I’ve been back in the U.S. now for about 3 weeks, and it’s been great. For those of you who are Facebook friends, you’ll know from my status updates that I and my family have been experiencing a fair bit of reverse culture shock. Not only are things here different than in Malaysia, but some things are also different from the way we remember them in 2007 when we were here last! It’s also been fun to reacquaint (or acquaint, in the case of our baby) our children to their home country. Whether or not they consider it home, that’s another issue…

So what am I going to do with my time woodworking-wise while I’m here? Well, to answer the first question you may ask, no I didn’t bring back any tools. Our stay is only four months long, and considering the average length of time it takes me to finish a project, who are we kidding here? I actually had packed up all my plane blades and waterstones, but at the last minute changed my mind, realizing that I most likely would never get around to sharpening during our time here. I also forgot to bring along my big rotting wooden screw (dang!), so Bill, you’re off the hook for helping me put a new head on it!

So here’s what I hope to do during our brief time here:

  • Go to the Canton First Monday Trade Days. It’s a whopping big (they say the largest in the world) flea market held once a month. It’s apparently been in operation since the 1850s! We’ll be in Dallas next month and Canton’s just an hour east. I’ll go with my dad, who lives about an hour east of Canton. I don’t have a big shopping list – I mostly just want to see what can be gotten and for how much. I do want to find some mortise chisels at the very least.
  • Attend one of Roy Underhill’s classes at the Woodwright’s School in North Carolina. I’ve emailed St. Roy a couple times but a fall schedule has still not been released.
  • Pop in on some fellow woodworkers’ shops to see what they’re doing and to try new things. Among some of the new things I hope to experience are using stationary power tools for the first time! I’ve never so much as used a table saw before. I also hope to try out a lathe and practice a little turning.

So if I could do all of those things, I think that I could say that my time here in the States was well used. My blogging here may not be very frequent (as you may have gathered!), but I’ll blog as I accomplish my goals above, or if anything else woodworkingy happens to me.

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