Welcome!
I’m getting ready for my second trip to China, so I thought I’d set up this blog to make it easier for friends and family to keep track of me. I went to China as a teacher in 2003-04, working in Dandong and Dalian cities in the northeastern part of China in Liaoning Province. I will be going back to Dalian at the end of August to teach (different school this time), and to hopefully solve my blossoming mid-life crisis. Public education in the US just isn’t doing it for me anymore, especially after my injuries from a student, so I hope to figure out something better.
What does “Area 951″ mean?
Well, I am aware that “951″ is an area code for somewhere in southern California and a new Porche, and that ”Area 51″ is the secret military base in New Mexico where they keep all of the aliens in deep-freeze, but we’re of no relation to either.
951 is the designated subject code for China according to Dewey Decimal Classification (yeah, the librarian has to sneak out once in a while). As time goes on, the catagories on the sidebar will reflect the DDC organizational chart.
For people who received my original “Chopstick News” mailings, I do not plan to publish any of those or anything from my old personal journals (although I may refer to them occasionally). Everthing here will be fresh and new! I hope that everyone who shows up here–purposely or accidentally–enjoys what they see!
You do not have a blossoming mid-life crisis! You (we) are simply not old enough to be contemplating such things! Besides, you’re supposed to get Botox or do something indiscreet in Vegas when you have a mid-life crisis not go to China. I think China is someplace you go when you are sick of one interplanetary dimension and wish to explore another . . . .