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On the last day of every month, I take Just a Minute to reflect on what I’m currently up to.

Melting… in the Shanghai heat and humidity. I’ve never been skilled at handling excessive heat and humidity, and I think the extra weight I put on in Germany has made it harder for my body to cope with heat. It’s quite saddening.

Deciding… on a Kindle for my choice of e-reader. The newly released model sealed the deal for me. However, I couldn’t get one in time for my birthday as Amazon went out of stock! I’m keeping my eye on when they get new stock so I know when to place my order.

Exploring… the World Expo pavilions!! They’re beyond amazing. Except for the US one; it’s so ugly. I know the US government couldn’t fundraise because of federal regulations and whatnot, but I wonder if the reason why it is so ugly is that it was designed by a Canadian. (I kid, I kid. And before I upset any Canadians I should clarify that I don’t mean that Canadians can’t design. They just don’t want the world to think the US can :P)

Re-reading… the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. I love this series so much; Fforde is one of my favorite authors. He’s a literary genius.

Speaking… (or attempting to speak) Mandarin. I’m very rusty since I didn’t do any revising over the summer. Still, it’s all gradually coming back to me, and being in an environment that is saturated in the Mandarin language is doing wonders for improving my ability.

Eating… my weight in noodles. I adore noodles, and China has plenty of them! My favorite are the wonton noodles and Lanzhou pull noodles. Mmmmm.

Excited… to head to Beijing in a few days. As much as I love Shanghai, Beijing is really where my year abroad begins!

It’s been over 85F in Chicago ever since I returned from Europe which is hot, hot, hot. (Today, thankfully, is a little cooler than it was yesterday.) Actually, 85F is typically rather nice weather if there’s a nice breeze and the sun is out and there’s no humidity. But still, in that scenario I picture myself living in a house with air conditioning. Right now, that is not the case.

The air conditioner in my house broke down the day before I left for Europe, right when Chicago was going through an unusually long heat wave. When I returned home, I knew the air conditioner would still be broken (duh) but I hoped that the Chicago weather would have cooled down at least a little. I was wrong. The weather now is actually hotter than what it was in late July, and I am sweltering in this heat. It is hotter in my house than it is outside. I don’t even have fans to help cool off!

It is disgustingly hot both outside and inside my house (the inside temperature almost hit 90F once, which was only two degrees cooler than the outside temperature; right now it is 72F outside and 85F inside) and I constantly want a bucket of ice that I can plunge my head into. It’s bad enough that I don’t have a fan to cool off with, but about 90% of my house is carpeted. I’ve always thought carpet was disgusting (do you know how much dust gets trapped in there? Unless you get your carpets professionally cleaned, you’re not getting any of that dust out when you vacuum) but it does nothing to help cool down the house. The house I stayed at in Germany had no air conditioning but it had wooden and tile flooring, which did wonders to keep the temperature in the house down.

I hereby vow to not have any carpet in my future home. That, and to make sure I have an air conditioner that won’t break down in the middle of a heat wave!

I just got home from my European vacation and I am so completely scattered it’s starting to become quite funny. It’s not so much the jet lag, because I’ve always been fairly good at getting over that. It’s the fact that I leave for China – for a year of study! – in five days that’s starting to freak me out. I would be freaking out before I left no matter how long I had to prepare for China since it’s an exciting yet daunting prospect, but… five days? If I pull this off, I’ll be Wonder Woman. (Or Travel Wonder Woman. Or Study Abroad Wonder Woman. Or whatever.)

Anyway. The above paragraph alone shows just how ramble-y my thoughts are, so I’ll condense the rest of this entry into bullets. I know there have been a lot of bulleted entries lately (and, unfortunately, I have plans for another bulleted entry tomorrow, but as it’s going to be a book review I think that’s acceptable) but I’ll try and pull things together around here soon.

• Hours I have been in the US since arriving from Europe: 5
• Days until I leave for China: 5 (repeating for good measure)
• Suitcases that I need to unpack… and then repack: 2
• Hours behind my internal clock is from US Central Time: 7
• Degrees it is in my house: 85F (the air conditioner broke)
• Fans there are in my house: 1 miniature one (currently in use to keep the water temperature cool for my brother’s salt water fish tank)
• Pairs of shoes I bought in Europe: 4 (I LOVE shoes)
• Weight that I gained (and need to lose) from my time in Europe: …a lot
• Unread entries in my feed reader: 271
• Days until my birthday: 4 (!!!)