Head in the Clouds

A huge balloon floats above the crowds at today's Dragon Boat Festival

My head is in the clouds, and these are the things I’m thinking about.

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My mother has always told me that I can do whatever I set my mind to. I wanted to live alone in a completely different area of America than the place I grew up, and I did. I want to travel the world, and I am. I want to become an architect, and I am well on my way. These are the big decisions that I have made so far, and I know another big one is just around the corner.

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It has been exactly 1 year today since I left my job in Portland to travel in Asia, and at the time I never imagined I would be away from architecture for more than eight months. I figured that after Thailand, I would have a job at an office in whatever city we chose to move. Now it looks like I’ll be away from it for at least a year and a half, and I really hope that this won’t hurt my career. I fear that I won’t be able to get back into it, but at the same time I have been able to learn about Shanghai and myself in a way I never could have if I had a full time job. I know that this will all work to my advantage in the long run, but I’ve had a hard time seeing it that way lately.

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Pending any unknown changes with Nik’s work, we have decided that we will be home by Thanksgiving. While Shanghai has been a great place to live for the past three months, I don’t think it’s a place we want to stay long term. I long to live in a San Francisco apartment with a bay window and hard wood floors that I am responsible for cleaning (ever since we arrived in Chiang Mai last June we have lived in “serviced” apartments). I want to want to go out of my apartment every day the way I did in Portland. In Shanghai, I can spend the entire day inside and not feel like I’m missing anything. I don’t like that feeling.

I also can’t wait to have a holiday season at home with my parents and siblings. Last year we were traveling through China, and I couldn’t believe how much I missed it. It’s barely summer, and I’m already looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner…is that a bad thing?

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I have found a ceramics studio in Shanghai!!! It’s the Pottery Workshop and I’m going to start taking classes this week. I can’t wait, and I might even try to go to the Jingdezhen (THE pottery city of China) studio for a few weeks in July. But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself quite yet.

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I’ve been teaching nearly every day for the past few weeks and I love it. There is a long-term substitue position opening up this fall that I have applied for and I really really hope I get it. I know I am not the most qualified applicant because I don’t have a teaching degree, but it is geometry….and as we all know, architects are generally good at geometry! Wish me luck.

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