US suck! Those companies are horrible! And the governement just lets them gouge the hell out of us! Sigh...

anyway, I've still got more papers to grade. You know how it is with me: work, work, work.

(CS)WC Out.

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