In my last post, I announced that I have a new job. Yes, it is true, and I have signed a contract with a university in southern China. But there is a potential wrench to be thrown in the works. I require two things from my evil former employers in order to seal the deal. One is a letter of reference (even though I only worked for them for 3.5 months and even though I have already submitted two stellar letters). The other is a ‘letter of release’, which states that I am no longer working for them and comments on my awesomeness or lack thereof.
So far, my three requests for the letter of release have met with nothing. And I have submitted a fourth request, this time to the head of the international department who can neither read nor speak English, interestingly. I have also asked for a letter of reference from someone who said yes, but then never did it. I already missed the deadline on one university job offer because I couldn’t get that letter to them on time.
What are my chances of getting a good review from same people who wouldn’t take me to the hospital when I called them to ask for help in getting there and who have forged my signature a few times? Maybe not so good, in my opinion. Honestly, I am not sure what the future holds here. Being in this country has always been and continues to be an ordeal.



















I’ve been doing some small-scale ambling about on my college campus, trying to rehabilitate my foot. It is the start of bee season, so I have added motivation to get out there to witness the action. The other day, while out and about, I saw them. Bees. Going nutso on a few flowering bushes. And of course, I didn’t have my camera with me. So I brought it today, and was rewarded with a few good shots, not just of honeybees, but some hoverflies (bee look-alikes). Normally, I post my bee pics on my bee web site (




