A break in the race and Highfire TGY

Life is a race in which sometimes you sprint, other times jog or even walk. Lately for me it has been much more of a sprint, but I will say the thing I love about tea is the fact that it is a wonderful time out from the race so to speak. Granted if I had items A, B, and C to do before I started tea I still have to do them later, but I am refreshed and energized to tackle the net set of items. I have lately taken to having tea while sitting cross legged on a cushion, for as long as I possibly can, something about this is quite nice relaxing, in a way that I almost feel brings me closer to the tea that I am drinking.

Highfire TGY has been consistently in my cups recently, and one of which is pictured above. This is in part due to a purchase of some tea and the inclusion of many samples from another tea lover. The most interesting thing about this is the samples came from places that I really have no way to order from, but give an interesting perspective on some teas that can be found outside the western oriented vendors. Most notable are two picked up in Hong Kong, and it confirmed at least one suspicion I had about teas in Asia. That being while there is for the most part a wider variety of teas available they are in no way shape far superior or inferior to those that can be ordered online. Pricing may be another issue, and due to this I am considering possibly taking my chances with Taobao on a few items sometime in the future.

Spring term is now over, making for a much lighter summer, as I am not teaching and only taking 1 class for half the summer. This is both wonderful and somewhat frightening at the same time, the former a bit more obvious, the later due to the fact that before one can begin working on a Doctoral dissertation in mathematics, they must first pass exams in certain areas of mathematics which test for a "basic" proficiency of the concepts in each of the exams fields. Basic is used in a bit of an awkward fashion, as it tests for understanding of the material in those fields that is needed to give one such a thorough grounding in those areas that they could potentially start to do research in those fields, and could have little problem teaching Undergraduate classes in those area's. So the end of the spring term is somewhat ominous due to the fact that I have my first such exam in less than a month.

This summer should bring much more tea, and more time to go about experimenting on ways I can improve and enjoy my tea even more.