Middle-of-the-night visitors

What is the most annoying noise in the entire world?

Fingernails on a blackboard? Close.
Janice from Friends laughing? Nope, not so much.
Somebody sitting way too close to you who cannot stop sneezing? Well...

But no.

The most annoying noise in the entire world, without a doubt, has to be the sound of a mosquito buzzing in and out of your ears for several hours in the middle of the night.

That's right. I fell asleep at a normal time and was woken at about 2 by an entirely identifiable humming (and about a million itchy mosquito bites) that was switching off between my left and right ear. Eventually I had the good sense to turn on my light and search for the predator. At about 3:30, I FINALLY caught and killed the stupid mosquito, but it was tough-going for that hour and a half.

Of course, after his untimely demise, I had about 5 minutes of silence before another mosquito took up residence in the vicinity around my ears, and it wasn't until about 5 that I was able to get back to sleep.

Needless to say, I woke up very tired and cranky this morning and have been dragging all day. Luckily, both of my classes went well, and I even felt like I could see significant improvement in my class who just returned from their month-and-a-half-long teaching placement.

Since most of my students are pedagogy majors (with a focus on English), their degree has a practicum element where they are sent into rural high schools around Ha Tinh to do some guest-teaching. Their absence has been splendid for me, since it eliminated two of my five weekly classes for more than a month straight, and totally relaxed my schedule. Unfortunately (or not), this was their week to return, and it was actually quite nice to see them.

We spent the beginning of class debriefing on what they learned in their teaching placements, and I was absolutely thrilled to learn that they had struggled with: students not paying attention, students not volunteering to speak or raising their hands, students not understanding what they said in English, confusing scheduling mishaps, etc. etc. etc. Today in class, they were perfect angels. Usually one of my more passive classes that tends to drag on without many volunteers to speak, today I had an abundance of raised hands and eagerness. I wonder if this has anything to do with them realizing how difficult it is to teach to unreceptive audiences? I sure hope so!