The weather went from miserably hot to all of the sudden cold and rainy. I am a little scared of acid rain as well because there is just so much pollution in the city; but what can you do? Last night I had office hours and my students started coming at 6 and stayed until 11 when I finally made direct hints I had to go to sleep! In the US, when you are thinking about leaving or you want go, you make subtle suggestions about having to leave and slowly you leave. For example, you might suggest you have to wake up early tomorrow and better get going. In China, there are no subtle suggestions and lingering around. All of the sudden, a student will just stand up and say, “I have to go now.” He or she will quickly run to the door and leave. It happens so fast and it makes me wonder if I had said something to offend. It was exhausting, and bless their little hearts, but some of them do not talk and it is up to me to keep the conversation going. This year, if it teaches me anything at all, will teach me how to be a good conversationalist. If I can talk with awkward 19-year-old Chinese boys, who only know broken English and have not done much in their lives except study a lot, and keep it up for four hours, then I am the conversationalist queen!!