Sneaky, Sneaky

As you may have guessed, blogspot is currently blocked in China. For the moment I've found a way to sneak onto the site (but not to post pictures). I'm also trying to see if another website might work better for me this fall.

I've now been back in China for exactly two weeks, and home up in the northeast for a little bit less time then that. We had a week of team building meetings and I began teaching on Monday. This semester all of my teaching hours are jam-packed into Monday and Tuesday, leaving the rest of the week "open" for planning meetings, grading, lesson prep, graduate work, student meetings, and cooking. Yes, I consider cooking right up there with my other responsibilities. :) It's amazing how quickly the time fills up, though! Hopefully I will be self-disciplined enough to take advantage of the more open days.

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying being home again. It's amazing how "normal" life has become here, and how life in many ways seems easier (with the exception of doing laundry). I was thrilled to return to fresh fruit sold by my neighbor, my egg lady who grins whenever she sees me, and garlic sold cheaply by the pound. It's nice to again be able to walk to most places I frequent, and to hear the chorus of, "Look there's a Russian" echo behind me (in case you haven't heard me say it before, EVERYONE thinks I'm Russian. Everyone. From the old ladies in the park to the primary school kids on their way to class). I just somehow fall more in love with this place each year.