Serious stuff first.  US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is currently in China to discuss North Korea with China’s leaders.  I know that China is NK’s strongest ally, but I wonder what Gates is actually asking of Beijing.  “Can you please place trade sanctions on North Korea?  Double-dog dare it to NOT create missiles and then shoot them at the US?  Do us a solid and shove North Korea up against a locker to steal its lunch money AND all of its Silly Bands?!”

Hopefully, Gates will be successful in his endeavors, because I actually do kind of worry about North Korea.  But on a more domestic front, yesterday’s events have effectively pushed the rational/irrational fears about Kim Jong Il out of my mind.  What happened yesterday, you ask?

In a previous blog post, I lamented that my travel/teacher buddy, Sabrina, would no longer be able to come to China.  This is still the case.  So on Sunday, I got a call from the president of the MN Teacher Exchange, wondering if I knew any teachers who could possibly take Sabrina’s place.  I said no, and then sent a hail-mary text to my best teaching friend, Trisha.  Who said yes.

25 hours later, we had 90% of her paperwork sent to Hangzhou and she’d met with our administration, who gave her the green light.  I think my head is still exploding from all of this awesomeness.  Here is an artist’s (and by “artist’s,” I mean “Matt Olsen’s”) depiction of what Trisha and I will look like, tearing it up in China:

As Trisha noted, yes, our biceps do look amazing.

And in other important news, tonight I learned that the next new episode of Glee is on February 8th.  PLEASE, Hu Jintao, let me still be able to get Hulu.  Otherwise, Trisha is going to have to put up with a very cranky roommate.