Clearly I could be using my afternoon more productively, but instead I’ve crawled into bed to blog and nap,  nap and blog, and then do more of the same.  Not exactly what you’d call ambitious.  But then again, I figure this may be my last opportunity to do so in a while–so carpe diem in a lounge around and be lazy kind of way.  Once I collect my students’ ten page papers on Thursday, the semester will be one long marathon till the end and my departure for Vietnam four weeks from today.

Speaking of Vietnam, I should mention, it’s been decided (to use a good passive construction) that I will travel to Asia as a volunteer for S’s NGO and will be working there as a writing consultant, teaching workshops with staff whose second language is English, helping them compose written texts more proficiently in a language with which even native speakers struggle.   This will inevitably challenge my own skills as a teacher and force me to look at my own language from the perspective of non-native speakers.

However, it’s hard to believe I’ll be leaving so soon, leaving not only Lexington and my animals, but also an entire way of life grounded in comfort and convenience.  At this point it’s difficult to imagine how this will impact me, challenge me, force me to embrace perspectives different from my own, how it will require me to adjust what S. calls a world view based on  “refrigeration.”  She claims that there’s a fundamental difference between cultures for whom refrigeration is a given and those for whom it remains a luxury or is, in fact, unheard of.  The ability to preserve food affects the way people approach notions of time and plan for the future–it impacts the inclination to strategize long term.  Admittedly I’m not explaining this in the nuanced way S.would, but I think you get my overly generalized and way too  simplified point——so—— go sip a cool beverage fresh from the frig and give it some thought.  Chill with it, if you will.