Jersey again

I had an interesting wakening experience this morning. The bedroom I share with Caitlin is upstairs and one part of the ceiling is slanted. My bed is under this part of the ceiling, which also happens to have a skylight. I'm still getting over jetlag, but I slept decently late this morning - until 7am. Caitlin and Jenny were both on their way to work at this time, but I slept through their morning routines. I was in the groggy, almost-awake stage when I heard a really weird noise. I opened my eyes and there was a squirrel three feet from my head, hissing and growling on the screen and staring right at me.

My body thinks it's 5:15am right now, so I'm fighting the urge to take a nap. I succumbed last night after dinner and missed our town fireworks. They woke me up and I watched them out the window from my bed. I've been slowly unpacking and getting re-acclimated to US living. I still haven't had a drink from the tap or driven a car, warm water from the faucet is strange, I cringe at certain words and phrases that people can use freely here, and I find myself calculating how long it would take me to bike to various places. I guess I'm too used to life in China!

My little brother became my big brother since I moved to China ten months ago. I now have to look up to him in conversation!

A random piece of plastic broke off the case of my MacBook this morning. Wouldn't you know that my warranty expired on June 29? I had to suck it up and pay for the extended warranty so that I can get that fixed and get it cleaned out from all of China's dust and dirt. It'll be worth the money if something happens to it while I'm in Beijing. I'd be up a creek trying to teach without a computer!

For your amusement:


And: