East is Relative

Settling back in

Of course, everything’s the same and everything’s different. My niece is two years old now, and she has an awesome vocabulary. After we saw each other the first time, she remembered who I was and now shouts of, “Come on, Thea!” echo through the house, leading to a puzzle or a book or a fairy tent. I missed her quite a bit.

I don’t really miss China. I think I came back at the right time – I had an experience and squeezed the life out of it, and I left when it was over. I can always go back to China (and will always want to – there’s so much I didn’t get to see), but I did what I planned and I did it well. Maybe I’m still in shock-mode, though, we’ll see what happens.

Jet-lag has been a bit of a nightmare. I only slept 3 hours my first night home, and I’ve slept wonky since, sometimes taking naps, sometimes sleeping for 10 hours, sometimes only 4. I think I’m getting closer to normal sleeping hours, but I only got 5 last night. The real big change has been the diet. You don’t realize how much of a difference eating dairy makes until you’re not doing it. As soon as I can, I’m going to switch back to not eating dairy. I felt so much better in China (my friend Liu Fei said the same thing while we were there – she felt tons better just from what we were eating). I’m allowing myself a little indulgence time to enjoy things that remind me of home (I can’t believe I haven’t eaten Mac and Cheese yet, that’ll have to be remedied soon), but after that, I’m going to go back to a more-Chinese diet. I just ate so much better there. Less-processed food, fresher ingredients, no chemical additives (except pesticides, I’m sure, but you can’t barely escape that anywhere).

Now I’m in full-on job mode (or I would be, if I could get my computer to work and get all my paperwork back together and in one place). I’ve moved back into my grandfather’s house and unpacked several boxes; frankly, I’m hoping I’ll have to pack them back up soon, because that will mean I got a full-time job and an apartment of my own. I’m working on updating and fixing my resume and portfolio to prepare me for teaching interviews. This weekend, I’ll be traveling down to Normal to visit some friends, including a current teacher whose district is retiring 85 teachers next year, so I’ll be trying to do some networking and resume-dropping while I’m down there.

Other than that, it’s a matter of trying to get back into my rhythm. I always had a schedule and a rhythm while I was here; I definitely didn’t in China (classes were on a schedule of course, however variable, but they only accounted for 12 hours a week). I still don’t have a schedule here yet, and that part’s a little disconcerting. Of course, it’s only been a week, but even that feels like a long time.

I already got a summer job; the place I interned at during student teaching has asked me to be a camp counselor for their theatre camp this summer. It’s only minimum wage, but it’s 40 hours a week, and that’s more than I’ll get at an hourly job. Now I just have to find a way to make money until June 14th (when it starts), and still also apply to teaching jobs, possibly all over the country (I’m not limiting my search to Illinois). Let the career begin!