world postcard day week is always a very intense work week around here. but everything went well, lots of postcards being sent around and no crashes or unexpected algorithm panics. hurray! i guess we’ve kind of nailed this, for now…? i’m a bit afraid to say it, as it might tempt the universe into teaching us a lesson. but it went well, i wrote some postcards, meetups were held, libraries joined in, and there was even a postage stamp in honor of the day… which is pretty wild, when you think the event didn’t even exist 7 years ago. :|

tavira was just as lovely as ever though. sunny days. patient ladies at the post office that bring out the book of stamps when asked and wait for me to choose my stamps. meeting friends. riding my bike to and from town through the salt pans, always filled with huge amounts of salt being picked up this time of the year. all of this is comforting and familiar… but i feel like we’re slowly saying goodbye to it too. keeping 2 houses is tiresome, and i’m starting to resent all the time we spend going back and forth between then, and also the overhead of keeping a second place that we’re mostly not using. :( my heart is a bit divided between north and south, and craving quietness and time for itself.

we came back north on an unlucky train that was 2.5 hours late, but we live so close to the train station (on both ends) that it’s hard to mind. the train carries all the bits and pieces we want to bring without charging extra. it’s kind of perfect… except for getting carsick. 😅

on sunday, we went to check on all our seniors, which are all ok, and little niece, who was spending time with the grandparents at the village.

i finished reading a couple of books last week, anxious people and the disabled tyrant’s beloved pet fish. the latter was one of those chinese crack novels — just fun and chaotic, and i guess what i needed on a heavier week. and i finished listening to you’ve been pooping all wrong on the train too, and that was nice (turns out, the secret to good pooping is mostly fiber, movement and routine!).

also, i feel like i complained and the universe heard me, because everyone had their cameras on in the latest chinese class! hurray!