what's keeping me up at night
i could hardly sleep the last couple nights thinking of all the things i have to look forward to right now. my parents come here tuesday morning. after that, only one month of teaching left, which should be fun. traveling with paul the first bit of july right before i leave. then it's europe for five weeks, kicking off with a week in england, a country i've been pining for the last couple years. i just get more and more excited about europe every day though. i'll be kinda glad to get back to western-style tourist stuff. or--maybe this is more what i mean--seeing things i've heard more about. then, in mid-august, it's back to america!:) how fun. back to the green grass in my backyard and my car and my computer and carpet and mt. dew... then i get to start seriously working on my application for this american life, which i'm looking forward to. i've been putting so much time into this show lately. i'm up to 115 episodes listened to since february. and i have some good strong ideas for pitches for shows for my application. the grad school thing... well, i'm looking forward to having that figured out:) then, within each big thing i'm looking forward to are a million smaller things that won't stop zipping through my head. i can't wait to send jason (student who let me stay at his house in zhangjiakou) gifts from famous art museums, since he's an art major. i can't wait to get home and make my pictures and everything into vcds to send back to people here. i can't wait to see if any of my students end up coming to america to study, and if i'll get to show them around. i can't wait for airplane rides. i can't wait for meals in exotic cities. planning things right now is making my head buzz. i feel a bit like i did almost exactly this time last year. how ironic is that? feeling the same way about coming home as you felt about leaving? except so much of my excitement is for things other than actually arriving at home. so... so maybe not THAT ironic:)
tomorrow i'm going to attack the apartment with cleaning supplies. it will be cleaner than it has ever been before, including before we moved in. that's all i have planned for tomorrow. playing loud music and cleaning. with extra time, maybe i'll start a new book. i finished things fall apart by chinua achebe today. it was really good. and it's funny how anyone here i show it to says, "oh, a book about china." and i say, "what? what are you talking about? there's a picture of a black, very african looking man on the cover. why would you think this is about china?" and then they point out the author's first name, in big print at the top. "chinua." oh. oooohhhhh. i see. right, no. not about china at all.
tomorrow i'm going to attack the apartment with cleaning supplies. it will be cleaner than it has ever been before, including before we moved in. that's all i have planned for tomorrow. playing loud music and cleaning. with extra time, maybe i'll start a new book. i finished things fall apart by chinua achebe today. it was really good. and it's funny how anyone here i show it to says, "oh, a book about china." and i say, "what? what are you talking about? there's a picture of a black, very african looking man on the cover. why would you think this is about china?" and then they point out the author's first name, in big print at the top. "chinua." oh. oooohhhhh. i see. right, no. not about china at all.