"Have two, teacher!"

I’m not going to lie, these past few weeks have been tough. Since buying my tickets home, it’s like the calendar has been mocking me. I keep crossing days and weeks off, but June 30th does not seem to be getting any closer.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love China and, by the first week of July, I’ll probably be wishing that I was still here but, right now, my comfy bed and that I-made-it feeling that are waiting for me at home are all I can think about.

Looking at the calendar and the days that are ahead of me makes me tired. So, I drink a lot of instant coffee (sorry, Granddad), play upbeat music and try to think of things to do with my kids that will shake off that summer-is-almost-here feeling and keep us going until summer actually is here (I teach my last class the same day that I go to the airport).

I thought that I was doing a pretty good job of it too -until today.

After one of my classes had ended and I was gathering my stuff to leave Max came running up to me with a little pink silk bag in his hand. He held it out and said "For you!" Then, as I was turning to leave he said, "No, have two, teacher!" and he handed me another little purple bag.

As I was sitting in the office, some of my coworkers started to complain that the room smelled like Chinese medicine. I asked them if it was the same smell as what was coming from the bags Max had given me and it was. They explained that, what I thought had been little bags of potpourri (which made me wonder why he had given them to me ) were actually little bags filled with Chinese medicine that you are supposed to put under your pillow to help you sleep - then, they asked me to put them in the drawer so that they wouldn't smell them anymore.

So, apparently, Max saw through the peppy, powdered coffee and games shield I had put up and right into my sleepy soul.

And I must say that I do feel slightly more rested now that I have had them under my pillow the past few nights. However, that rested feeling could also be a side effect of knowing that not only does this week mark one-month-until-we-leave-China but it also marks the start of all of the exciting things that we have been planning since Thailand!

We kept telling ourselves that we just had to make it until Uncle David got here and then we would be in the home stretch! And we did! We saw Uncle David last weekend in Shanghai! It was so fun to be able to hang out and show him all of our favorite restaurants and smoothie shops and also see a lot of things that we had never seen before (like Shanghai from 268m in the air).