56 Days

Well I'm finally back in Alaer. If you count my trip as all the time since I've left Alaer than I've been on the road for 5 days, by far a new record for me. It's nice to get back to my apartment, even if it's still cold and the bed is still hard. I'm still pretty knocked out from all the traveling, I want a vacation from my vacation, but I start work today. My classes are mostly the same from last semester, same students, not just the same classes. The only difference is a American Literature class that I'm really excited about even though it has about 50 students in it. I did a journal, again, for most of my trip and I'm going to try and put it up in a more timely fashion then I did in previous years.

Now That's What I Call Haze

Well I'm mostly done with my big trip at this point, actually I've already gone back to the US briefly and come back, but I'm not going to post about that quite yet since I'm not at my computer and thus can't get my pictures uploaded to go with the stories. Right now I'm spending time in Beijing with my dad, who for those of you who don't know is going to be living in Beijing for at least six months. The weather here has been crazy I thought it was just fog but it turns out the huge bank of clouds that reduces visibility here to under a kilometer is actually haze. I don't know how they managed to get the pollution here to be worse than Changzhou but it's really amazing. I'm also just surprised that haze this thick doesn't make all of us choke to death. It's sort of like stepping into a dystopian version of future. I expect to see a flying car cutting through the haze any minute. The place my Dad's staying in Beijing is nice, it costs more than my whole monthly salary, which is above average for China. It's oddly hot though. Even without the heat turned on at all in the building it's been uncomfortably warm, not that it's warm outside really just inside the apartment. I haven't done much here yet besides eat some great Beijing duck at a fancy restaurant since I've been really jet lagged from all this flying back and forth from the US. Hopefully the haze will break and I'll be able to see something farther away then the end of my arm.