Time just keeps flying by here in the east. Christmas has passed. My younger sister who still attends Flagler came and visited for 3 weeks of the winter vacation. We had a great time traveling, visiting Shanghai for Christmas and Nanjing to see friends from my grad school. We climbed mountains, sat by the West Lake, visited the Japanese Aggression museum and the Shanghai Museum of Art. We ate noodles on Christmas and sat around my apartment drinking milk tea when it was to cold to go outside.

I realize that it has been a LONG while since I have posted anything of any sort. I find it sad to think that I no longer write like I used to for “fear” of offending people. I also have been so out of whack with writing, especially in the English language, that I also find myself a tad rusty and humorless.

As I sit here during this sleepless interlude of speakers pounding and Tylenol PM (which I am still waiting for it to kick in), I have been pondering my life lately. I have changed so much, but yet I am the same person. But am I really?

Recently, it has come to my attention that many of my single friends — from Flagler or Tucson — have been romantically frustrated.
Having engaged in numerous conversations about the definition of true love and how …

It’s been awhile since I’ve shown my face around here…so here are some random thoughts I’ve had from this week in sports:

• I feel bad for the WNBA, but what does it say for your sport if the team that won your first four championships closes up shop? What would we think of the NFL if the Green Bay Packers did the same?

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. It just seems to magically appear each year and doesn’t have all of the hustle and bustle swirling around it like Christmas always did for my family. It’s almost like the day just creeped up on everyone’s calendars and starts off the holiday season with a feast centered around family and giving thanks for the good things in life.

I am afraid to tell my mother, but I am seriously contemplating village life. Last weekend I was given the awesome opportunity to travel again to a small village in the Chinese countryside. One of my colleagues has a Chinese friend who was celebrating his birthday in a village about four hours away from Hangzhou and he invited me along to travel with him.

Things are great here on my side of the world. October in Hangzhou brought many adventures and chances to learn about China’s culture. Seven of the foreign teachers from my university took a little weekend trip to a village called DaTou, four hours west from Hangzhou.

The town was so small that there is no restaurant. So the home we stayed in cooked for us each meal. One morning we were awoken by the screams of a pig who was dying to be our lunch. Life in the village is simple, yet the people are content. There is no rush to make money, be anywhere, no traffic to fight and no deadlines to make. What is important is that the eggplant is harvested on time, the pigs are fed well so that they can be sold, and that the children learn to harvest as their parents do. It was a wonderful experience to live amongst such proud and wholesome people even if only for a weekend.

I’ve been feeling a little Flagler nostalgia lately.

Maybe it was the fact that basketball season is around the corner and I’m not getting ready to be on the radio for the first time in a long time.

Consider the panic button pushed.

After watching my Cowboys be taken to the woodshed by the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday, I was discouraged, to say the least. This Cowboys team was supposed to make teams like the Cardinals and Bengals look like they belonged somewhere between the Arena League and the XFL. What had happened?

After Week Six is generally when you start to get an idea for who the haves and have-nots are. Teams like Kansas City, Detroit, Houston and Cincinnati are already starting to prepare for the 2009 Draft. While the undefeated Giants and Titans will look to stave off epic collapses and should make the playoffs.

But then there are the teams stuck in the middle and there are plenty of them. Here are five teams with two or more losses that bear watching in the coming weeks.

I’m exhausted — mentally, emotionally, physically, exhausted. But I couldn’t be more content. Last week was Chinese National Holiday, also known as October Holiday. (think: July 4th on crack). It is basically a week-long celebration of all things patriotic in the Red Country. Most businesses and schools get the week off as a majority of Chinese residents travel to see family. I decided to take advantage of the free week to fly south and see some graduate school friends.

Rather then going through my progressions this week and making some quick hits, I’m going to focus on one target.

My target this week is the national media and their continually suspect treatment of Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens.

As I mentioned briefly last week, I’ve been in the process of relocating again. Following graduation from Flagler in the spring I remained in St. Augustine for a few months before moving back north and setting up shop in Northeast Pennsylvania. While there I began freelancing for The Pocono Record, covering my current specialty, high school football. But I began applying for jobs and after turning down offers at small newspapers in rural California and rural Ohio, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse.

It finally hit me two days ago. I moved to China. Like, I am here and don’t have a ticket back to America. I live here and work here and have a residents permit. These are my people. This is my neighborhood, and I am here for the long haul. I have house keys and a bike and a bank account (that I can’t read) and this is my life. I just realized this three weeks into my life in Hangzhou.

And you know what? After it hit me, I thought…”cool.”

It made my week. That the Eagles game was aired in Arizona this past Sunday.

Not only that it was aired, but that I got to see them win against the Steelers. Buoy-yah! Strangely enough, their punter Sav Rocca came up big and really made a difference in the game.

The only downfall of getting to see my team play was that I exhausted myself screaming in both elation and frustration, and my throat hurt the rest of the night. I had forgotten about the physical impact that watching the Eagles had on me. But oddly, I loved it at the same time.

As I’m completing a move from Pennsylvania back to the Sunshine State for a new job, I’ll keep this week’s post short and sweet. Here are my picks: