And now, an update of Sam's escapades in the kitchen: he cooked a spatula.

I had stayed late to work in the library and lab on some projects, so I hadn't come home until evening. I open the door and find Sam in the kitchen frantically trying to clean a pan that was full of boiling water."Sam, what are doing?"

"I cooked a spatula."

Apparently, he had been making some chicken, when it was done he cut it up and set it in the fridge and went back to his homework. A few minutes later, he says, he smells something burning. Upon entering the kitchen he finds the handle of the spatula on the floor and the main piece bubbling in the pan. He had left the stove on and the spatula in the pan. The pan had melted through the handle, and completely destroyed the part in the pan. I liked that spatula. But at least it was his spatula, or he might have found himself in some serious trouble.

Yesterday I had my first oral quiz in Chinese, and I was super nervous. This time, we had to make up the conversation on the fly with no scripting or knowledge of which prompt we would get, and then we would be randomly partnered for this conversation. I knew the grammar, I knew the vocab, but conversational Chinese is probably my worst subject. So when get up to the front to act out our skit, I'm thinking I'm just gonna stutter through it, forget half the conversation we rehearsed for two minutes, and then sit down and listen to everyone else raise the bar too damn high.

So imagine my surprise when as I'm sitting down the teacher compliments my partner and I on our naturalness. We were the most convincing, and non-awkward conversation to perform the prompt. And as everyone else finished, I noticed they all just sort of stood there and said the bare amount they could get points for. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty damn smug. But now I have to study extra hard because the teacher will be expecting that from me. Oh well.

And finally, I received an email from the professor who was in charge of hiring docents for the space building. Apparently they had a different budget from what they had been expecting, and so they were taking longer than expected to sort things out. Which means I might have a shot at still getting the position. I know that my hours have changed since I applied because I accepted the TA position, but I think I can do both. I don't even have to TA every class. I'm only expected to be there half the time, so I can definitely fit my schedule around it. Cross your fingers even tighter, because I need to save up for my summer camp in China, and getting a job could definitely help in that area.

That concludes this blog post, as nothing else of import has happened in the past few days, but I'm hoping to hear back from the professor sometime this week as to whether I'm hired or not. And you will be the first to hear the news, good or bad. Farewell, readers. Until next time.