See You in September

I’ve had one day to turn around from the family Michigan vacation to the San Francisco unpacking and re-packing before leaving for China tomorrow morning. Once again, I would have been perfectly fine just returning to my home and letting the teaching go for a while. 

But my host in China is very convincing in his invitations and I did have a marvelous time last year, so I agreed yet again. Especially as I’ll give courses in two new cities—Hangzhou and Guiyang— and actually be a tourist in two other places. I know I’ll love working with the 100 plus teachers signed up, will enjoy connecting with many people I already know there and will yet again feel uplifted by the daily acts of playing, singing and dancing. Just as I loved walking on the beach and swimming in the lakes and biking on the roads in Michigan, so will I love playing clapping games and leading group singing and making great music on Orff instruments. 

 

But re-reading my journal last year, I was reminded that all my electronic connections—this Blog, e-mail, phone talk and text, WhatsApp, Facebook and more will be blocked. Except for e-mails on my phone, I’ll be pretty much off the grid. Which could be refreshing, but sometimes is frustrating. Especially this Blog. I’ll write every day as I do, but it will be over two weeks before I can share anything with you, my reader. (Though maybe check in in a few days in case I can figure out the VPN workaround.)

 

Will you miss me? Probably not! But if you do, may I suggest that you tune in to my Podcast on Spotify, The ABC’s of Education? I already have 17 episodes, which is almost the same number of days I’ll be gone! You can listen to one a day to keep the connection. Just a suggestion. Here’s the link:

 

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doug-goodkin

 

Meanwhile, whoever you are, whatever you do, I wish you all the best as we turn the corner from Summer to Fall. See you in September!