For the past month, I've gotten into belly dancing. One of my co-workers taught belly dancing when she lived in Florida and found a studio to teach it for fun. I've yet to miss a belly dancing lesson. It's kind of addicting now.
I could go on about how it's more in your thighs than anything, and about muscle isolation, but that's not the biggest lesson that I'm learning from this. Actually, what I'm slowly learning, accepting and using to better myself is simply this. It's okay to jiggle. Repeat. It's okay to jiggle.
I'm not a small person. I've never been small and cute, and I never will be. I've got all three features that make it difficult to find clothes in China. Tall, fat, and big feet. If I'm having a really ugly day and not watching my posture, my belly is sometimes bigger than my boobs. Growing up, I'm taught that I have to hide my body cause no one wants to see the extra body. Especially if there's any chance of it shaking. So, if you don't have what the people want to see, hide.
One of the first things we were taught was to shimmy. Shake our bodies just right. In this class, I'm usually the biggest of the learners, but even the tiny ones were hesitating. My co-worker noticed this, and she said simply, "Trust me, when you got it, you got it. Everyone wants to see this." It took a little time, but we started getting used to it.
Like any dance studio, there's a wall of mirrors where you can watch yourself move. Standing in front of the mirror and watching things jiggle is probably one of the hardest things I'd done, surprisingly. The first couple times I did it I felt like a She-Hulk trying too hard to be dainty. Now I'm at a point where I'm like, "This jiggle is a good sign."
At this point, I'm realizing the lesson. I know what the purpose is, and while I can't say that I've learned it and mastered it, I can say I'm trying.
Friday, July 15, 2016
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Battle of the Voices
The difference between Beijing heat and Michigan heat are like night and day. In Michigan, there's dry heat. It's rarely sticky and humid. You're more likely to get a sunburn with that heat. In Beijing, it's sticky, and humid, and you can't survive without air conditioning. In Michigan, there are nights where you don't need it and can open the window. Beijing, the idea of opening the window is kind of hilarious.
So what does this little bit of information have to do with with the title? Simple. When the heat is to the point you need to turn on the air conditioner, it smells like dirt, and you find yourself coughing, a stuffy nose, and a sore throat. In Michigan, this would never be happening. You'd never be sick trying to keep cool.
Well, this past weekend I had a cold so bad, that by the end of Saturday night I had no voice. I couldn't get any louder than a whisper. The worst part. This past weekend was a weekend that the parents would come into class so they could play with the children and could see what they learned in the past three months.
So how to fight through lacking a voice? Simple! The first step was making sure the kids spoke more than me. The more the kids spoke, the less I had to talk. Eventually, at the times I was forced to speak, I grabbed a microphone and tried speaking in that. By the end of Sunday, I had to have someone else speak for me cause I couldn't do it anymore. I'd never seen so many scrunched up/worried faces in my life, no had I sucked down so much hot water in my life either.
After work that Sunday, I went to dinner with co-workers. I couldn't speak, so I had to sign everything and even had a friend order for me. I was so frustrated I gave up and started writing everything I wanted to say. Do you know how difficult it is to write down thoughts? By the time you're finished writing what you wanted to say the conversation changes to a new topic. And then if people can't read your writing, like the usual case with mine, then it becomes even more difficult.
Moral of the story: Appreciate your ability to speak. Cause it sucks when you go a weekend without talking. And it gets super awkward. XD
So what does this little bit of information have to do with with the title? Simple. When the heat is to the point you need to turn on the air conditioner, it smells like dirt, and you find yourself coughing, a stuffy nose, and a sore throat. In Michigan, this would never be happening. You'd never be sick trying to keep cool.
Well, this past weekend I had a cold so bad, that by the end of Saturday night I had no voice. I couldn't get any louder than a whisper. The worst part. This past weekend was a weekend that the parents would come into class so they could play with the children and could see what they learned in the past three months.
So how to fight through lacking a voice? Simple! The first step was making sure the kids spoke more than me. The more the kids spoke, the less I had to talk. Eventually, at the times I was forced to speak, I grabbed a microphone and tried speaking in that. By the end of Sunday, I had to have someone else speak for me cause I couldn't do it anymore. I'd never seen so many scrunched up/worried faces in my life, no had I sucked down so much hot water in my life either.
After work that Sunday, I went to dinner with co-workers. I couldn't speak, so I had to sign everything and even had a friend order for me. I was so frustrated I gave up and started writing everything I wanted to say. Do you know how difficult it is to write down thoughts? By the time you're finished writing what you wanted to say the conversation changes to a new topic. And then if people can't read your writing, like the usual case with mine, then it becomes even more difficult.
Moral of the story: Appreciate your ability to speak. Cause it sucks when you go a weekend without talking. And it gets super awkward. XD
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Well that was a Waste of Time...
Sometimes there are things you do that makes you feel stupid. Especially when even in your second language you're unable to solve even the simplest of problems. And when you're called out on it, all you can do is hope that it gets laughed off and people move on.
It's no secret that I have bad luck with air conditioners. When I was at my old apartment, I was fighting for a month to get my air conditioner fixed. So when I was looking at my current apartment MacGyver, my housing agent, turned on the air to make sure I knew it was actually working before I agreed to take the apartment.
Months later, it's hotter than hell in June, and I go to turn on the air conditioner in the living room, and nothing happens. I went to my bedroom to turn on that air, and nothing happens. And it seems to be getting hotter and hotter by the minute.
First, I send my LP a WeChat message. All of the buttons are in Chinese. I can read Chinese, but my reading isn't all that great. I can read fairly simple sentences. A lot of other features I figure out by pressing buttons and seeing what happens. She gives me a quick lesson on what buttons to use. Still, nothing happens. I change the batteries to one remote, nothing happens. The other remote, I can't figure out if it's batteries or not, so I don't touch it for now.
Next, I check the fuse box to see if maybe there's a special switch I have to turn on for the air. I flip the switch, and one of the machines works! My living room has air! But what about the bedroom?! Nothing!
I do the next thing I have to do. I call my landlady. She was in a meeting, so she couldn't get there right away. But when she does, she brings her husband. The first thing the husband does is open the batteries and change them. Suddenly my air conditioner works again.
I'd never felt so embarrassed as I was when my landlady's husband changed out the batteries. I have no idea how many times I apologized for wasting their time on something so simple.
Moral of the story: No matter how good you think you are at a second language, even the simple things will throw you off.
It's no secret that I have bad luck with air conditioners. When I was at my old apartment, I was fighting for a month to get my air conditioner fixed. So when I was looking at my current apartment MacGyver, my housing agent, turned on the air to make sure I knew it was actually working before I agreed to take the apartment.
Months later, it's hotter than hell in June, and I go to turn on the air conditioner in the living room, and nothing happens. I went to my bedroom to turn on that air, and nothing happens. And it seems to be getting hotter and hotter by the minute.
First, I send my LP a WeChat message. All of the buttons are in Chinese. I can read Chinese, but my reading isn't all that great. I can read fairly simple sentences. A lot of other features I figure out by pressing buttons and seeing what happens. She gives me a quick lesson on what buttons to use. Still, nothing happens. I change the batteries to one remote, nothing happens. The other remote, I can't figure out if it's batteries or not, so I don't touch it for now.
Next, I check the fuse box to see if maybe there's a special switch I have to turn on for the air. I flip the switch, and one of the machines works! My living room has air! But what about the bedroom?! Nothing!
I do the next thing I have to do. I call my landlady. She was in a meeting, so she couldn't get there right away. But when she does, she brings her husband. The first thing the husband does is open the batteries and change them. Suddenly my air conditioner works again.
I'd never felt so embarrassed as I was when my landlady's husband changed out the batteries. I have no idea how many times I apologized for wasting their time on something so simple.
Moral of the story: No matter how good you think you are at a second language, even the simple things will throw you off.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Jet Lag
What's the first thing you do when you fly halfway around the planet? Get over Jet Lag. It seems like an easy thing to do. Get out of bed, stretch, keep yourself moving. But before you know it, you're smack into a wall so fast that you don't even realize when you've fallen asleep. One minute, you're talking to your dad while riding home from the airport, and the next thing you know, your head jerks up as he pulls up to your mom's house. Where you find yourself wondering why the hell there's a half a mannequin sitting in the window.
That first day, it seems fine. You wake up all right, you move around, shower, do some laundry, anything to feel refreshed. Like you were never on a long flight. Things are fine. You cook, you play that video game again, even try your hand at some cooking. Then out of nowhere, you're passed out on the couch, asleep, until 1 A.M. Then up for a few hours, and asleep again early in the morning.
Jet lag is weird. You think you've got it under control, but then it sneaks up on you, and you can't get yourself out of it. All you can do is sit and wait for it to go away. Fight the sleep when it comes in, an hope that your sleep patterns get back to normal by Friday. Why? Cause I'm only home for a very short time.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Political Meetings Behind the Great Firewall
China did it again. For the past couple weeks, I couldn't get on Facebook, Youtube, whatever. No matter what server I used with my VPN, nothing was happening. Turns out China is a lot more powerful with the internet than I thought.
In the beginning of March, China had a big political meeting happening in Tiananmen Square. It was so big that they upped the Great Firewall to a point where no VPN could get through. Anything remotely Western was blocked. It seemed like you couldn't even download anything. So there wasn't much to do internet-wise. I'm not clear on exactly what came out of this meeting. The only things I know for sure are that China started a new anti-domestic violence law, and apparently gay people are banned from TV. (As in TV shows can't show gay people anymore.)
Last night was the first night in almost two weeks that I'd been on Facebook or YouTube. And honestly, it wasn't that bad. A little boring, but it's not like I wasn't productive. I read a couple books, I managed to find some movies on Youku that were worth watching, which was a task in itself considering you have to pay for all the good ones on Youku. I even managed to start a contest with a co-worker on whose remembering more Chinese from an app he and I are both using. For me it's a refresher, and damn, it's a nice crash course in reading Chinese. And the best part? It motivated me to buy a plane ticket early.
The one other thing it made me do was realize how crap it would be if China managed to permanently shut down VPNs. If anything, it's made me really push the use of WeChat to people back home. Not a lot of people use it, but if China does this again, I'd have no way to talk to people back in the States. Except for a very small amount of people. So ever since, I've been pushing for people to use WeChat like crazy.
Moral of the Story: Discover the joys of WeChat.
In the beginning of March, China had a big political meeting happening in Tiananmen Square. It was so big that they upped the Great Firewall to a point where no VPN could get through. Anything remotely Western was blocked. It seemed like you couldn't even download anything. So there wasn't much to do internet-wise. I'm not clear on exactly what came out of this meeting. The only things I know for sure are that China started a new anti-domestic violence law, and apparently gay people are banned from TV. (As in TV shows can't show gay people anymore.)
Last night was the first night in almost two weeks that I'd been on Facebook or YouTube. And honestly, it wasn't that bad. A little boring, but it's not like I wasn't productive. I read a couple books, I managed to find some movies on Youku that were worth watching, which was a task in itself considering you have to pay for all the good ones on Youku. I even managed to start a contest with a co-worker on whose remembering more Chinese from an app he and I are both using. For me it's a refresher, and damn, it's a nice crash course in reading Chinese. And the best part? It motivated me to buy a plane ticket early.
The one other thing it made me do was realize how crap it would be if China managed to permanently shut down VPNs. If anything, it's made me really push the use of WeChat to people back home. Not a lot of people use it, but if China does this again, I'd have no way to talk to people back in the States. Except for a very small amount of people. So ever since, I've been pushing for people to use WeChat like crazy.
Moral of the Story: Discover the joys of WeChat.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
A Somewhat Fresh Start
With Chinese New Year come and gone, I'd decided I was going to make some changes, myself. The biggest of said changes was finally getting out of the tiny apartment I'd lived in for the past two years for something a little newer, a little bigger, and a lot nicer.
When I walked in after moving all my stuff, my mood was a lot lighter. I'm in a good mood when I wake up in the morning, and I'm in a good mood when I go back to my apartment to sleep. It's amazing what a lot more space and an actual couch will do. There isn't a TV here, but honestly I don't think I even need one. If I get a lot of visitors in the future, I'll probably invest in a TV, but for now I don't think it's necessary.
When I walked in after moving all my stuff, my mood was a lot lighter. I'm in a good mood when I wake up in the morning, and I'm in a good mood when I go back to my apartment to sleep. It's amazing what a lot more space and an actual couch will do. There isn't a TV here, but honestly I don't think I even need one. If I get a lot of visitors in the future, I'll probably invest in a TV, but for now I don't think it's necessary.
Monday, February 15, 2016
With Heels, Come Balance
Valentine's Day. A day where couples everywhere are somewhat guilted into buying things for one another to proclaim their love, regardless of how long they've been together. The day that reminds you that if you survive it, your reward is discounted chocolate. So when you're in a country that has not one, but three different versions of this holiday, you're single, and it's the tail-end of Chinese New Year, there's only one thing you can do. Get some friends and go to a night club.
In reality, it's quite rare for me to go to a nightclub. I don't like being touched by people I don't know, nor do I like feeling like a piece of meat. But that night, I wanted to dance and see friends and simply have a good time. So I put on a black outfit donned some makeup, and a pair of heels. Pay attention to the heels. They're actually part of this story later.
That night, my friends and I went to three clubs and danced the night away. I, myself, realized just how shy I really was when out of the three men at approached me that night, only one of them I was comfortable with talking to. In fact, I was so unused to the attention that when one person invited me to dance, I grabbed one of my friends and had them come with me cause I wasn't sure what was happening. On the plus side, it was quite the confidence boost. So kudos to the confident men that kinda freaked me out at first!
Moral of the story: Learn not to be so shy.
But wait! Why did I say to remember the heels? They weren't brought up again to this seemingly pointless story. Well, here's the reason.
With decent parties come alcohol. With thirst-quenching, comes bladder release. With bladder-release in China comes one of the funnest games to play, especially when you're a little buzzed. Squat or No Squat? The game is actually pretty simple. When you go to the bathroom and look for a door, make a mental guess in your head if it's a Western Toilet or a Squatty Potty. Then when there's a stall free, you go in to see if your guess was right. I've never actually played this game with other people, so I'm curious to see how well this would play out as a drinking game, but I'm getting off-topic.
There I was, staring in the stall, mentally cursing cause I'd guessed wrong. My feet were already starting to hurt from the heels as I stared down at the porcelain hole. I already sucked at keeping a good balance when I squatted cause I tend to be on my toes. If I ever found myself at a squatty, I'd need to literally hold on to the walls because my balance sucked. And now here I was about to do this again, slightly buzzed and in heels.
In the two years that I've been in China, that was the first time I didn't have to hold on to the walls for balance. The heels actually helped. For the first time, heels had a real purpose in my life.
Moral of this story: Learn to keep my feet in heels so I can go out more often. But man, did it feel good to finally take them off once I got to my apartment.
In reality, it's quite rare for me to go to a nightclub. I don't like being touched by people I don't know, nor do I like feeling like a piece of meat. But that night, I wanted to dance and see friends and simply have a good time. So I put on a black outfit donned some makeup, and a pair of heels. Pay attention to the heels. They're actually part of this story later.
That night, my friends and I went to three clubs and danced the night away. I, myself, realized just how shy I really was when out of the three men at approached me that night, only one of them I was comfortable with talking to. In fact, I was so unused to the attention that when one person invited me to dance, I grabbed one of my friends and had them come with me cause I wasn't sure what was happening. On the plus side, it was quite the confidence boost. So kudos to the confident men that kinda freaked me out at first!
Moral of the story: Learn not to be so shy.
But wait! Why did I say to remember the heels? They weren't brought up again to this seemingly pointless story. Well, here's the reason.
With decent parties come alcohol. With thirst-quenching, comes bladder release. With bladder-release in China comes one of the funnest games to play, especially when you're a little buzzed. Squat or No Squat? The game is actually pretty simple. When you go to the bathroom and look for a door, make a mental guess in your head if it's a Western Toilet or a Squatty Potty. Then when there's a stall free, you go in to see if your guess was right. I've never actually played this game with other people, so I'm curious to see how well this would play out as a drinking game, but I'm getting off-topic.
There I was, staring in the stall, mentally cursing cause I'd guessed wrong. My feet were already starting to hurt from the heels as I stared down at the porcelain hole. I already sucked at keeping a good balance when I squatted cause I tend to be on my toes. If I ever found myself at a squatty, I'd need to literally hold on to the walls because my balance sucked. And now here I was about to do this again, slightly buzzed and in heels.
In the two years that I've been in China, that was the first time I didn't have to hold on to the walls for balance. The heels actually helped. For the first time, heels had a real purpose in my life.
Moral of this story: Learn to keep my feet in heels so I can go out more often. But man, did it feel good to finally take them off once I got to my apartment.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Chinese New Year Behind the Great Firewall
On a normal Chinese New Year, I'd be traveling. I'd probably be exploring wherever I was at, taking as many pictures as I could then coming up with a witty name for the photo album on Facebook. I'd pick only the best pictures and post them while bugging whatever hometown friends who've kept WeChat to scan Facebook and like those same pictures.
This year though, I planned on a quieter Chinese New Year. This time around, I didn't really travel. Instead, I found myself curious on what Beijing looked like after the Great Migration. Was it really like a mini-hibernation? Or was I just talking out of my ass? I'd heard stories about how the whole city shuts down on Chinese New Year. Nothing's open. Buy your food the week before the holiday so you have something to eat during the holiday. While to an extent, that is true, staying in Beijing on Chinese New Year turned out to be not bad at all.
Except for when it came to technology. I found myself in two battles with technology. The first one I'll affectionately call the Battle of the VPN. The other one, the Battle of the Computer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Battle of the VPN
At some point, on this side of the Great Firewall, when I turned on my VPN, which will remain nameless for now, I'd had a notice right when I signed on saying that it was temporarily out of order. The Great Firewall had found out about it, and had slammed its fiery you-know-what on it. If I read the notice correctly, they were blaming journalists and said that it'd be fixed after the holiday. My slight Facebook addiction got the better of me. And, well, there are only three people back in the States that talk to me without the use of Facebook. So like it or not, I kinda need my Facebook at the moment. Fortunately, things have been okay with that, but it ended up being a short, but annoying battle for a holiday.
Lesson I learned from this battle: Get more people from home to add you on WeChat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Battle of the Computer
Exactly one month ago, my computer started slowing way down. To the point that in the middle of videos it would stop, and I would have to completely restart my computer. One day, my computer didn't even load, and I found myself running out to SanLiTun to figure out what was going on. Without my computer, I had no way of really contacting anyone back home.
The downside of going to the Apple Store is all the waiting. It's no one's fault. In fact, the service I received was wonderful. The problem is that everyone is very busy. In Chinese culture, even if there's someone helping you, it's very normal for people to just interrupt so they get serviced. As a downside, it takes longer for you to get helped because the people working feel obligated to help someone that's interrupting your service. As I said before, I don't consider it bad service. This is culture. And when they've got your attention, the service is wonderful.
After many many hours, we realized what the problem was. Turns out, my hard drive was taking a crap. So after attempting to save whatever I could on a tiny external hard drive, I saved what I could, which wasn't much, if anything at all.
When I got my computer back, it seemed okay. It was running faster, but there was still the pesky problem of it beach balling at times. It would still freeze a little at random points. Two nights ago, my computer started restarting on its own every five minutes until it stopped restarting all together. Back to the Apple Store!
Was it my hard drive? No. This time, there was a cable next to the hard drive the broke. It probably broke when my hard drive died, but it wasn't caught right away.
Lesson: Back everything up. Because of this, I lost a lot of pictures and music. :( Not to mention I'll have to find a copy of my book just so I can retype it and put it in my computer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the random battles, the Chinese New Year break wasn't bad. I bought so many books so that I could get back to reading. I didn't go out as much as I liked, but as I said, with all the reading I managed to get done this time around, I'm not butthurt about it at all.
Not only that, the one plus side to having the Great Firewall sometimes slam down on your VPN is that copyright in China is on a meh level. So it's surprisingly easy to catch up on any TV shows that you missed while you were in America. (I now know the joys of PC Principal, for starters).
This Chinese New Year was a lot more toned down than my last one, but it was still a decent Chinese New Year. :)
This year though, I planned on a quieter Chinese New Year. This time around, I didn't really travel. Instead, I found myself curious on what Beijing looked like after the Great Migration. Was it really like a mini-hibernation? Or was I just talking out of my ass? I'd heard stories about how the whole city shuts down on Chinese New Year. Nothing's open. Buy your food the week before the holiday so you have something to eat during the holiday. While to an extent, that is true, staying in Beijing on Chinese New Year turned out to be not bad at all.
Except for when it came to technology. I found myself in two battles with technology. The first one I'll affectionately call the Battle of the VPN. The other one, the Battle of the Computer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Battle of the VPN
At some point, on this side of the Great Firewall, when I turned on my VPN, which will remain nameless for now, I'd had a notice right when I signed on saying that it was temporarily out of order. The Great Firewall had found out about it, and had slammed its fiery you-know-what on it. If I read the notice correctly, they were blaming journalists and said that it'd be fixed after the holiday. My slight Facebook addiction got the better of me. And, well, there are only three people back in the States that talk to me without the use of Facebook. So like it or not, I kinda need my Facebook at the moment. Fortunately, things have been okay with that, but it ended up being a short, but annoying battle for a holiday.
Lesson I learned from this battle: Get more people from home to add you on WeChat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Battle of the Computer
Exactly one month ago, my computer started slowing way down. To the point that in the middle of videos it would stop, and I would have to completely restart my computer. One day, my computer didn't even load, and I found myself running out to SanLiTun to figure out what was going on. Without my computer, I had no way of really contacting anyone back home.
The downside of going to the Apple Store is all the waiting. It's no one's fault. In fact, the service I received was wonderful. The problem is that everyone is very busy. In Chinese culture, even if there's someone helping you, it's very normal for people to just interrupt so they get serviced. As a downside, it takes longer for you to get helped because the people working feel obligated to help someone that's interrupting your service. As I said before, I don't consider it bad service. This is culture. And when they've got your attention, the service is wonderful.
After many many hours, we realized what the problem was. Turns out, my hard drive was taking a crap. So after attempting to save whatever I could on a tiny external hard drive, I saved what I could, which wasn't much, if anything at all.
When I got my computer back, it seemed okay. It was running faster, but there was still the pesky problem of it beach balling at times. It would still freeze a little at random points. Two nights ago, my computer started restarting on its own every five minutes until it stopped restarting all together. Back to the Apple Store!
Was it my hard drive? No. This time, there was a cable next to the hard drive the broke. It probably broke when my hard drive died, but it wasn't caught right away.
Lesson: Back everything up. Because of this, I lost a lot of pictures and music. :( Not to mention I'll have to find a copy of my book just so I can retype it and put it in my computer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the random battles, the Chinese New Year break wasn't bad. I bought so many books so that I could get back to reading. I didn't go out as much as I liked, but as I said, with all the reading I managed to get done this time around, I'm not butthurt about it at all.
Not only that, the one plus side to having the Great Firewall sometimes slam down on your VPN is that copyright in China is on a meh level. So it's surprisingly easy to catch up on any TV shows that you missed while you were in America. (I now know the joys of PC Principal, for starters).
This Chinese New Year was a lot more toned down than my last one, but it was still a decent Chinese New Year. :)
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