Isn't Chinese medicine beautiful?

During my first week in Beijing I caught a cold and the people I was with got me some Chinese medicine to help my throat. They gave me a small plastic bag filled with what looked like small nuts of some sort. I was told to put them in hot water and keep refilling the cup when I was done drinking the medicine-infused water.

So Sunday night I felt a slight itch in my throat and not wanting to be sick I quickly made myself a steaming cup and dumped in two of the magical nuts.
Sometimes the orange date + time is extremely annoying, but here it allows you to notice the length of time it takes for the medicine to metamorphasize.
This is what it looks like after I've drunk my first cup - ooey-gooey goodness!
And this is what it looks like after I've finished my second cup - it's grown!

Well, whether it really works or whether I wasn't really sick to begin with, I felt fine today. I spent five minutes with 48 students (4 hours non-stop) this morning - asking them questions about their parents and their Spring Festival plans and the like. It's the beginning of a week of passing exams, 8 AM - 4 PM with an hour-long break for lunch at noon. Nice...

I love my life. I say this completely seriously, too. I was in a great mood this evening, which some might find surprising after the day I've had. I was supposed to see 6 students at 1 PM and only 3 showed up. Nobody was competent enough to find either one of the two keys to the photocopying room so I had to print all 66 copies of a hand-out I had made using my printer and only fifteen minutes before the start of class... I was a little stressed. But tonight I'll sleep well (hopefully) and I'm not stressed about tomorrow. It's all good.

Hope all's good for everyone of you, too.