I had written a different version of this, but then the result changed and so I scrapped it! I had a few ‘waifs and strays’ after the enrolment upheaval here. Some students were not on my printed register, but still turned up to class. I asked my manager if they could be added to my …
Category: RDFZ
Breaking glass ceilings
I read a Guardian article recently which explained why Hillary Clinton lost the election. It described a number of reasons, including the fact white women en masse did not vote for her. She did not, in other words, secure the female vote. One reason for this was that women tended to vote for Donald Trump, …
Week 2.1
This week has been a bit odd. On Tuesday, my classes were way down on numbers – I had four students in the first class, then ten, then six. Yesterday, I had full classes. We – me and the other teacher I share the teaching with on a Tuesday and Friday – decided to combine …
The small things
I made it back to Beijing on Sunday, 20 August, in one piece. There was no calamity, no catastrophe. It went well coming back. I arrived at about 05:30, and went through customs very quickly. I collected my luggage, got on the first airport express train and made it to the campus for my new …
RDFZ: Some after thoughts
Now that the final whistle has been blown, my keys and cafeteria card have been handed in, and I am officially no longer on the staff at RDFZ, I can, perhaps, reassess things a little more. If you have been reading my deliberations over the past few months, you will know that I was undecided …
Endings – some thoughts
I’ve been thinking a lot about endings recently. I think because things here are ending. Whether it’s David Hodges and Gil Grissom in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode, where Grissom leaves the crime lab (‘It’s the right time for me to go’); or the ending of series six of Community where the ‘Save Greendale …
An empty office
There's a scene in the television series ER, when Dr Mark Greene, stalwart of the emergency department for eight years, dies, and one of the final scenes we see of him is him walking around an empty department, with Somewhere Over the Rainbow playing in the background. I have more to say about endings, which …
