K: There and Back Again

I've never really calculated how much time it takes to travel between the US and China because I always lose track somewhere between the multiple layovers and the international dateline. What the flight attendant says it is when we land is what time I accept that it is, so I'm always gambling my next connection that she knows what she's talking about.

I've been back in China for two weeks today after making a very quick trip home to bury my Grandmother. There are many good things that came out of that trip for me - like  spending precious time with family that I hadn't seen in two years and getting a few more days with my parents.... and I finally figured out how long it takes to make that trip. It works out a bit like a logic problem. If K leaves her home in China on Tuesday morning, travels to America and spends four days there, and then returns to her home in China on Monday night, how many days did she spend on airplanes? If I could turn the answer upside down at the bottom of this post, I would, but since I'm not that savvy, the answer is three... it takes three days to go from here to America and back.

Since I've been back, I've begun teaching. Two weeks in I can confidently say that teaching this term is a blast. I'm teaching a course in the Good Book as it relates to Western Literature for sophomores... at the university's request. My favorite things in one place: The Book, literature, and teaching. The students are into it too, or at least they're good fakers. The first week I sold 62 Textbooks to Chinese college students. I'm still marveling. My other class, for teachers who are preparing to take the British entrance exam for foreign graduate students, begins this week. That one will rock because it will be a small class of mature, motivated students who need a lot of practice speaking... and though not universally loved, I think pronunciation drills are really fun.

My other project since I've been back has been making our new apartment home. It's really coming along and though it's not finished yet (I've still got to get some pictures framed and hung, and organize the office, and I think I want new curtains... to name a few), we did have our first group of folks over for chili on Saturday night, and if the house is ready enough for them, then I guess it can be ready enough for pictures.