Exams loom...

Well, it's that time again. Exam time.

And while I should be effectively structuring the 563.5 hours that are left until our first exam... well, I'm just not. Time is slipping by me like grains of sand in a tightly-grasped fist. For example, this weekend I ran away to the mountains. I let myself go only on the promise that I would work diligently while there. And what did I do on Day 1? A 5-mile hike on the Tennessee side of the Great Smokies, an hour's drive from the cabin. Worth it? Absolutely. Have I made up for it by working efficiently and diligently since then? Not at all.

The only thing standing between my sanity and a complete panic attack/meltdown is the fact that... well... it'll all work out. I will lock it down and "get 'er done."

Just... not tonight.

Inauguration: the Kat's Miao

Greetings out to the ether:

I'm proud to inaugurate my latest attempt at putting something out into the world worthy of being read.

"The Kat's Miao." The title deserves a brief explanation. The cat's MEOW, you say? Well, almost. As most people who would deign to read this blog would know, I spent last year in China. In Guizhou Province, home to many of China's ethnic minorities. It so happens that I lived in the city of Kaili (凯里), population 400,000: the seat of the autonomous region of the Miao and Dong people. I briefly considered naming the blog "Kat's Dong," but thought that would give a quite different, and rather mistaken, impression. So I'd like to welcome you to The Kat's Miao: a play on phonetics that is also a personal reference for this author.

(Myself with my host sisters just outside of Kaili)