East is Relative

My trip by the numbers

I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile, but haven’t got around to it. Here’s my China trip by the numbers, just as a point of interest:

Days spent in China: 201
Days spent on vacation: 75
Classes taught each week: 15
Hours of classroom time each week: 12
Students taught each week: 825
Number of days before I got used to spicy Hunan food: 4
Number of days before I started to prefer spicy Hunan food: 7
Cities visited: 13
Sleeper bus rides: 1
Plane rides: 7
Bus rides: 9
Train rides: 23
Highest ground altitude: 5079m
Total attempts to see Mao or his birthplace: 5
Successful attempts to see Mao or his birthplace: 0
Books read (including audiobooks): 13
Balls of yarn purchased: 80+
Balls of yarn lost (and then hand-delivered to me in Changsha): 8
Socks knit: 7
Stitches knit onto my sweater by a Chinese woman: approx. 100
Number of days I went before eating McDonald’s: 176
Number of times I ate McDonald’s after that: 20