Lately I’ve been waking up at 4:30 a.m. with my brain spinning, spinning full of a half-million different thoughts. Things to blog or things I need to do and the result is that by 5:00 a.m. I am wide awake and still tired. By 5:30 I finally decide to get up and see if writing might help relieve some of this mental hamster activity. Alas, as soon as I have employed all my ninja stealth skills to get my laptop and sneak out of the bedroom without waking up the softly snoring Mr. Hot Stuff,  I sit down to write all that was burdening my mind and… nothing. All those great things to blog about, all the big plans of what needed doing during the day, gone. My brain is as empty as the bright blue sky on a sunny day.

It’s Tuesday morning here in China. China has only one time zone so it’s 6:00 a.m. in Guangzhou and in Beijing and in Tibet. That is a crazy thought to me. I actually look forward to being back in a country that has multiple time-zones and even the insanity we call Daylight Savings Time.

Anyway, back to Tuesday morning. We said our final goodbyes to Mei Guo last night. I don’t usually cry when I say goodbyes. Something inside usually keeps a firm grip on my tears, even as my stomach clenches up and I could almost bend double with the pain. I’m sure I come across a stoic and hard. The hard part really comes after the goodbyes are said and I feel like my emotions are ripping me apart organ by organ and cell by cell. Sometimes there are tears, but always there is pain. I’m glad she spent the weekend with us and didn’t have school Monday due to the Asia Para-Games opening ceremony.

I don’t know who is attending those Para Games, but apparently they are not as important or worth impressing because Guangzhou has already begun clearing the streets of the thousands of potted flowers that were lining them as part of the beautification effort for the Asia Games. The city has really looked beautiful for the last month but it seems too much to ask that the beauty be retained for the joy of those who will remain behind. Like the French in the middle ages, the flowery perfume just doesn’t endure when applied over existing stink. The only lasting solution is the frequent use of a bath. Proper use of toilet facilities helps as well.

The stores in our area are all geared up for Christmas, though it’s tough to get more secular than they do here in Guangzhou. The people here love Christmas, and they ask the American teachers if they will share with the students what it’s all about. When they discover that it’s really a religious holiday, they get confused and ask, “Can’t you leave the religious part out? We just want to know about Christmas, not the religion.”

I hope that you all are enjoying the Christmas season, with the real meaning for the season.

winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂