This isn’t my first time in California, but the first time outside the airport. I got to spend the first week of December 2019 in San Francisco teaching a SQL Server Performance Tuning and Optimization course. This is quickly becoming my favorite workshop to teach. What makes this class unusual is that my entire class of eight students flew in from China. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just fly me over there instead, but it was an incredibly fun week. There were some definite language barriers for me to overcome, but I know all the students enjoyed the experience.

(Update 2021: This would be my last time on an airplane until July 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In hindsight, I was a but under the weather in December 2019.)