Wednesday, March 5th

We're all sick, so short one this Wednesday...

Calvin's sick, Eli's sick, Rhiannon's sleeping in her closet... that has nothing to do with sickness, it's just Rhiannon... She set up her bed in her closet last night...Here are a couple of pictures of the kid's sleeping habits. We moved them from bunk beds to just beds -- that lasted a week or so -- down to the mats just floor. no space for anything to get trapped under, and they're happier that way anyway.



They have the lovely habit of coming alive at bedtime and sharing a few hours of conversation with each other. I think I did the same with my brother... kill each other all day but at night we're suddenly great friends. The cats all group up in their bedroom for the night. The kittens sleep next to Rhiannon...


The picture is of her first sleeping habitat (before moving to the closet). She'd abandoned her own mat for the space underneath the mirror-with-drawers thing in the bedroom, which is closer to Eli, too.

All the furniture is attached to the walls in this house, (sort of common here) built-in you might say. So she sleeps in the space under it. She's cozy there...

Anyway, we have all been sick. The weather had been beautiful, Spring has certainly sprung. But with the change of seasons comes colds... and of course, teaching on a cold is such a delight.

"Stop speaking Chinese... stop speaking English!!! just stop speaking!!!"

Classrooms here are by their very nature a form of controlled chaos. There has to be energy, there has to be constant motion for it to really work. There's no "teacher's desk" (I don't even have a chair) in most of these schools. It tends to anchor the teacher and the rooms can also be quite small in relation to what gets done in them. It usually doesn't bother me a bit, but when I'm sick...

Anyway, I have to drive out to AnPing tonight, so I'm gonna go get some rest. I didn't sleep very well, as the Universe conspired to keep me awake. I'd just polished off a night-time cold pill and 15 pages of Dostoevsky's the Idiot and had just, finally fallen asleep when we had an earthquake.

It only lasted about 15 seconds or so, but the damned thing woke me right back up to the swaying of our house...

I, of course, have an "it's the big one" moment, run out onto the balcony to see if any buildings in the immediate vicinity are collapsing, see that they aren't, am thereby annoyed that I've been roused from sleep and they aren't, and head back to bed.

See you Sunday!