Andy - I'm alive.

Hey, just wanted to check in because Tony has been giving me trouble. This is my first time in my apartment this year as I've been traveling China since January 1st. It's a pretty sweet life being a professor - long vacations anyway. As my recently updated facebook photos show, I spent the last 40 days living with a Tibetan family in Sichuan, visiting the pandas in Chengdu, spending time with Meredith in Hong Kong and Macao, rejoining Erin, Phred, and Dana in Guangzhou for a second visit to Hong Kong and Macao for the Chinese New Year, snowboarding in South Korea with my best buddy from high school, and finally doing a solo trek to the Russian border to witness the colorful Harbin Ice Festival first hand. 

Meredith is safely situated in Rwanda and has purchased a cell phone, which thankfully has excellent reception. I intend to visit there this summer before returning to the states. That is, if I'm accepted to grad school. If not, I'll do another teaching stint in Rwanda. 

I'm moving to a new city next week for my final semester of teaching. The environment here is just too shitty for running, and I want to be closer to the ocean as the temperature increases.

Glad to see things are going well: Tony returning to his roots, Gretchen buying a new apartment, Caitlin relieving some stress, Claire teaching maths, Lizzie writing ridiculously long posts...(thanks for the calendar by the way!).

Take care.

And check this out if you're bored: www.myspace.com/andrewbockus