Breathing Room

Wednesday was my first school day back with students. It was a busy and productive day...and a long one, as I had to return for study hall hours from 6-10 pm. But before doing so, I got a nice walk/run in under the warm Colorado sunshine. In the time between my run and departing to drive back to FVS a funny sensation washed over me: There was nothing to worry or fret about, nothing I should be sorting or packing. Though my apartment is in a state of disarray, it's nothing that can't be picked up and put away in an hour or two. 

Yes, this is my month of rest. A period of calm. The trough between two active crests. My serious packing complete, April is a trough, and then May will bring the picking up of sold home furnishings, the move onto campus, the cleaning and vacating of this apartment. 

I will have only lived here seven short months, but will hold the memory of it being the place where we became something real, together. The place where the dreams we scribed, over Facebook messenger and via international texting, began to manifest. The place where our intangible wonderings about one another, became tangible. Though we first met in a hotel dining room at the Edelweiss Hotel in downtown Ulaanbaatar (red arrow), and began to learn about one another outside a small village called Binder (pronounced bin-dre), in the Hentiiy province (blue arrow) of North-eastern Mongolia (the birthplace of Genghis Khan, I'd like to add!), it was here in the USA, in this perfect transitional apartment, where we became a couple, where we solidified our hopes and dreams. 

But back to what April is providing for me.......I have now taken over two sections of American Literature and will be teaching the novel Ceremony over the next 28 days. This will keep me busy, for sure, and especially so when the 20 papers roll in on May 11 and I have one week to get them graded. BUT, thanks to my recent deadline for container shipment--which once again turned out to be PERFECT timing (there have been so many affirmations along this new life path, it's hard to NOT believe it was destiny)--I can focus on my teaching and on the students. The last two months of the school year are always a blur and this year will be no different, I'm sure, but I get the breathing room of this month of April. 

87 days to departure, 88 to arrival into UB.