Well, took a bit to get back into things after catching a bit of the "crud" - I guess that's what one calls it.  Not really a cold but the chest/coughing stuff is tough on the lungs, etc.  I just about lost my voice on Monday at 1:30 pm in my second Finance class (actually we teach two 45 minute classes, back to back with a 10 minute break - and so I do 4 in a row on Monday and Wednesday).  Four hours of straight talking and I just about lost my voice - which isn't a good thing as I have another "2 hour" stint from 4 to 5:40 at the other campus! 

SO, I was done yesterday - then had grading today (Tuesday) in the morning (5:30 am) English papers - as well as finally getting my website back up and running.  I decided to pay $2.99 per month to have a dedicated IP address and see if I can set myself off from whomever "they" are blocking.  Then if "they" don't want me to have a website for my students - I'll do something else.  I spend $70 for a year to get it going, what's another $6 (I had to buy 2 months to start ithe dedicated IP address).  Low and behold, my "andrewparkes.com" site is back up and available to my students.  So I had to spend another 3 hours getting it up to date!  Only 1.5 weeks of downtime  but we have been busy!!!  And there's tons more work for my students coming up!

Talk about working my students.  At Mesa State College, we did semster long projects investigating a company.  Here in China, the kids work in groups - no, don't kid yourself, many still "free ride"!!!  However, it DOES help when they have the added disadvantage of not knowing the English language ... OK, that's not really true, they just aren't confident with the English language - but then so were some of my Mesa State/University of Northern Iowa/University of Central Oklahoma, etc. students!!!  The English language just isn't their FIRST language here in China, but they SURE try for me!

OK - so they are now doing this Capital Budgeting project.  They have to propose an investment project worth  $150 million in China!!!  The company that they chose is the same one that they have worked with all term!  So the term only has two more weeks left!  ZOICKS!!!  I have a ton of work to do.   I told them I want two drafts AT LEAST, before the final draft!!!  The final draft is due the last day of class - two weeks from now!  Some good ideas from them! 

Anyway, now I have some of those to grade too!!  Better get to it!