Here we are in Massachusetts in late December. The sun has yet to make an appearance at 7:30 in the morning - yet another cloudy, cold day. Sunset was at 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday. December in New England means there just isn't enough sunshine. There are nine hours between sunrise and sunset here today and eleven hours in Kaohsiung. I'm going to miss those long winter days when we leave Taiwan. The summer days, of course, are much shorter in Taiwan, but that's not such a bad thing, considering how hot the days can be.

Yesterday's weather is something I have not missed while living in Taiwan. Sleet, freezing rain, slushy snow, cold and raw. And dark. Did I mention there's been no sunshine?

One thing I have missed? Clean air. The lack of air pollution is such a breath of fresh air (sorry, I couldn't resist).

Christmas is over and we're in that odd, should-have-its-own-name week leading up to New Year's Day. Our plan had been to spend the week in Japan but we've changed that plan and are staying in Massachusetts for an extra week. Dad looks as though he's started a new Christmas tradition of falling and breaking his neck. An odd tradition, I must say, but our time seems better spent here with family since we were in the neighborhood anyway. We'll try to get to Japan another time.

It was delightful to have time with the boys, as well as to see all of my brothers and sisters.

Squeak guards the Christmas tree.

Zach, Dad, Gavin and Josh

Cady, aka Tigger, and Dad

We have made it safely to Massachusetts on yet another uneventful series of flights. No lost luggage, no missed connections, acceptable movie selection, decent food. That's about as good as it gets. Our journey started on foot to the subway, followed by the high speed rail to the Taipei airport, one flight to Japan, another to Boston, finishing up with a walk to the Hilton.

The train station has a bookcase with books to borrow. Alas, they were all in Chinese.

The train is clean, comfortable and fast. 

It worked out well to recover from the traveling by spending the night at the airport hotel (although the Hilton was way under par from what I'd expect from a hotel like that). We were awake and refreshed and ready to pick up the rental car bright and early. We had lunch with one son and Lee's mom in Boston then parted ways for a bit. Lee has stayed in Boston for an extra day while I've traveled on to Amherst to see the family.

The meals have certainly gotten better:

At the airport in Taipei.

In Amherst - chicken pot pie and kale salad made by my lovely sister Leslie
and hosted by my lovely sister Jenner.

Last evening I went to a friend's apartment and met her doorman/healer. Linda was pretty sure that he could rid me of my sore throat. I think she didn't believe me when I told her my hoarse voice was just a hoarse voice and not a sore throat too. David, the doorman/healer, gently rested his hands around my neck and had me concentrate on my throat, but his specialty is reducing pain and I wasn't in pain. I think the fact that my voice didn't sound any better was a disappointment to all. But I did have a lovely cup of tea and a lovely evening of conversation with friends.

My voice has been getting better on its own since Tuesday. If I can keep myself from yelling at the students during sports day this afternoon I think it'll be back to normal by the time I get on the plane tomorrow.

Any time I get a cold it goes straight to my voice box. As the day wore on yesterday my voice got worse and worse. Fortunately, my classroom is outfitted with a microphone so that's what I resorted to by the last class. It's very odd to speak into a microphone while you're trying to teach. When I needed to say an aside to Douglas, along the lines of "knock off what you're doing," it wasn't an aside but instead broadcast to the whole room. Not that everyone else knew that Douglas should stop doing whatever it was he was doing, but my comment wasn't intended to be that public.

Some of the Chinese language teachers, all of whom are Taiwanese, use the microphone to teach every day. I think they must be used to teaching to a large group of students in a lecture hall setting. There's such a contrast between students who have just transferred from the local schools and the students that have been at KAS or another American school for awhile. When you've spent so much of your schooling in a lecture hall setting, especially in elementary school, you get trained to memorize, don't ask questions, keep quiet. The American system has flaws, for sure, but the Asian system is not the place to learn independent or creative thinking.

I've been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days. No complaints here, though. I haven't had so much as a sniffle since I've been back in Taiwan this year. Back in that previous life, working with small children, my work life was fraught with little kid germs. It's not nearly so bad with middle school kids. I just hope I'm over whatever it is by the time we step onto the plane in four days.

The school is nicely decorated with secular Christmas. There's no worries that you'll offend anyone because here the holiday is not a religious one at all. I think it's just an excuse to buy sparkling things and decorate your home. Here's what the lobby at school looks like.

What a difference a day makes. The rain did indeed clean the air. After school we went for a bike ride to Cijin Island. I had suggested we go to the harbor but it was so lovely out that we extended the ride by going out to the island. We stayed long enough to watch the sun set.

It's funny how sunsets can be so alluring. The sun has set nearly 20,000 times in my lifetime and yet I still like to watch it go down. Me and Lee and hordes of Chinese tourists too. It was nice to get some exercise, something we didn't get a lot of while the kids were here, and the weather was as good as I've ever seen.

Those are the mountains of the Central Mountain range - over 200 peaks over 3000 feet high.

Cijin Island palm tree at sunset.