“I thought you were going to China.” Jiji, my friend’s wife, said. “Well, when was the last time I saw you? 2019? Yeah, COVID changed a lot of things.” I replied. The last time I had seen Jiji and Kyuri was Christmas 2019. I had made play-dough food items with the kids at the party from a horizontal position on the floor. Another nasty head cold had knocked me out. B.C. Before COVID, I thought. Back in 2017 I started teaching Chinese students online. It had continued as my longest running side job until China squeezed the throat of private English industry and forced nearly every company bankrupt. I didn’t…