Spinach Salad

I have a confession:

I've been avoiding you. I'm sorry. I didn't want you to find out that I am homesick, that I was starting to have not-fun. I didn't want to hear you tell me to just come home. I don't want to come home. I want to get through this.

During the past week I've tried a few strategies to deal with the homesickness.

Strategy A: dream about everything I miss.

For example: eating a fresh spinach salad with the following ingredients in it:
fresh baby spinach
crumbled blue cheese
walnuts
dried cranberries
slices of cooked pear
cucumber
bell pepper
snap peas

I think Strategy A is flawed. Although I will appreciate these things more when I get back, thinking about them a lot makes it more difficult for the to enjoy being here. I end up fighting being in China—irritated that it is not what I want it to be. So I came up with Strategy B.

Strategy B: try to let go of the things that I miss, understanding that they’ll still be there when I get back. And try to relax into being here. Do some physics, get some exercise, see some interesting places.

Its been a tough week. I've been in a kicking-puppies kind of mood and I've been trying to spare you and everyone here. But I've been working on Strategy B and it seems to be working. Now I have to catch up on my blog. Coming soon: temples, hiking, and a Nobel Laureate.