55 days

is how long it takes to become famous in China.
I received a phone call today from a journalist, who said she "heard of my teaching" and wanted to write an article about my methodology and how amazing I am. I was a bit surprised since I'm certainly not the only foreign English teacher here, but for whatever reason she called me, so there we are. I told her I was happy to oblige and that she was welcome to sit in on class this evening. She did, and a woman who came with her took about ten thousand photos. I wish I had known this was the plan, because I basically looked like crap and hadn't looked in a mirror since 12 hours prior. I'm especially looking forward to the photos she took 20 cm away from my face (thankfully the bug bites are mostly gone). Those will be super hott.
Unfortunately the class she witnessed was fairly somber. We were discussing the Virginia Tech murders, so it wasn't exactly a laugh a minute. Various stories related to the killings made front page China Daily news all week, so I had more than enough sources to discuss with the class for 2 hours.
It's difficult to explain the "reality" of America without sounding too negative, as the bad is usually much easier to point out than the good and also leads to much more interesting discussions. Because of this, I made it a point this time to highlight America's reaction and how it is emblematic of the people and the nation as a whole (united, optimistic). I romanticized things a bit to get the point across, so I'll spare you the schmaltzy details.
The actual interview will go down next week, which gives me a few days to figure out what my teaching methodology actually is.