It's Easy to Forget Where You Are.

It’s October 13^th. No, it’s a Thursday, not Friday. Close, though. It rained last night, and I think my body knew it. I woke up, barely hearing my alarm because I was laying on my side I think, face partially pressed in my pillow. I hit the button on my watch’s alarm, and smothered my face in the pillow. I didn’t want to move, just wanted to go back to sleep. That’s virtually the case every morning I wake up prior to 9:00 AM, but I guess you just feel it some mornings more so than others. I used to wake up at 7:45 am, and then moved it earlier to 7:40, then 7:30, and now 7:22. Yeah, those 2 minutes make a difference to me. I like to think so, anyways. Why earlier? For one, I can take my time even more so now during my mornings. That’s important when I’m moving a little slower. I have some time to myself, I can go on my computer and do some browsing, and just relax a bit before work starts. It’s nice. Oh, and the one good thing that came from being sick with tonsillitis? The oatmeal stuck. I believe I mentioned it in the last post, but I’m feeling so good about it, I feel the need to mention it again. I now look forward to my breakfast. It’s no bacon and eggs with buttered toast or pancakes, but it’s a nice healthy and enjoyable alternative. A big bowl of oatmeal with an entire apple cut up into small, bit size portions. I even threw in raisins as well today. Legitimate, wholesome raisins are expensive here so I tend to purchase these green, sometimes brown, raisins. They’re not that great looking, but they do the job. I then drizzle a generous amount of honey on it, add a little bit of sugar or brown sugar, and shave some cinnamon to adorn on top. Breakfast of champions. Beats the hell out of peanut butter and jelly.

Well, my morning went well. I was feeling a little better after lying in bed for a few extra minutes. That’s a dangerous game to play. So easy to fall back asleep. You tell yourself 2 more minutes, and then you’re out. It’s happened to me a few times, but luckily I’ve had enough time to get ready in a rush. I’m a little more careful about that now. Well the rain stopped shortly after getting into school. My mornings start at 8:30am in case you forgot. The sky cleared for the first time in a little while. The day was filled with sun and blue skies. You appreciate it a little more after days filled with clouds and smog. My morning was great. I mentioned that I had been working on changing my attitude towards school. I believe it to be making a difference, but I also think my kids were just being better today. Who knows. Anyways, I had fun with them and it was one of the better days I’ve had in a long time. I would say that it was the best day I’ve had since I’ve been back from the month off. The kids in my one class were asking me to join them in dancing today. I have the options of going with whatever class I want, but I normally just tag along with the class I end with. Today, I figured what the hell. I danced with them yesterday, but they asked so ask and you shall receive. I originally told them maybe. My Chinese is continuously getting better, so keep in mind that is in Chinese.  The teacher also told me that they loved me. I stated that I also loved them, and I meant it. I was touched. I remembered that I’m getting an awesome experience right now. I’m teaching children. And I’m in China. Something I haven’t really acknowledged for a while.  It’s so easy to forget. This is the experience of a lifetime, something I’ll be able to look back on for the rest of my life. Anyways, most of my classes went well. Kids are perceptive. I believe them to be able to sense your mood. If you’re playful and cheerful, you’re going to get an equally present response from them. Most of the time.  The class I dealt with following dancing was fun too. I had 15 minutes to kill before class because dancing hardly ever fills the allotted time slot. Kids crowded me and kept asking me all kinds of questions. In the past, with this particular class, I had put my hands on this one girl’s head and forced her to nod in succession while saying ‘hello, hello, hello’. The kids think it’s hilarious, and now they ask me to do all kinds of different things while repeating those same words. Most of them involve the face. They’ll pull their eyes down and push them up, play with their cheeks, and other things like that. It’s pretty funny. After that, kids starting asking me all kinds of questions about what different things were. Basically, anything they could find and point out they would ask what it was in English. Amusing. Kids are funny. Most of my classes today were enjoyable, aside from one or two. Happens.

My evening was also most enjoyable. I purchased a can of baked beans the other day in hopes for a little variation in my meals. A wise decision. I had been thinking about how to use them and since I was out of rice, today was the perfect day. I decided to throw in finely cut pieces of beef and onion accompanied with corn. I cooked the beef first and boiled the corn on the side. I then threw the beans in with the onions, sprinkled on some salt and pepper and wah lah! What a delicious meal. I had also purchased a yam or sweet potato. Based on the differences I read about the two, I’m assuming it was a sweet potato.(See http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm . Haha, should you happen to be interested. You never know when you’ll find yourself in debate over the two.) I’ve often passed by and seen vendors cooking them outside in some kind of a portable oven type thing. Well, I needed a side and decided to give it a try. Amazing! Two great choices = yummy food. My cooking and culinary creativity are coming along.

My Chinese is coming along too. I try to study during my lunch break most days, but it doesn’t always happen. Even so, I’m usually able to learn something most days. I watched a movie the other day called House of Flying Daggers. It’s similar to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which I love. Been out for a while, I just never had a chance to watch it. During the movie, I picked up on a lot of words I knew, and wrote more than a page down of new words and phrases and sentence structures for different words. Subtitles help narrow down searching for the word I hear when I’m looking up the meaning. You need to understand that one word can have many different meanings. That’s why there are tones, and that’s why Chinese is traditionally written with Chinese characters. Many words will have the same tone, but are different in meaning so context also plays a role. I’m pretty good at spelling what I hear, though. I usually get it in 1 or 2 tries. Remember, I’m studying mostly pin yin (the Romanization of Chinese characters). It’s easier for me to see the word and store that in my memory. Chinese characters aren’t nearly as important to me, but I’m trying to study some here and there. Primary goal = speaking. I was also informed that one of the teachers at the school had mentioned my Chinese was getting better. That’s always encouraging.

I had an excellent weekend. It was one of the better weekends I’ve had in a long time. Saturday was a little busy. I had a doctor’s appointment for my muscle injury at 10:30 AM. Painful as always. Acupuncture never gets easier. He starts off with various massages, cracking my neck and spine, and things like that. Some are painful, but most aren’t too bad. He’s constantly telling me to lie face down, or lie on my right side/left side, etc. Then there comes a point. There’s a pause in the procedure and again, he tells me to lie face down. I already know what’s about to happen, and then I hear the familiar rustling of objects in a cabinet just to confirm suspicions. Time for acupuncture. It’s never a pleasant experience. I’ll try to paint a picture for you. Imagine a long, thin needle being placed into your skin. The doctor says, ‘Breathe in….Now breathe out.’ During that breathing out, the needle is placed in your skin. Some spots are more difficult to penetrate than others. And that’s the easy part. From there, the needle is moved all around probing for the pain. Yeah, that’s right. The doctor wants to find where the pain is. Once you let him know, he then focuses on that area because the needle in the muscle releases the muscle tension. It loosens it up. You’ll be sore later in the day, but much better the following day. It’s hard to describe the pain. It can be sharp or even feel like a strong soreness. At times, you might feel it radiating down your arm or just in any outward direction from the point of insertion. The very worse ones that I experienced were the ones on the top of my neck, practically in my skull. So painful. The spine is a close second. With all that being said, I’m pleased with the results. It’s quite effective.

Following the doctor’s appointment, I returned to the location of the part time job I had taken on during my break. I was picking up a lot of books and a recording device. Yeah, I’m going to get paid to just record the books. Pretty awesome. I did this once at another job. I think I mentioned it. Anyways, I’ve got a lot of books so it will take a while and it’s a nice easy way to earn some extra cash. There are also more books to pick up upon completion of these. I can record whenever I want to. It’s all on my time. There’s no rush, and I don’t have to go anywhere. Great, great, and great.

I came home for maybe 40 minutes after that, then I ventured over to Hou Hai and that hutong where I fell in the pothole. I had some company, so it was an enjoyable evening. Oh, and as promised, I ate those churros with chocolate sauce and ice cream. As expected, amazing! And so healthy!

Sunday turned out to be pretty decent as well. I really wanted to go hiking, but I was pretty tired from all the running around on Saturday, and just needed a day to sleep in a little bit. I pretty much knew the night before that the hiking wasn’t going to happen. Hoping I don’t miss all the colors that the fall offers. It would be quite nice to get a great mountainous view of all the trees below and the various colors. Despite the lack of hiking, I was in a photo mode. I did some casual cleaning in my room during the morning. After some thought, I decided that I would go to Chao Yang Park to catch the late afternoon sun and sunset. It’s a big park, a little more open, and you can find areas with less people to prevent any disturbances so it seemed like a good idea. I made the right move. I got there around 4. The sun starts to fall pretty rapidly around 5, so it was good timing. It was the perfect ending and the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon in my opinion. Besides, I’m pretty certain I’ll get to accompany the school during their hiking adventure this Friday. Yes please! They never tell us until the day before, so we don’t for sure. 

As for the weather? Getting up in the morning is hard enough. Add cold and darkness and I don’t want to move. I just want to continue to lay in my bed for as long as possible. What a terrible way to start the day. Miserable. You know what would be nice? Waking up to a nice warm room with a little bit of sun shining in. A maid could bring me a big fruit smoothie and a huge breakfast with various foods for my choosing. Hey, can’t a guy dream?

-Jeff

I’ll do my best to keep the blogs coming like this. A little shorter, but a faster read, and I’ll produce them sooner. That’s the goal anyways. Enjoy.