Wireless Wars

Argh fargh. It’s almost 11:00 PM, but I’m sitting in the living room nibbling on Jelly Bellies and waiting to restart the modem, going by the advice of the CTM hotline adviser. It was kind of funny - I pressed the buttons to request an English-speaking person, but when I finally got off hold, I automatically switched to Mandarin because that just seemed more natural here. Fortunately, he understood me well enough to try and help, even though turning the modem off/on didn't help at all -_-

Today was just mentally exhausting, starting with noontime meeting for all the ENGL 101 teachers (each of us ETAs has two sections, so nearly fifty students total), then spending almost three hours discussing class policies, brainstorming icebreaker activities, and writing out lesson plans for our first week, aka next week!

After we finally got home around 7:15, we rushed back up to grab the old modem, then back down to the CTM store to swap it out for a new one, getting there just in time before it closed. After that was a bit of grocery shopping (I couldn't resist getting Ritz Bitz sandwiches as a comfort snack, but I got apples as well to ease my conscience), then cooking and eating a very late dinner.

Update: 11:57 now, and after a LOOOONG conversation with a second CTM service person (who seemed to have nearly-infinite patience), wireless finally works! Well, at least it works for Sam and me, but not for Susan. Not sure what’s going on with her computer, but oh well. Bedtime now – final day of English placement test proctoring tomorrow -_-