Kristin's Kapers : The quick turnaround

Our route from Beijing to Detroit
- flying time 12 hours 33 minutes

When I lived in China before, one of the most difficult things was missing every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Nowadays I usually only see my family at Christmas anyway so it might not be as bad as before to miss all three holidays (not to mention most birthdays), but thankfully I don't have to. I was really excited when I was applying for jobs to see that even though Christmas isn't really celebrated in China, most International Schools have Christmas off. Originally, my school was supposed to have two weeks off for Christmas. Unfortunately, because we are a new school, construction was not finished on time and we had to push the start of the school year back by two weeks. This resulted in the calendar being altered and Christmas was shortened to only 7 school days off (Thursday the 22nd - Sunday the 1st). Nonetheless, I was able to get good connections (less than 20 hours from Beijing to Greensboro) at a good price (about $750) and so I decided to go to the U.S. for Christmas. I figured this will help me to not get so homesick (and it probably did). I'm glad I went back, but unfortunately, I picked Influenza A somewhere along the way and got sick on Christmas Eve morning.

I only have a toaster oven, but I baked sugar cookies and
took them home for Christmas. They survived my checked
luggage unbroken.

My flight home was quite enjoyable. I was sitting next to a lady from Xian and we had a good time chatting. I also chatted in the Beijing airport with a man from Inner Mongolia (both of these conversations were in Mandarin). One of the flight attendants who covered my section couldn't speak any Chinese and my neighbor couldn't speak hardly any English so I did a lot of translating and rather enjoyed it. Like I said it was a nice flight. I changed planes without incident in Detroit and made it to the Greensboro airport in about 19 hours from the time I departed Beijing - not bad, but exhausting.

Santa's workshop - at Pilot Mountain
Lights

I got to see the Pilot Mountain Christmas Lights. I'm including some of the photos in here. The Pilot Mountain Christmas lights are done by a family that used to live in Florida and moved to North Carolina about 12 years ago. They've been turning their yard into a Christmas display for 50 years (in three different locations) and it is so cool! They have all kinds of music playing, a synchronized Christmas tree, just too much to even begin to describe and it is all free (they do have a donation box), they even give out hot chocolate. Unfortunately, they decided this was going to be their last year. I will greatly miss their display, but I'm so glad I was able to make it (I couldn't go until my last night in NC because I was just too sick).

I texted this picture to a friend of my who lives
in North Pole, AK

After going to the lights I went home and finished packing. I got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to wake up (at 4 am) to drive to the airport for my 7:25 am flight. I crossed the International Dateline somewhere in the flight and since it was December 31st, I missed midnight and suddenly jumped into 2017! I landed in Beijing around 3 pm (having been traveling again for less than 20 hours) on the 1st. Because of my jet lag, I only managed to sleep about 4 hours that night and then went to school to teach.

At Pilot Mountain Lights

I can only show a fraction of the things they had there
(even a lot of the trees have been given faces, but those
don't photograph well in the dark)

Unfortunately, having had the flu (I still had a cough), taking an international trip and then going straight to work ended up being problematic. I taught 3 of my 5 classes that day just fine, but then in the 4th class (7th period), I had some horrible health problems and ended up going next door to get help. One of the guidance counselors covered the rest of that class (actually I think I heard three of them did) while it was decided I needed to go to the hospital. The only other math teacher (yes, I'm a chemistry teacher, but I have been teaching 4 math classes since October) covered my 8th period class. The school driver drove one of my international co-workers (and friend) a woman from the HR department (it was her first day on the job) and I to Oasis International Hospital. We picked this one because it is an international hospital so it has a high level of care and cleanliness (a real issue in Chinese hospitals) as well as an English speaking staff. Unfortunately, January 2nd was a public holiday. Because it was a public holiday the hospital was closed. Yes, closed! The only portion of the hospital open was OB/GYN and pediatrics. Luckily there was another international hospital, Beijing United Family nearby. We did go to Beijing United Family at first because even though it is considered the best hospital in town, it is also the most expensive. At Oasis (and every other hospital except Beijing United Family) my health insurance will cover absolutely everything. At Beijing United Family I have a 20% co-pay.
I saw the doctor and we ran some tests. He determined that what had happened was apparently just the result of having the flu (I had a fever when I arrived at the hospital in addition to the cough) and lack of sleep (I had had less than 10 hours over the previous three days combined). I definitely do not recommend sticking an international flight in the middle of your recovery from the flu.
I am happy to announce that I have fully recovered and since we celebrate both Christmas and Chinese New Year we have another holiday coming up next week (we only have 3 weeks of classes between Christmas break and Chinese New Year break) and I am going to Thailand and Hong Kong. Stay tuned for further "kapers."