Fucking mosquitoes.

It’s not like we don’t have these ingenious little devices that plug into the wall and are supposed to drive mosquitoes away. What’s more, it’s not like we don’t live on the 7^th floor – way above where mosquitoes are supposed to dwell anyhow. Oh no, we’ve got both of those.

It’s that they seem to think I’m a gourmet meal fit for the most discriminating mosquito palates.

I must admit, I disagree. But then again, I’m exhausted. And itchy. They don’t tend to start biting until about 3 a.m., when you’ve already settled into a good night’s sleep. Y’no, the time of night where you’re supposed to be having psychedelic dreams reminiscent of acid trips of the days of yore where you’re being chased by big purple elephants on cotton candy clouds and incidentally jump onto the roof of a skyscrape….bzzzzz! OW! Damnit!

So I’m exhausted. I wandered into class today with absolutely nothing prepared, and remembered halfway there that I’d already talked about Earth Day with this class. Fuck. So I literally had nothing planned, nothing prepared, and nothing to challenge these little minds with. I ended up bringing up the debate from Friday (yes, it’s dominating my life at the moment) and having them talk about the WTO.

I have to admit, I’m rather impressed. A year ago, I helped TA International Problems at University of Toledo, and my students were darn near clueless. I had my students today make up a list of what they knew about the WTO, and they gave me a darned accurate definition and description of duties, responsibilities and functions of the WTO (in bad English) and then detailed the consequences of the inclusion of China to both the populace and the government. I was…impressed. And a little disappointed in the performance of the students back home.

On the way home, I stopped for groceries and such. Nothing big, just enough to fill my backpack. The cashier was a little bemused at the foreigner jamming eggs and bread carelessly into her bag, possibly destroying both in the process. It made me realize, though, that I’m really glad I started concentrating on dialect instead of “proper” Chinese. Dialect is more widely understood and spoken here. I like being understood. I like understanding what’s going on around me. People stop treating you like you’re insane, stupid, or a child if you speak even a few words of dialect. Seriously.

Anyway, Dan had only been out of bed for a half an hour by the time I got home. Darn it. He very kindly made me lunch, although it didn’t turn out so well (he’s made like three meals in the last three months that have been so-so at best. The rest have been amazing.) He’s also tolerating my snippiness that comes from too little sleep like a champ. I don’t ever mean to be snippy, but I’m really like a toddler. If I don’t get enough sleep, I’m a cranky bitch.

The Webby Award nominations are out and they’re up for a vote. I always go take a look because I inevitably find something pretty darned cool on the web that I hadn’t already known about. Go take a look yourself if you’re interested. http://pv.webbyawards.com/

And the other cool thing I’ve found in the last couple of days is a website called Lunch in a Box. It’s basically a website dedicated to bento boxes. A bento box is a Japanese lunchbox, usually arranged to be aesthetically pleasing and full of bite sized munchables that are super delectable. I always liked ordering bento boxes in Japanese restaurants because it let me sample a ton of different Japanese food without paying crazy prices or getting locked into one dish. This site, on the other hand, doesn’t restrict you to Japanese cuisine for your bento boxes, but gives you ideas for healthier lunches that are fast to make, nice to look at, and yummy to eat. You can find it here: http://lunchinabox.net/

TTFN.

Amanda