Well, the 2011 English Language Summer Program has drawn to a close. It was an enormous amount of work this year, much more so than in other years. (I think our housing situation had a lot to do with that.)

And now, it's time to go home. I leave for home on the 17th (I think; I have to check the ticket to be sure), and now I feel a bit like I feel at the end of a long car trip, when we're coming home around sunset. I look out the window and think, "Oh, boy, maybe when we get home I'll go for a bike ride! Or a swim!!" - but we inevitably get there too late, after the pool has closed or darkness has fallen. Now I'm looking at late summer, China-style, and wishing upon wishing for late-summer, North America-style. And I'm just not going to get it. I start working a week after I get home; the summer is, effectively, over for me.

So's the sabbatical, but I'm trying to repress that thought. I've spent a lot of the day packing up; I'm trying to cram everything into two bags so I don't have to take my big bag on the plane, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be in that attempt. Anyhow, if I pack now I won't feel so bad about it, because I still have about a week and a half left. If I wait until my compatriots leave, I'm just going to crumble, I know it.

It's not that I don't want to go home. It's just that I hate transitions. Plus, I'm expecting a major bout of reverse homesickness . . . I think I'll be home for about three weeks and want to come back. So we'll see.

I knew this would happen, too, when I signed on for this sabbatical, so none of it's news, although forewarned is not necessarily forearmed . . . Stay tuned.