I know, I know, I haven't written in a really long time. The last time was while I was in the US; I've now been back in Taiwan for over a month. I had hit the ground running, literally hopping into a taxi straight from the airport upon landing to the first class I'm teaching for the semester. Did you know that the shuttle from terminal two of the Beijing Airport has to go onto the highway before it routes back to the terminal three part of the airport? Did you know that takes about 40 minutes during the usual traffic congestion in Beijing? I didn't, and so I missed my transfer flight that required me to disembark, change terminals, and check in within 90 minutes. I lost before I even started the race against time. The result was that instead of arriving back in Hsinchu at midnight so I can get ready for the semester with a leisurely couple of hours the next morning, I arrived at the department at precisely five minutes before the bell tolled. At least I made it, right? My level of stress since I missed the earlier flight may have warped the ends of all my telomeres just a little.
So currently I should be prepping for my second class (out of three). I have blocked off every Thursday i.e. my non-teaching day to prepare for all the classes of the following week. Working professionally again with young kids as part of my existential responsibility is psychologically daunting. Previously, there's a sense that if I feel like slacking off a little during allotted work time, I can always make up for it by curtailing some of my expected down time later. Now, my down time consists of the half or full hour after the kids miraculously go to bed for the night. My margin of error for sloth has decreased dramatically.
On that note, I must return to the task at hand. Just feel like I should pop in briefly to prevent this blog from going completely dormant.
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