I have been sick. Some of you may ask, what else is new? Well to that, my response is, I'm battling several elements. I face lots and lots of sick little children on a daily basis coughing on me and things of that nature, I have Beijing's poor air quality to deal with, and the heat was turned off in Beijing about a month ago. Even though it's been much warmer, my apartment (particularly my room) is quite cold. I've been sleeping in sweatpants and a t-shirt every night despite the weather being 50-70 degrees outside recently. It started with a fever last Friday, followed by some throat issues, stuffy nose, weakness, etc. I guess it sums up to a common cold for the most part, though I'd say it's a little worse than that. Today is the third day I've missed of work (4/5). Well, things happen. I don't miss many days of school, so they can deal. I'll go back tomorrow (4/6) and finish the week out.
Top: Crazy eyes right?
Bottom: Pond of Good Ideas - Frog Eggs
Next up, we'll discuss my little tadpole experiment. I was with a friend in a neighboring park, Chaoyang, that I've been to many times. Later in the evening, we were by the river and I had noticed some frogs on the water's edge. We were checking them out, and then I noticed something kind of strange. I saw these weird looking strands that kind of caught my eye. I dismissed them at first as just another nasty development in the dirty water. Although, upon further inspection, I realized they were in fact frog eggs. Being from the country, I've dealt with frog eggs before so I know what they look like. These were a little different, but I could tell that's what they were. Upon realizing that the frogs nearby weren't moving much, I decided to reach in grab one for inspection. Needless to say, they were pretty strange. They had these flaps of skin on the sides of their bodies, which really made them look odd. Pretty cool, though.
Amongst my shelf of good ideas, I decided to snatch some of the eggs to raise some tadpoles.
I didn't think it was a big deal, my brothers and sister and I did it plenty of times when we were kids and it was easy enough. So, I returned home with my babies and waited. I did some research in the mean time to prepare for the tadpoles. On day 2, the small little black dots were noticeably larger black dots, so I estimated that within a week I would have tadpoles. I was right. 6 days later, they were tadpoles or close to. For a couple days, they were fine, they were still eating from the embryonic sac, if that's what it's referred to for frogs. After that, problems arose. I moved them into a big clear bucket I had purchased for just this cause. They were visibly hungry, so I provided the pre-boiled and then frozen lettuce I had made for them. I guess they weren't eating that. Soon after, I lost most of the tadpoles. I managed to pull out 11 and relocate them to another container and remove them from the stench of death lurking in the old water. They seemed well enough. They were swimming around and were quite vigorous. I added flakey fish food I had purchased earlier in the day.
Let me tell you about this flakey fish food. It was not easy to obtain. I read that tadpoles should eat it readily enough, so I did some searching online and asked a few friends about pet stores in Beijing. After finally securing a location, I set off. I had been there before as it turned out, so it was a little far, but easy to find once I got in the general region. It did require a bit of walking, and it wasn't the pet store I was trying to go to, but I found what I needed and headed home. Well, that was a mistake.
And presto, baby tadpoles
Now, this was just a few days ago, so I was even more sickly than I am right now. The bus stop was the problem. Typically, the same bus stop with the bus going the opposite way will be located on the opposite side of street, either directly or visibly noticeable and not too far away. This was not the case. When I was looking for the bus stop to go home, I couldn't see the bus stop on either side of me. They were quite frequent on the way there, or so I had thought, so I decided I could just walk forward and eventually I would get to the next bus stop. Dumb. Big mistake. I should have gone backwards. I walked…and walked…and walked. Then, I walked some more. I was weak, tired, and felt like death. I could feel a fever trying to get ahold of me again, but somehow my body kept it at bay. I finally got to a bus stop after walking on the side of a major highway for quite a ways, crossing a bridge, etc. I saw the stretch of highway before starting my trek and had decided I could do it. Well, I did, but in my state, it was not fun. And all for some flakey fish food. I got home, dropped some in for the tadpoles, curled up in my bed, and fell asleep for a couple hours.
Well, the next day, a lot of tadpoles had died. I don't know what the problem was. I fished out the survivors and relocated them to a new location. They seemed ok and were quite active. Actually, I temporarily put them in a jelly jar that was cleaned out. There was possibly a little bit of sugar on the sides of the jar, though. Or maybe just traces. Anyways, they still didn't appear to be eating. I tried bread because I read that they ate dog food. Guess that didn't work. I even threw in a little bit of jelly because they appeared to be hanging around the sides of the jars. Possibly eating the traces of jelly residue? Well, the next morning was a sad sight. They all died. Save for one. The survivor. Maybe 'the one'? At the very least, he was 'the only one'. Ha ha ha…..Bad joke. I put him in a paper cup with some plastic wrap over the top, headed to Tuanjiehu Park and released him. He deserved that after the trials he had faced. He probably got eaten by one of the goldfish there. At least, he died with honor. If you have a glass, you can raise it to the little guy. Here's to you, buddy.
As you often see me state, 'it's possible I've mentioned this next thing before'. I don't know. How do I feel about not owning a car? I love it. Honestly, I really love it. No car insurance. No gas bills with the cost constantly going up. No maintenance. No parking. None of that. The one thing I do miss, however, is the music. Driving to and from work was my music time. And I loved it. Windows down, one arm hanging out in the summer, music turned up. It's great. Now, my music time is few and far in between. You can't really study Chinese and listen to music unless it's classical, which I do from time to time. I'm going to put some on right now. That will lead right into my next topic of discussion.
My studying has picked up even more, though I do slack from time to time. I've come to the realization that one, even two hours, is not enough time in my opinion. I'm now trying to utilize the majority of my free time and apply it towards my language study. It can get boring, so I'm constantly changing studying methods and using different programs and things. Doing everything and anything to keep it interesting. It can be a challenge at times. I even started using Rosetta Stone again. I think it sucks if you don't have any knowledge of the language you are studying. Now that I'm much farther along with my Chinese, I've found I can understand it better and learn quickly with it. Much more so than before. Why is that? Because. RS gives you pictures and captions in various forms. The problem is, if you want to have a solid understanding of what you're saying, you'll spend a lot of time looking up individual words within those captions. Otherwise, you'll be able to associate the caption with the picture, but that's about it. That's not very helpful. If you're farther along, however, you probably know a lot of those words, and will need to look things up less frequently, or at the very least, look up less things within the caption. Savvy? Anyways, I want to reemphasize the importance of mixing it up. This technique is even more significant when you're studying by yourself.
You know what I've learned about myself? I love distractions. I've got a tons of little tricks up my sleeves, I like to watch shows, and all kinds of garbage. But ultimately, what purpose do they serve? I suppose they're fun at times, and amusing, but they are distractions. That's a truth I have come to realize and cannot deny. I've been trying to cut down my distractions as well. Need to focus. Need to focus. Need to focus. Like a robot – just stay on the task at hand. And my task and my number one goal above all else is learning Chinese. Why? I have no idea in all honesty. I feel like I have a future with a fluency in the Chinese. Without it, where will I be? Back to square one, lost with a wide range of job experiences under my belt. That's not often a job trait employers are looking for, though it can be helpful at least for you personally. I want to give up sometimes. I want to quit. I even thinking about leaving China and leaving it all behind. Something keeps me going, though. Something deeper than just the prospect of finding a better job. But don't' get me wrong, that's extremely helpful and motivational as well. I try to remember past jobs and I would rather study Chinese all day every day, than go back to some of those horrific jobs. I'll do whatever I can to not go back there. It may take me years, but I will be fluent in Chinese. Maturity. Sucks.
"Lots O' Pills"
I told you I was sick. Here's some more info on that fun time period. I was sick for a couple weeks and bought pills on two separate occasions.
Fortunately, I only ended up missing 3 days of school as mentioned. After the pills didn't seem to fix the problem, I then decided it was time for the Chinese favorite – yup, injections. I will do my best to avoid ever having to do that again, especially since I really have no idea what's going in me. I went to a clinic right near my home, same one I used for tonsillitis, got a brief diagnosis and paid for the suggested meds. The problem was that all I did with this doctor was list some of my symptoms (a friend was there to help me translate). After sitting and waiting for a few minutes, I decided to hell with them. I was all for getting my money back and finding some real doctors or reverting back to more pills. The 'doctor' had determined that I had some kind of viral infection. No idea what. The problem with that was, I wasn't given any tests. I suggested to him that he look in my throat, and I got kind of like a 'oh, sure' response. What the hell is that? The 'nurses' felt bad or were losing some face, so they offered a blood test. I had to pay more of course. It wasn't much, though. Well, it still came back as a viral infection so that guy was either a genius or they didn't feel like changing the meds. Whatever, had 3 days of that. Sometimes I still feel like something is lingering within, but I suppose that is just a lovely reminder of the great air I get to breathe in every time I step outside. On the plus side, I am green snot free and didn't even have a stuffy nose today. Score. I know, paints a pretty picture for you. Moving on.
Solitude...kind of
You want to know what one of the hardest things to deal with in living with a city? Bear in mind, some people may actually love this, but I'm a lone wolf at times. I need my alone time, and it's impossible to be alone virtually no matter where you go here. There's just so many *insert swear word* people. Too many. I manage to find some solitude here and there, but it never lasts too long. I recently found a train track near my home. Can't believe I never knew of its existence before, but whatever. Now, I do. I visited it twice. It was kind of peaceful nearby at times.
This is one of my few meals that I've cooked worth mentioning. I threw in the daily rice regiment, chicken, grated cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. I then drizzled lemon on top of it all. Yet, I still felt like something was missing. What to do, what to do….As it turns out, I had bought a bag of spicy chips that I was considering using to make a taco-like salad, but went with the rice instead. Well, my next move was to throw the chips on top of it all and mix 'em in. NICE. A stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. If you are familiar with the various uses of chips and the like, you might even know that they go great on sandwiches. That is where I drew my inspiration. I've made it a few times since then, and it hasn't been disappointed yet. It's my failsafe meal plan. PIC
Hope you enjoyed, I know it's been a while.
-Jeff
