A victim?

Things are going into an interesting phase, without anything different happening. I'm just saying it is interesting because if I had to sum up a word for it, it would have to be "interesting". Why interesting? Because it feels interesting. How does it feel interesting? It is just a feeling.

Anyway, a victim of my own success or just lightening striking? My burgeoning class of nine (it has been a long time since the school has had a class that size) will be joined by not one, not two, not three, but four observers. It remains to be seen whether you can pack thirteen students into one of our classrooms... I had just moved class on Monday to accommodate the two that I hooked into coming last week. And it remains to be seen whether the observers will be interested in being in one of the most overcrowded classes around. But either way, there is a bonus of $200 for me if all of them join... (gee, that's a lot of money) I will do better than the last time I had three observers and executed a poorly prepared lesson. Administration has offered to give me a teaching assistant, who would assist during class (which is something I have never had).

The course itself has suffered a little lately by me being distracted and ill-prepared. I am more interested in learning language than teaching language at the moment, and as a result the class has been less in tune with the purpose. I have decided to refocus myself now.

Anyway, probably the good side of having the two recent additions to the class is that one is an avid ping-pong player. It has been quite some time since I last played ping-pong consistently and it looks as if he is interested in playing most afternoons. He beat me twice yesterday, then in a long string of games I beat him 5-1, although all by very narrow margins. He looks like a much more sophisticated player than I do and has a killer smash (which is often his undoing, he is about 50%. And we both play left handed against all other competition (I still can't beat one of the others with my left hand, but I come close everytime). All the facets of my game are coming back. I never lost my spin-serves, but had lost my forehand smash, and my side-spin smashes (which used to be my best weapon). Strangely I regained my smash with the left-hand before the right. Playing against a reasonable player with my uncoordinated left hand, I spotted and smashed a ball of a nice height better and, oddly, far more accurately than I had previously with my right hand, and I did it again and again. Anyway, I am always happier when I am playing ping-pong.