>A year ago, I was in China. The country. Amazing. Today, I am eating homemade whole wheat pancakes. A year ago I was looking ahead to a few weeks of discovery, family and unfamiliar. Today, I am looking ahead to a week of discovery, family and unfamiliar. This year, it is all about quality time and relaxation. Both of which sound outstanding and rejuvenating for me. Tonight, I am going with Chris to dinner at my Peruvian friends’ Kay and Javier’s home, along with other bilingual teachers from my school. Tomorrow, I am preparing my house for a week away at a cabin in the Oauchita mountains. I love the sound of it. Week. Away. Cabin. Mountains. So excited. I will have a few items of “business” to take care of for my university program, but I will also take with me a new novel, my journal, my camera and my boyfriend. And I will spend much-needed time with all of them. I will take my mp3 player, and I will put on my headphones from time to time for a half hour, and I will sing as if no one can hear me. Because I love it. It inspires me. We were talking recently about silence and how most of us avoid having to endure much of it in our daily lives, and Chris wondered out loud why that is. And I responded, saying, “Most of us don’t want to be left alone with our thoughts.”