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