a little stressed

Well, the May holiday came and went, and I had a great visit at home. Mike picked me up from the airport (he had a burrito from BTB waiting for me in the car) and basically from that moment forward we were busy nonstop. The visit included dinner with my family, dinner with his family, celebrating my mom's bday, hanging out with one of Mike's friends in Royal Oak, meeting Mike's grandpa, hanging out with Rebecca, me cooking fajitas, and culminated in an awesome birthday party for Mike on Saturday at his house in Ferndale. It was really awesome spending time with Mike (although 5 days is WAY too short a visit considering the amount of stuff we had to do), wonderful seeing my family (minus Gabe, who was busy in Chicago), and obviously fantastic to see so many of my friends. Even though a lot has changed in the past 8 months, at the core the people are the same, which is always comforting. I felt like my visit home was a nice little preview of what this upcoming summer might be like.

At this point, I have 54 days left in Shanghai. I should be super excited about enjoying my last two months here (well, a little less than 2 months) and taking full advantage of what the city has to offer me. Maybe it’s just the jet lag, and the fact that I’m crabby because of it, but I don’t know if I could be less excited about being here right now. Getting back into teaching was almost painful yesterday. But it’s really nice when my students do things that make me smile. For example, one of my students sits next to the window in English class, right by the chain to pull the blinds closed. He has a pencil case that is furry and is in the shape of a koala, and likes to make a noose for his koala out of the chain for the blinds. Perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but this kid is hilarious and so incredibly cute. Today he’s wearing a necklace that says ‘hot’ on it.

I’m definitely looking forward to my dad and brother’s visit. 16 days until that happens. Can you tell that I like countdowns?

I guess part of the issue is that I’m so stressed out about the law school situation. At this point I’ve turned down American and George Mason, deciding to send in a deposit only to Chicago-Kent (where I got the full-tuition scholarship). I’m currently waitlisted at U of M and UCLA, and technically at George Washington, if I send in the postcard saying that I want to stay on the waitlist. I don’t want to stay on the waitlist. I’ve had enough of waitlists. At this point, I wish I wasn’t waitlisted anywhere because I’m sick of waiting and I don’t want to have to make a decision if I do hear anything from either of those two schools. Yes, that’s a really immature outlook. But I am seriously so stressed out because my decision (which I probably won’t even have to make) will affect more than just me. I get super stressed out just thinking about it. Argh.

So anyway, it’s looking like I will probably be in Chicago next year, but it’s not 100% for sure. I wish I could say I was thrilled and excited about it, but there are just so many other ‘what-ifs’ that I’m having a hard time getting excited about anything. Blah.

I think it’s just hard being back here after having such a great week at home. I promise my next entry will be more uplifting.