Winter is arriving and my possible departure is in sight

Changchun saw some its first snow flurries a few nights ago.  I was walking back from my favorite coffee shop called SPR ("SPQR" as it's commonly referred to by many foreigners now).  When I arrived in February, I caught the tail-end of winter here, but now I will have the ice-filled winter-wonderland experience.  It's gets even colder than the Boston region where I grew up, so I'm told.  The temperature, at some point, may get down to -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit) and I don't know if that's with the wind-chill factor or not.  (When I went to lookup the conversion rate from Celsius to Fahrenheit, I found it a bit ironic in a "detesting the extreme cold" way that at -40 it is the same in both measures of temperature.)  I have accumulated a collection of DVDs for many of my days ahead that I will undoubtedly spend indoors (they are about a dollar a piece here) and bought a membership to a pool right behind my apartment building in an effort to push myself to get out and do some exercise.

 

I have a few long weekends coming up and am planning to definitely head down to Dalian, up to Haerbin, and possibly down to Shenyang.  Dalian is a bustling beach and port city.  I have some friends down there now who I'll visit for a few days and check out the sights.  I will go to Haerbin in late December or the week that I depart from Changchun.  There is a well-known ice festival in this town with all sorts of sculptures and lights.

 

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As for returning home, everything is still up-in-the-air.  I have a few things in the works, but nothing definite thus far.  I think that it would be safe to say that I can finish off the remainder of the academic year here (through the middle of June), if need be... that's my back-up plan.  Ideally, a job will come through, will be back State-side by mid-February, and have my first day of work on 13 March.  Consecutive plans "D" through "F" are to try and get a gig to teach in the Middle East teaching the same that I do here ("Emerging Scientific and Medical Technologies") for Fall 2006 and Spring 2007.  I am specifically looking at the University of Jordan and American universities in Cairo and Beirut.  Living and teaching abroad is only helping my resume and I am thoroughly personally enjoying it, best of both worlds... yet sometimes worlds apart.

 

This part of life just seems like a big waiting game and I've been told that there's never one way to reach to a dream... becoming oh so true.  There are always twists and turns and just because one person did it one way, doesn't automatically mean that that is how your journey will work out.  So you gain experience, gather as many of your options together (if you're so lucky), and find the best route from "A" to "H".  One goes to college, hopefully while gaining academic and professional experience, and then upon graduation finds that a bachelors degree in today's job market just doesn't cut it, so you have to get a master's degree.  Yet a competitive master's degree program requires more than just good looks:  it's grades (maybe a school name), experience, writing ability, and a fervor to reach a goal that is unique from the hundreds or thousands of other applicants that are applying for the same hundred or less spaces.  It's a dog-eat-dog world and you have to be at the top of your game 24-7 until you "have arrived" but you never really "arrive."  I'm sure that we all ask ourselves if all of this work and perseverance is worth it... I say yes. 

 

Pre-grad school life comes in peaks and valleys, but I will say that it's nice to ride the boat down-river on a class-one rapid for a while and meet all sorts of different people along the way.