Efland, NC

Catherine and I arrived in NC late last night, and I got up a couple of hours ago with jet lag.

We have different approaches to dealing with jetlag. Hers is to sleep. She feels that as long as she sleeps enough the jet lag will go away and she’ll get back on a normal schedule. One year she slept for twenty four hours straight after getting off the plane.

My approach is more along the lines of embracing the jet lag. If I’m stuck at five in the morning I’ll get up and read a book rather than lying in bed and actively trying to sleep, because actively trying to sleep never really works for me.

I think both approaches are valid.

But I’m glad that I got to see the sunrise this morning.

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Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Even if I don’t have the skills to capture the image with a camera.

My parents moved to Efland, NC, a couple of years ago. I love it out here, but after a lifetime of filling in “Durham” for my US address, I still wrote “Durham” on my customs form. It’s sort of like still writing “2007” instead of “2008”, but even more ingrained.

Up for Macworld

Okay, I have to admit that it’s 1am in Beijing and I’m up looking at updates of Steve Jobs’ Macworld Keynote.

One thought I’ve had is that the recent increase in iPod ads in Beijing might indicate that the iPhone is coming to China soon (maybe they’re “warming up the market”?), and that Jobs would have a sentence in his talk today announcing it. I’m not sure whether having stopped talks with China Mobile makes that more or less likely.

Merry Christmas!!

Today is the third day of Christmas, so I guess my Christmas wishes aren’t all that late.

We spent Christmas in Beijing this year. Catherine and I were both hampered by canker sores, so we didn’t do much talking, but we had a great day. After sleeping in, she went to the dentist and I went to BTV to review the Olympic English episodes for the next two weeks. Then we went and got a Wii (more on that later), and got a late lunch/dinner of 粥 in Wudaokou before heading home.

Nothing terribly exciting (except for maybe the Wii), but it was great to have a day to relax together.

Two Dogs’ Ideas About Life

We just got back from a Meng Jinghui play starring Liu Xiaoye. It was a lot of fun, and made me want to find some sort of creative outlet.

The play was all in Chinese except for a more-eccentric-than-Ringo performance of “Yellow Submarine”, but I think will still enjoyed it.

I’m off to Shandong tomorrow for a business trip, but should return around dinner time. I like day trips.

Xiamen and Fuzhou

I’m sitting on the floor in the airport in Xiamen near the only place I could find an outlet. The outlet is nearly four feet about the ground, and I’m a bit worried that the power adapter is going to fall out and land on my head. If it did, my head would hurt a little bit and the computer would turn off because the battery system is broken due to some water I spilled on the keyboard a few months ago.

I’m using the vip lounge wireless network, which would probably be upsetting to the vip lounge folks if they knew, not to mention the folks who run the paid CMCC wireless network.

We had an IELTS lecture in Fuzhou on Saturday and another one today in Xiamen. The one in Fuzhou was attended by about 1200 people, and there were about 800 people at today’s lecture. Both lectures were to help promote New Channel’s new franchises in Fuzhou and Xiamen. It was fun to see the new schools and meet the teams running them. I’d met the head of the Xiamen school before, but it meant a lot to meet the rest of the teachers and staff at the schools. I think they both have the potential to do really well.

Catherine and Will are actually also in Xiamen today with Catherine’s UC students. They left for the Wuyi Mountains on Thursday and arrived in Xiamen by train this morning. They’re plane leaves an hour after mine, so I might not see them until tonight.

I’m going to go ahead and click “post” before the adapter falls on my head.

My Cough

I’ve had a cough for about a month.

It started when I went on a jet ski in Zhu Hai. I came back on shore short of breath, and remained that way for the rest of the day. I felt better the when I woke up the next morning, but the shortness of breath slowly morphed into a cough over the next few days. It was particularly bad at night and in the morning. I was on the road for more than two weeks after the it started, so I just let it fester and grow without going to the doctor.

By the time I got back to Beijing, the cough was almost comical. After about 9:30 each evening I could hardly hold a conversation with anyone because I would break out in a fit of coughing. I went to the doctor, who gave me an antibiotic and an asthma inhaler. He told me that the inhaler might make my hands shake. I got my yearly physical at the same time.

The antibiotic (or was it the inhaler?) changed the cough, but didn’t make it go away. Back in Beijing, in addition to the coughing at night, going outside seemed to activate it as well. I left work early one day because I was worried that I was bothering my coworkers.

When I went back to the doctor for the physical follow-up a week later, he told me that–aside from the cough–all of the tests showed me to be in great health. He gave me a new antibiotic and told me to use the inhaler more frequently or at a higher dosage. “Are you’re hands shaking?” “No.” “Then you’re not using it enough. If they start shaking, then you’re using to much.” “Oh.”

I just finished the second antibiotic, and I think it worked. I’ve still had some minor coughing over the last two days, but nothing like before. But as I look out my window at the smog that I’m about to enter into, I wonder if Beijing will ever let my cough go away.

Xian

My plan to have a thought every day has been thwarted by a variety of factors, including lethargy, a hotel without Internet access, and a laptop needing service.

It’s been great having Will staying with us. He’s been taking Chinese class at 7:20 in the morning, and exploring job possibilities. He also went to Xian last weekend, where I was giving a lecture, and got to see the Terracotta Warrriors.