Chinese Vampire

Thanks everyone who took some time out of their schedule to visit while I was back in the states. I had a fantastic time and it was extremely refreshing to be able to speak English with everyone and see so many familiar faces.
Although I was hoping to go skiing- the 50 degree heat wave was also very nice. Speaking of 50 degrees... can I also mention how nice it was to be around people who understand English units?! Granted, we are wrong. Metric is a much better system. Don't even argue this. But 50 degrees sounds much nicer than 10C or whatever the hell it is. Even though there are a fair number of English speakers I can communicate with, there is a serious lack of Americans to discuss our archaic measuring system with. And while I am on the topic of weather- Shanghai was a blistering 75F when I landed. It appears the days of warming up with a good sit on the space heater are over!

I have been so out of it since I landed. I don't think I really slept the night before my flight, didn't really sleep on the plane- and have been sleeping like 16 hours a day since my arrival Thursday night. I've been falling asleep at some weird time in the wee hours of the morning and then falling asleep again around 5PM. So I am still sort of on an American sleep pattern and probably only slept at night with the help of a sleeping pill courtesy of Morten. Hence it is 4:30AM and I am wide awake and teaching a class at 8AM. Maybe this sleep pattern isn't SO bad. Going to bed at 5PM and waking up at 2AM isn't that far off a normal sleep pattern. Plus I get all this quiet time to myself at night, to be efficient in whatever ways I see fit- plus all my American friends are out and about now. Poor logic? Well, I'm sure my sleep pattern will work itself out eventually.

Thankfully my Chinese doesn't seem to have suffered much over my vacation. I had no trouble talking to the cabbie in Hangzhou or getting bus tickets. There is a new teacher here from Canada too- which I have been sleeping too much to actually meet yet- but Morten was describing the boost for his language confidence it was to hang out with someone who was brand new to China, exclaiming about the fact that -oh! is that a Chinese bus? wow, this is a grocery store? The honeymoon phase of culture shock is definitely done on this end- but hopefully a day of actual work tomorrow- with a schedule apart from sleeping will help me get back on the right track.