So many weeks away and so many stories to tell...I'm going to rewind to the beginning of December.
On December 1st I walk into work and it smells like Christmas Tree and sure enough the little elves at work had bought a real live tree and set it up in the lobby of our school. The Manager, Academic Manager and Receptionist were all decorating it. None of them had ever had a tree before fake or real and after they had finished they decided it didn't look right so they took all the decorations off and went out and bought more lights and redecorated it again. It looked and smelled nice and the parents were impressed. Now fast forward 2 weeks as I walk by the tree and its looking a little brown at the top and I turn to the receptionist Jee Hee and say." Is anybody watering this tree?" Jee Hee blanches and says, "Water? You're supposed to water it?!?" So by this point the tree is doomed and nothing they do will revive it so they ignore the problem and by Dec 20 the tree is looking mighty brown but I think they'll take it down over Christmas. Then we return for Winter Boot Camp on Boxing Day and there is the sad tree which is getting drier by the day but remarkably is holding it needles. Day after Day i wait for the tree to be put out of its misery or to find the fire department has arrived but alas no. Finally last night January 7th they dismantled the tree while I was teaching. There was only a little pile of needles on the floor where it had stood faithfully for 6 weeks. Then I leave and by the elevator it the tree still in its stand with a garbage bag covering its head as if in shame. I didn't have my camera or else I would have taken a picture. I'm sure the janitorial staff love us. So the lesson is...Yes Chris, Hee Soo and Jee Hee you do have to water the tree, everyday.
Winter Camp was insane with 8 hours of teaching every day and 60+ essays to mark everyday. I was not a fun person to live with. But we got good reviews and January is going to be busy as well. Last January our school had about 45 students and this January we are looking at 120+ so no winter slow down for me, I'm back to working 6 days a week starting yesterday.
Sunday night after Brad and Jen had been to dinner and had gone home to give their diabetic cat its insulin we heard a loud bang outside and then another one. We thought it sounded like a Steel Garbage bin's lid being dropped and so ignored it. I went to bed and at about 11 and at about 11:20 the banging started again along with indistinct yelling. To be honest the bangs sounded a little too much like gunfire for my liking. Andrew stepped out onto the balcony along with everyone else. Andrew comes back in and says "Some guy in the next building is throwing furniture off his balcony onto the nice new deck the Days Inn has just constructed. I step out on the balcony just in time to see a a wooden dining room table take a dive from about the 20th floor down to the deck and smash...legs flying. We phoned down to Brad and Jen and told them to not go outside because they were in the line of fire and could be hit by shrapnel. The furniture stopped shortly after that. The debris included a rug, 2 tables, a couple of chairs and saddest of all a step ladder. Andrew asked,"why would anyone want to to wreck a step ladder like that?" All of it was still there monday morning and we didn't hear anything else so it is a mystery in or building and in the elevators yesterday everyone was chatting about what had happened because only a few of us witnessed the actual carnage...most smarter people stayed in their apartments lest it actually was gunfire. Such excitement in the big city.
M
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