Soooo,
What's new?
I have gone to two out of my three scheduled Thanksgiving dinners, none of which fall on the actual Thanksgiving day. But it ain't no thang; I'm enjoying what I got.
Today was an interesting day. It was, in fact, a day off, but it was very busy. I had a scheduled company meeting, which turned out to be a sort of award ceremony event...90% of which was in untranslated Chinese. Although I'm sure you all have grandiose ideas of me in Shanghai being a Mandarin chatterbox, I did not understand a word. So needless to say, it was a long couple hours. We foreign teachers were informed literally right before it started that we would be going on stage to sing Bryan Adams "Everything I Do, I Do It for You."
Hardly any of us knew the lyrics besides the titular section, so we just hid behind the louder people and swayed. It was awkward. Thankfully we had a live Wechat session between a few of the foreign teachers to liven up the ceremony with colorful Western commentary.
After that, I went to my second Thanksgiving dinner, which was with one my small groups. This is the one with the generally older, married couples. Although now I won't use that word "older" to their face, as I got a lot of grief for it. Anyways, during the dinner we were told to write our name on a piece of paper and pass it around the room. We then had thirty second to write some form of encouragement and thanksgiving for the names on the paper.
Once I got mine back, I had some very encouraging and heartwarming notes. Those, however, are not the ones I'm going to mention. Here are my top three favorite thanksgiving notes written to me:
1. "Great hair." (That particular note went on to write stuff about my character, but this is the only part I wanted to transcribe.)
2. "I think it's great that you're brutal and sarcastic like me and Bet." (A note from a married couple who have a harmonious sense of humor with me. We have a nice back and forth.)
And my all time favorite:
3. "Sometimes you open your mouth and I don't know what you're saying - I like that." (This is what I want written on my tombstone)
Anyways, my last Thanksgiving dinner is next week. Ironically, it'll be hosted by my South African friend. I need to take care of the vegetables, so I need a Thanksgiving vegetable recipe.
Also, there's this boy I pass every time I walk to one of my small group. He's probably about 11 and he knows enough English phrases to try and sell me the oranges he's always peddling.
Boy: (Upon seeing me, the blond-headed foreigner) Hello, How are you? Oranges, switt, yummy!
I'm never like super in the mood for oranges, but I can't resist buying them; this kid's just too cute. But now he thinks I'm Mr. Money Bags and he gets super excited every time he sees me. ("Hello, my good friend! Oranges, yummy!")
After so much China commuting, I've gotten used to all the conversation being a nonsensical buzzing in the background of my life. Now, the concept of being able to eavesdrop on public conversation sounds like a super power. I was walking by some English speakers tonight, a girl and a guy:
Girl: "Tell me the most private thing about you. Like, I own a Pikachu one-sie."
Good on you, American girl. Live loud.
That's all I got. I'm coming back to 'Murica in February for 2 weeks. I imagine about 8 days will be spent in Tampa and North Carolina with family, and about 6 days in Orlando.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
Facing Off
So great news, e'erbody! I'm sick!
I woke up to my alarm this morning, sat up, and then my throat ambushed me. My throat was in such an awful state that getting it to function in any way was agony. Better yet, today's the day where I usually must teach 4 90-minute classes. I knew if I did that, my throat would get more diabolical in its plans for revenge.
So I'm out home today, just resting. Here's the bright side though: I left my wallet at work. So after scrounging, I found about 18 kuai in my room. That's enough to get me some water and some soup. Tonight, I'll pick up my wallet from a coworker.
Shanghai has been fuuuuun recently.
I just saw Catching Fire on Thursday night. It was my first time in a Chinese theater. I'm going to rate my experience overall as a 6.5. The screen was bigger and better quality than I anticipated, so that's good. But here's a few weird quirks of the Chinese movie theater:
1) The movie begins promptly at the start time, and there are no previews. Our show time was 10:20. My friends and I got in there at 10:23, and so we missed the first 3 minutes.
2) The popcorn is SWEET, which is a travesty. I was so excited for my buttery tub of popcorn, and was majorly disappointed. Get it together, Chinese theater!
3) They have no qualms closing everything down in the middle of your late movie. That means if you're the last movie playing, then when you exit the theater, everything will be dark and closed up, and you'll be escorted out the side exit.
4) The entrance from the outer hall to the theater is right next to the screen. Now more than ever I appreciate the design of American theaters, in which the entrance is position in a hallway behind and leading to the big theater. I had to announce with a burst of hallway light that I was going to go pee.
5) The lights come on as soon as the credits start rolling, and everybody immediately stands up and leaves. No contemplation of the film you just saw; just keep it moving.
It was still fun though, and the movie was good.
Next week is Thanksgiving week. I'm hoping my throat will feel better so I don't have to miss any of it.
As for prayer requests, pray for two things. And I'll list em, because apparently this is a listing blog:
1) Pray for my witness. Pray that I'll have more opportunities to share God's love. I've met cool people here, and my heart especially goes out to the locals I've befriended.
2) Pray for me to be strong. All believers fight against sin and the dark spiritual forces. I feel like I have a nemesis. Like yeah, pride is a big one. He's my Penguin. Purity is my Riddler. But doubt and anxiety is my Joker. And especially now, in my current place in life and the decisions I have to make, I'm facing off with my own doubt a lot these days, and he's a powerful opponent. Of course, God provides me with everything I need to defeat it. So just pray that my confidence will grow in the strength of God.
Oh, and pray I'll get better fast! Thanks!
I woke up to my alarm this morning, sat up, and then my throat ambushed me. My throat was in such an awful state that getting it to function in any way was agony. Better yet, today's the day where I usually must teach 4 90-minute classes. I knew if I did that, my throat would get more diabolical in its plans for revenge.
So I'm out home today, just resting. Here's the bright side though: I left my wallet at work. So after scrounging, I found about 18 kuai in my room. That's enough to get me some water and some soup. Tonight, I'll pick up my wallet from a coworker.
Shanghai has been fuuuuun recently.
I just saw Catching Fire on Thursday night. It was my first time in a Chinese theater. I'm going to rate my experience overall as a 6.5. The screen was bigger and better quality than I anticipated, so that's good. But here's a few weird quirks of the Chinese movie theater:
1) The movie begins promptly at the start time, and there are no previews. Our show time was 10:20. My friends and I got in there at 10:23, and so we missed the first 3 minutes.
2) The popcorn is SWEET, which is a travesty. I was so excited for my buttery tub of popcorn, and was majorly disappointed. Get it together, Chinese theater!
3) They have no qualms closing everything down in the middle of your late movie. That means if you're the last movie playing, then when you exit the theater, everything will be dark and closed up, and you'll be escorted out the side exit.
4) The entrance from the outer hall to the theater is right next to the screen. Now more than ever I appreciate the design of American theaters, in which the entrance is position in a hallway behind and leading to the big theater. I had to announce with a burst of hallway light that I was going to go pee.
5) The lights come on as soon as the credits start rolling, and everybody immediately stands up and leaves. No contemplation of the film you just saw; just keep it moving.
It was still fun though, and the movie was good.
Next week is Thanksgiving week. I'm hoping my throat will feel better so I don't have to miss any of it.
As for prayer requests, pray for two things. And I'll list em, because apparently this is a listing blog:
1) Pray for my witness. Pray that I'll have more opportunities to share God's love. I've met cool people here, and my heart especially goes out to the locals I've befriended.
2) Pray for me to be strong. All believers fight against sin and the dark spiritual forces. I feel like I have a nemesis. Like yeah, pride is a big one. He's my Penguin. Purity is my Riddler. But doubt and anxiety is my Joker. And especially now, in my current place in life and the decisions I have to make, I'm facing off with my own doubt a lot these days, and he's a powerful opponent. Of course, God provides me with everything I need to defeat it. So just pray that my confidence will grow in the strength of God.
Oh, and pray I'll get better fast! Thanks!
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Next To Me
Hey y'all.
Just another little one; not too much to report between the last blog and now. I have not done much socializing, so no major adventures to speak of. All of the socializing I have done recently has been under the format of meeting for one-on-one/heart-to-heart conversations with fellow Christians in the area, which has been a huge blessing for me. Unfortunately, I do not have the transcripts to those conversations, so I'm not going to fill you in.
Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm replacing quality with quantity. To my knowledge, I have not missed a Thanksgiving dinner with parents since birth. so this will be tough. Instead of having Thanksgiving with my family, then, I'm having 4 replacement Thanksgiving dinners. It's whatever, 4 dinners, no big deal. I'm going to be more turkey than man that week.
The selfie contest didn't pan out like I hoped, but not before getting these awesome selfies. The first one was with the security guard at the subway station. He was so unbelievable bewildered by the phone stuffed in his face. I still see him almost every day. It's awkward.
This second one was kind of cooler and way less awkward. I had thought up this idea in my crazy laowai arsenal in my head. I decided that if a guy sat down next to me on the subway, I'd ask for his phone. Then I'd just stick my earbuds in his phone and listen to his music. Turns out, this guy was thrilled. We swapped playlists and just sat and jammed out to each other's music for a few minutes. His taste is quintessentially Chinese, some soft-beat club beats, and over-wrought love ballads. He actually pulled out his phone for a selfie before I pulled out mine. Then he texted me afterward and thanked me for letting him listen to my music. Awwwwww....
Yes, I know that sounded so much like a pick up or a come on, and in America, it would be. But I can get away with stuff like this in China, and it's not creepy.
Aaaaaaaanywho, it's super cold, and the only solution at this point is setting myself on fire. I'm going to die.
Just another little one; not too much to report between the last blog and now. I have not done much socializing, so no major adventures to speak of. All of the socializing I have done recently has been under the format of meeting for one-on-one/heart-to-heart conversations with fellow Christians in the area, which has been a huge blessing for me. Unfortunately, I do not have the transcripts to those conversations, so I'm not going to fill you in.
Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm replacing quality with quantity. To my knowledge, I have not missed a Thanksgiving dinner with parents since birth. so this will be tough. Instead of having Thanksgiving with my family, then, I'm having 4 replacement Thanksgiving dinners. It's whatever, 4 dinners, no big deal. I'm going to be more turkey than man that week.
This second one was kind of cooler and way less awkward. I had thought up this idea in my crazy laowai arsenal in my head. I decided that if a guy sat down next to me on the subway, I'd ask for his phone. Then I'd just stick my earbuds in his phone and listen to his music. Turns out, this guy was thrilled. We swapped playlists and just sat and jammed out to each other's music for a few minutes. His taste is quintessentially Chinese, some soft-beat club beats, and over-wrought love ballads. He actually pulled out his phone for a selfie before I pulled out mine. Then he texted me afterward and thanked me for letting him listen to my music. Awwwwww....Yes, I know that sounded so much like a pick up or a come on, and in America, it would be. But I can get away with stuff like this in China, and it's not creepy.
Aaaaaaaanywho, it's super cold, and the only solution at this point is setting myself on fire. I'm going to die.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Tidbits from the Middle
You're going to notice a sharp decline in the quality of my posts, because right now they are being written more out of obligation than inspiration. Like I have already explained, I like constructing these blogs into cohesive story with a beginning, middle, and end. I feel like I'm in the middle of the middle, albeit an important and worth-mentioning middle. I just feel like I can write more clearly and effectively about it in hindsight.
So this is going to be a disjointed post, featuring the compulsory chronological recap, left-field analysis of the latest season of Walking Dead, and a series of unrelated anecdotes.
I've been doing a lot of, you guessed it, work. It's still fun, I enjoy my students immensely. I still stop myself sometimes in class, and appreciate this chance I have to hang out with a bunch of adorable Chinese kids, making them laugh and have fun with my language. When they imitate me, it's the best. When my brain stalls, and I'm transitioning between material, my brain leaks "Ok, ok, ok," which they've begun immediately repeating. I also like to sing their names when I write them on the board. They've picked up the melody and the rhythm of it.
I've also been spending time with my friends, hitting up hip restaurants and hip bars where I order my hip hot chocolate. Shamefully I will admit that my weekend outings with friends are to Western food restaurants, because we are all filled up to the brim with Chinese food and culture that we need to stock back up on 'Murica. That's what has us in a diner style restaurant called Munchies on a Sunday night, eating burgers and singing the "7th Heaven" theme song.
VIOLENT SUBJECT CHANGE
To anyone who is a fan of the Walking Dead, I have also been enjoying this season. Can I point out something that's been troubling though? I was also a fan of Lost, and to this day I still will defend the overall story arc of the show. However, in hindsight, it is easy to see Lost's flaws, mostly in its tropes and plot devices. One is where they set up a homebase of survivors, which includes a handful of the main cast, and then a sea of faceless extras. Then the main cast goes out in endless combinations on arbitrary "runs" for supplies and stuff, and the characters kind of blatantly talk through their ongoing character development. And so I'm just getting this uncomfortably familiar vibe with the new season of Walking Dead. Thoughts?
BACK TO CHINA
I've begun a contest with my friends. It is to see who can get the most selfies with strangers in the course of a week. Being a laowai (which is a sort of sassy, slightly demeaning term for a foreiger, more literally "old outsider") gives you a certain free pass to be as crazy and creepily outgoing. Because you're a foreigner, they sort of just accept it, and oftentimes enjoy it.
So next week's blog will feature the results of that.
I DON'T WANT TO WRITE ANYMORE
So this is going to be a disjointed post, featuring the compulsory chronological recap, left-field analysis of the latest season of Walking Dead, and a series of unrelated anecdotes.
I've been doing a lot of, you guessed it, work. It's still fun, I enjoy my students immensely. I still stop myself sometimes in class, and appreciate this chance I have to hang out with a bunch of adorable Chinese kids, making them laugh and have fun with my language. When they imitate me, it's the best. When my brain stalls, and I'm transitioning between material, my brain leaks "Ok, ok, ok," which they've begun immediately repeating. I also like to sing their names when I write them on the board. They've picked up the melody and the rhythm of it.
I've also been spending time with my friends, hitting up hip restaurants and hip bars where I order my hip hot chocolate. Shamefully I will admit that my weekend outings with friends are to Western food restaurants, because we are all filled up to the brim with Chinese food and culture that we need to stock back up on 'Murica. That's what has us in a diner style restaurant called Munchies on a Sunday night, eating burgers and singing the "7th Heaven" theme song.
VIOLENT SUBJECT CHANGE
To anyone who is a fan of the Walking Dead, I have also been enjoying this season. Can I point out something that's been troubling though? I was also a fan of Lost, and to this day I still will defend the overall story arc of the show. However, in hindsight, it is easy to see Lost's flaws, mostly in its tropes and plot devices. One is where they set up a homebase of survivors, which includes a handful of the main cast, and then a sea of faceless extras. Then the main cast goes out in endless combinations on arbitrary "runs" for supplies and stuff, and the characters kind of blatantly talk through their ongoing character development. And so I'm just getting this uncomfortably familiar vibe with the new season of Walking Dead. Thoughts?
BACK TO CHINA
I've begun a contest with my friends. It is to see who can get the most selfies with strangers in the course of a week. Being a laowai (which is a sort of sassy, slightly demeaning term for a foreiger, more literally "old outsider") gives you a certain free pass to be as crazy and creepily outgoing. Because you're a foreigner, they sort of just accept it, and oftentimes enjoy it.
So next week's blog will feature the results of that.
I DON'T WANT TO WRITE ANYMORE
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