Back in China (momentarily)

I’ve spent the past two days tucked away in a friend’s apartment in Beijing. The sole purpose of this brief hibernation prior to heading to Thailand for classes and conference was jet lag recuperation. Way back when purchasing plane tickets, I made the very wise decision not to spend 30+ hours traveling across multiple time zones and then start two weeks of intensive classes at 8 AM the next day. It turns out that the few days have also been very useful for finishing up the lingering and substantial remnants of pre-work for those classes. Turns out I’m a mighty skilled procrastinator, especially when there’s someone like this around.

However, after two days of banging away at the keyboard, papers are printed, stapled and ready to be turned in. I’m quite certain that a jet lagged brain is not the key for profound and coherent writing, but alas, you do what you’ve got to do. Spending time with these folks is most definitely worth a lack of profundity (like how I’m sneaking in more pictures? I told you, expect to see these faces for awhile).

Turns out this time around I’ve discovered the key to overcoming jet lag. Be so sleep deprived and exhausted upon arrival in China that your body will sleep regardless of what time of day it thinks it is. And don’t be too proud to drug yourself–with entirely legal substances, of course. This time around tylenol pm has been my drug of choice, and coupled with exhaustion, has given me nights of eleven and nine hours of sleep. Two more happy blue little pills tonight, and I will certainly be racking up more sleep than I’ve seen in quite some time. You know who else is good at sleeping? Cute little babies.

Tomorrow afternoon I fly down to warm sunny Thailand, where I will quite contentedly don flip flops and tank tops. Before you get too jealous (I’ve heard many in the States are currently buried in snow), realize that I will be enjoying said attire sitting in class all day. I am looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues over good food and coffee, although, I will likely continue to miss these fine folks (ok, last picture for today, I promise).