Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2004 - 3:31 p.m.

Making the decision to walk to and from work was the best thing I have done in awhile. As suspected I am getting a lot of strange looks, almost hits, and honks from buses and taxis offering me a ride. Its 6km each way and about 2 hours. Today I stopped about an hour and a half into it. I could have done the whole two hours in one blow, but it really started to rain and there was an internet cafe, so here I am.

I always forget to talk about the obvious stuff, like all this rain we are getting. Geesh! The Typhoon was one thing, but this is daily. It reminds me a lot of the random 3 minute thunderstorms that we had in Boston during the summer I was working there. Its seriously drizzling on and off all friggin day for days in a row. Wonder when the last totally sunny day we had was?

But I am not complaining, this is much better to walk in than the heat that will come when it stops. But I am ready, I know where I can buy one of those crazy huge traditional Chinese straw hats to keep my face out of the sun. Looking forward to it. I do need new socks though, the one pair I have left have holes in both big toes. Whats up with my big toe? I always get holes in my socks only right there!

Walking to work is also curbing my bad food eating habits. I tend to eat more little snacks and grocery store food. And more fluids. And walking alone keeps me from sitting somewhere and having a meal that is too big, just so I can have somewhere silent (relatively, that is) and dry to read. Its amazing how unhealthy my lifestyle has gotten in the past 9 months. I feel really out of my skin. Cant wait for a more natural environment. Walking in this pollution is NOT ideal by any stretch, but it is something.

I taught both my classes last night, my first day back at work since the surgery on sat. The first class was an oral test; just me and 1 student at a time. Poor kids. I am wearing my sunglasses all the time right now for many reasons, and it was really hard to connect with the kids with these on. I tried to take em off but it just hurt too much. damn. Its hard enough to explain to 6 year olds who know English about this sugery let alone ones who only know "whats the weather like today?"

The second class I had to full on teach. And we had a review sheet and test too, so I had to do a lot of in class speedy correcting. Got a bit dizzy at one point, and sat down at random times during the class. They also had no idea why I was acting weird, I really wish the assistant teachers would say something to them, but dont want to ask specifically for this. I think the assistant teachers think I am a bit nuts to have done the surgery in the first place, but I am just assuming from the expressions when I was explaining it yest. Oh well.

So far my sight is just getting better and better. There are def moments of dryness and tension around the eyes, but overall this is nuttin as bad as I expected. And this pain cant last forever, can it? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm