Days 151-154: Packing for the USA

These days all that's going on, pretty much, is packing to get ready for our trip to the USA. But that takes longer than we anticipated. A key problem we are having is that the weather here in Shanghai is very cold and not all that windy, so after we wash our clothes, they stay wet. We can't dry them as well as we are used to doing. So we're trying to dry some under the heat lamp in the bathroom, and we are even putting some on hangers and drying them in the living room and bedroom. There are clothes all over the apartment, and most of them are wet.

Other things we've been doing:
--I've been updating my blog.
--I organized my collection of photos (about 4,000 at this point)
--Kerry went to the grocery store.

Not too much excitement, as you can tell.

I've been staying in all the time, pretty much, because I have a bit of a fear of catching something at the last minute. I DO NOT WANT TO GET SICK FOR THIS TRIP. Therefore, I'm pretty much quarantining myself. I know that's a bit extreme, but I have no desire to pick up something in the last few days here.

I'm not as excited about going home as I thought I might be. Perhaps because I know it's really only a short visit and then we have to return. It's not that I hate it here--in fact, there's a lot I love about China and the experiences I have had--but if I were given the option to stay in the USA, I'd probably take it at this point. I do miss home and have a desire to return to "normal." I think coming back here is going to be hard.

Towards the end, we are also doing a lot of cleaning: the bathroom, the fridge, the floors. We're trying to get all the laundry done, or at least as much as possible.

One other thing: I've also been trying to get some writing done. I promised Grace a couple articles for a periodical at SISU about experiences from international faculty. The first one I wrote about SISU students seemed to please her, and she thought I'd have no trouble getting it published. Yay! However, the second one I wrote I know will be more controversial: it's tentatively titled "On Being Gay in China." I assured her that my intent was to be positive about SISU and about China, but she told me that she'd have to check with the Director and the Editor before allowing me to submit the article. It will be interesting to see what happens.

We plan to leave at 8:30 tomorrow morning; we're trying to order a van on Didi--we'll see how that goes!