They smell like Easter! I foolishly bought a magnificent dish of forced bulbs, forgetting that I would be leaving Lanzhou just as they begin to bloom. I will be away for over three weeks, and will probably miss the whole spectacle. But I did get a glimpse, which is probably all the Easter I deserve just three days after the Epiphany. (The dish is going to live with my friend Sadie, who is not getting out of town right now, and who will relish the unfurling buds and their whiff of spring.)

I will be in Nanjing for a week, then in Nanning, Guangxi (in the south) for the Amity Teachers' Winter Conference (another week), then off to Yangshuo, Guilin and Kunming for a purely self-indulgent holiday.

As always, I have so much to say and so little time in which to say it! My first teaching term ended in a frenzy of activity and little time to reflect on anything -- the students, their learning, my role here. I hope this time away will give me the time and space I need for all of that.

O God of peace, you have taught us in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God.
A Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer