My previous blog post was a celebration of all the great work I was excited to be involved with this coming semester. Within days of publishing that post, however, the novel coronavirus that began in Wuhan, China, escalated. The Chinese government responded with a lot of measures intended to slow the spread – including limiting travel, and cancelling public gatherings. Here in Beijing, all parks and tourist attractions are closed (even the Great Wall), all performances cancelled, many businesses required to stay closed for an extra 1-2 weeks after the official holiday, and all schools closed indefinitely (currently not allowed to open until February 17th, although this will most likely be pushed later).

Which all means my next month of work is postponed. I was really discouraged at first and I saw the writing on the wall, before even the first school contacted me about it. But as reality set in, I took a day to be sad, to feel like I had nothing to do. Then I made a decision. I still can’t read and write to the level I’d like (due to on-going post-concussion syndrome) BUT I can still speak and present. So I decided to jump straight into a backburner project I hadn’t expected to have time for until much later.

I’ve started a youtube channel.

I’ll be sharing stories from my experiences and interviews; tips I offer to parents, educators, and TCKs; and some of my favourite resources for cross-cultural life. It will be a great way to start offering resources publicly again, since I haven’t been able to return to regular blogging. The first post is up already (an introduction to what I’ll be doing) and a new one is coming soon. I’d love to have you join me for the journey!