What Belly Dancing Taught Me About My Body

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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. :)

A World Map

When I was a kid, my grandma and grandpa traveled around the world. They were part of a group that would go to a different country at least once a month. They'd stay at that country for at least a week, then they'd come home and sometimes bring back something from that place. She'd decorate both her lakeside cottage and downstate home with the random souvenirs she bought.

In her house downstate, their basement seemed like a mini-shrine of all the places they'd been. The moment you were down the stairs you saw pictures on the walls of each country. Grandma's favorites from each place. On the other end of the basement, there was a bulletin board with a large world map attached to it. Grandma pinned every single place she'd been with a red pin. Every continent had multiple pins inside. Some places were  a more red than others.

Last time I was in Michigan, I went to her house and went straight to that world map. It hasn't changed that much since I'd been there last. My grandma was in a quad accident when I was in college, so she doesn't do a lot of international traveling anymore. A lot of the traveling is within the U.S. now. I still studied the map like I was seeing it for the first time.

When I travel, myself, I immediately think of that map. Of all the red pins on it, and how there would be even more from me whenever I decided to settle down. It's quite a challenge. But I think about my own world map like that. Every time I go somewhere, even if it's a trip within the country, I can add a pin to my own world map. Maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to have more pins on my own map. One day.

Some Days are just Days

Sometimes, regardless of where you are, there are days you just want to do nothing. Sometimes you just want to sit at home and finish that book that's been sitting in your apartment for months, or watch that movie that's been laying around for a while. Sometimes, you need a break from that excitement.

That's the one downside I've noticed from living in China. If there are blog posts to be had, or even youtube video. It's got to be exciting. Hell, you wouldn't get much notice if your youtube video was you sitting on your ass and talking. Unless you're funny as Jenna Marbles. That girl knows how to make people laugh. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The thing that no one ever mentions in blogs, vlogs, or youtube videos, is that there are going to be days that you need to do nothing. You need days to recharge. This is one of the reasons I only post once a week. I won't be able to have excitement every day. I tend to feel bad at times, cause I know that's one of the reasons people come to this page. They're curious about China, and what happens there. Well, things do happen. But not every day. The bright side is, when excitement does happen, it happens. And I have a ton to talk about.

Adventures in Hot Pot

Hot Pot. One of the tastiest, yet in some ways the laziest ways to use food to make money. You walk in with a group of friends, and you sit around a table that has a large stove in the center of the table. Everyone sees a menu, usually written in Chinese, and you write down what you want. Meat, vegetables, etc. A lot of the time, if you have a Chinese friend with you, you have them write and translate. Especially if you're not confident with your Chinese. (Two thumbs and not confident with her Chinese? Me!) Then a bowl with two halves is placed on the stove, which has been lit. One side is a regular, probably a little more bland broth while the other side is spicy as hell. While you're waiting for both broths to boil, the food arrives. When it gets here, and the broths boil, you place the food in the broth and let it cook. It's all fun, games, and great eating until someone brings out the duck blood.

A few nights ago, I went to hot pot with a few co-workers. There were four foreigners and two Chinese co-workers. We went to a lesser-known hotpot and ate our fill in potatoes, beef, lamb, lotus root, you name it. As we filled up, a white container was brought out with red gelatin-like cubes. Curious, we all asked, "What's that?" And they answered, "Duck blood!"

Even though I had no interest in trying it, I was curious on how it worked. I was expecting a red liquid, but instead it looked like red tofu cubes. They put some of it in when the foreigners were done eating. Instead of melting, it hardened up so that when you ate it, it would actually be chewy. It was one of the strangest things I'd ever seen.

Later, I found out that this isn't just a thing in China. In a European country that I can't remember, maybe Germany, but don't quote me on it cause I'm not sure, duck blood is  a thing. The more you know.

Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to try this? I don't know. But for now, I can only watch in fascination that something so strange can be thought of as a food.

9/11 Flashback

It's technically September 12th in Beijing right now, but I know it'll still be Friday when people read this post. On a normal day I'd be looking for some sort of awkward topic to post, or talk about some lingering culture shock, despite being in this country for 2 years now. But since most of the people reading this post will be reading it on September 11th, it's only fitting that I talk about where I was that day. There are some things about that day that are surprisingly vivid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was 8th grade. My second class of the day was Choir. I was in the choir with the guys. I don't remember what song we were working on when another teacher suddenly burst into the room, talking in a surprisingly low voice and waving his arms everywhere. No one could hear what they were talking about, but we got some glares from the two teachers when the chatter started up between all of us, students. One of my friends and I still argue about which teacher it was that walked in. I said it was the Geography teacher, while he said it was the History teacher. After he left, we turned on the TV.

There are two times in my life where something stunned a whole class into silence. The second was in Senior Year. The first was that very moment we turned on the TV. For about five to ten minutes we watched the TV. We saw the second plane hit the tower, and we saw the smoke raising from both buildings. I remember thinking this was one realistic TV show, not realizing it wasn't fake. I didn't realize how real this was until my choir teacher turned off the TV, shook his head, and simply said, "Wow." Then we kept rehearsing our choir songs.

To this day, I question why my teacher turned off the TV and simply had us continue with the class. One of my friends said that the teacher didn't care. I personally found that hard to believe. Maybe the teacher expected us to thin whatever was happening in New York City at the time was going to happen to us at any minute. Maybe he thought going through the class and giving us something to distract us from what was happening was better than trying to supervise a class of freaked out 13-year-olds. Whatever it was, it's hard to say if it was a good move or not.

After class, I ran into my epic friend, and she asked me if I saw the news. Everyone had. The whole school was talking about it by the end of class. We kept seeing the same images of people covered in white dust guiding people away from the site. After lunch, it was common knowledge that a plane hit the Pentagon, and another plane crashed in a field. Rumors spread around that school was going to be cancelled. And that we were the next target. In English class, a boy passed a note to me telling me how scared he was. I quickly wrote back, "Don't worry. We're in Houghton Lake. There's no reason for anyone to come here." At lunch, the principal announced that no, school would not be cancelled, and we'd continue the day.

When my mom and stepdad came home from work, we all gathered in front of my mom's TV. My mom, stepdad, sister, brother, step-brother, and me. We watched continuing footage. The whole country shut down. Even the Disney parks were closed. It was one of those few moments where everyone sat around the TV. For once, my mom wasn't loudly shushing someone for asking a question.

~~~~~~~~~A FEW DAYS AGO~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently, I'd seen a facebook post claiming that 9/11 didn't happen. One in particular showed a picture from 9/11 claiming that it was . All I can do is challenge them to go to New York themselves. I was there in 2007, and there was no sign of any Twin Towers. We'd be hearing about it if there were. Dwight D. Eisenhower once ordered the Army to take tons of pictures of Concentration camps in World War II because there would be people claiming the Holocaust didn't happen. It reminds me of that.

If there's anything to point out about that day, I believe it's part of the reason my generation has become so informed. With this event, and the events that followed, it's made us want to find out the information for ourselves instead of trusting one source. That's an interesting side effect of that day.

How to Fight the System and Win

I don't always lose my Chinese bank card. But when I do, it's around the time the Chinese government has started up some new, weird regulation making it harder to bank in China. Essentially making the Chinese banking system more bullshit than it already is.

On this particular Tuesday, I realized I didn't have my bank card. So, being that it was my day off, I decided to take a trip to the bank. Normally, you'd have to take a number and wait for it to be called. Since my Chinese is very hit and miss, I decided to wait in line at a desk and explain the situation. The first thing they did was take my passport. They do absolutely nothing with it. But they have to make a copy each time. So if you lose your card while you're getting your visa renewed, you're kinda screwed. I don't understand the point.

Anyway, they did the usual paperwork, but then out of nowhere stopped. They'd told me that because I used my passport number I had to wait seven days. I'm not sure if it was because I told them that it wasn't happening, or because I had my Foreign Expat Certificate, but with a little patience and very strong, "No, I'm not borrowing money from other people when I have money" I managed to get a new card.

I'd like to say it was cause I never once changed heart and kept telling them no, but I'm not sure that was it. I'd like to say it was me FEC that saved me from going a week without money, but I'm not sure. Either way, thank goodness for my pride. One thing I hate more than anything is being in a situation where I might have to ask someone for money. It's a pride thing. So if I'm actually asking someone for money, I'm really hurting.

One of the big mysteries, maybe, will be what got me to win the system. Or with my luck, someone will read this and tell me exactly how I did it. Either way, it sounds like a shock to most people when I tell the story. Random bit of pride for the win!

Blue Skies Shining on Me

In a city that's constantly filled with pollution and dirty air, a person can't help but be slightly suspicious when there's a long period of blue skies. Maybe I've become a little more cynical since living in China, but when I look out a window and see a blue sky, I no longer think, "Wow! What a beautiful day!" I immediately think, "Is there an international politician coming to China?" Some days I have the urge to look through the news to see what's happening to make the skies blue.

I know that people visiting isn't always the case. I know better than to think that. Sometimes rockets are shot in the air to clean it up. Sometimes, it's a big event like APEC. Other times, it's because there's a sudden holiday coming up involving a military parade.

At least that's part of what's happening this time around. In the beginning of September there's a random holiday coming up. China has a habit of throwing in random holidays. This one is celebrating the 70th anniversary of China getting Japan out. What's not mentioned is America pretty much did that, but they're just going to let that slide.

While I do enjoy the nice weather we've been getting, it does make for some difficulties. The week of the holiday, there's going to be subway closings, and things are just going to be inconvenient. It'll be really easy to get out of the city, but it'll be a bitch to get back in. So I've been debating if visiting another city in China would really be worth it for this holiday. I'm not completely sure. Probably not. But you never know.

Unicorns in China Part 1

The Beijing Bikini. Or Beijing-kini. When it's ridiculously hot, as it usually is in the summertime, men with lift up their shirts so that it's just above their stomachs. While it looks ridiculous, many people do it.

Anyone that tells you that there's no fat people in China have clearly never visited the country themselves. The guiltiest of the Beijing Bikinis are the overweight men. The shirts rest perfectly on the tops of their pot-bellies, almost like showing them off with pride. It's really strange. It's always these kinds of men that do this. The men you don't want to see sporting that around.

Most of the time. This week, Persia and I had seen not one, but two unicorns in Beijing. Men with decent bodies sporting the Beijing-kini. The one that Persia saw was a man that had muscles. Jacked. While the one I saw wasn't muscular, but he still had a fit form. Thin, but toned.

These unicorns do exist. There are probably more unicorns in this city that I realize. Maybe I'll find others. Not just with the Beijing-kini, but maybe I'll find a place where people know what a line is. You never know. Unicorns are real, people. Unicorns are real.

Crack Noodles

One of the greatest things about Beijing is that there are many different types of restaurants in this city. For a noodle-lover like me, this means that there are many different kinds of noodles that I can try. This also means many different types of restaurants I can try food at that I'd never be able to try being in small-town Michigan. Ex: Muslim food, Thai food, Vietnamese food, etc. One of my favorite places is a Japanese restaurant that specializes in Japanese Ramen. Persia and I have nicknamed the noodles there "crack-noodles."

The ramen there is the closest to real Japanese ramen that I've ever eaten. There's always a slice of meat, a soft-boiled egg, and the delicious broth that I can't describe. A hint of soy, but the right amount of salt and meaty flavor. The version that I get always has a little seaweed square that I can eat. I honestly wish they'd give more seaweed. Persia likes to get the spicy version. They always serve it with chopsticks and a wooden spoon that you can use to either drink the broth or put the thin noodles on to slurp up that way.

Today, Persia and I were both craving the crack noodles. We ordered, and were a little too happy about our huge bowls of ramen coming our way. Red bowl for the spicy, white bowl for the regular. The restaurant was inside of a mall. We sat next to a window with a fountain-like water display. I had a bad habit of sticking my fingers in the water while waiting for our food. There wasn't an actual window, so when people walked by, we could hear every word they were saying. Bonus points if we both understood that Chinese they were saying.

While we were eating, we heard someone say, "Excuse me!" We looked up. There were two guys looking at us through the invisible window. They looked about 25, with huge grins on their faces. They both had bags from the same store on them. Persia and I looked at each other before saying hello to them. They said hi back while staring right at me. It was pretty awkward.

"Hello," one said after a few awkward seconds, "can you speak Chinese?" Persia and I looked at each other again, smirking.

"A little bit," I replied. They blinked at me, then looked at Persia, who repeated, "just a little bit."

"Okay, thank you!" they said. Then, they giggled and practically ran away from us.

Persia and I sat there in silence for a minute. What just happened? Was I hit on? Was this a weird way to try and get us to buy something? The whole thing was really strange. They never tried to find us again after we left the restaurant. Maybe it's a mystery we'll never solve.

Dear China, What the Hell?

It's been a long time since I've written here, but things have been very hectic. Works has been awesome. Things to do outside of work has been awesome. I even managed to travel to another country on vacation and visit other cities. Life's been pretty good so far.

But there are still some parts of China that make me think, "What the hell?" The best way I can explain them would be writing a letter to China. Why? Why not? That's the best way I can think of to vent at the moment.

Dear China,

First off, I would like to say how much I enjoy spending time in this country. The food is delicious. I don't have to do anything to lose weight. As I've found out recently, it's starting to just slide off. I don't have to do much except walk more than take the subway. However, there are some things in this country that make me question how you do things. Seriously, China, what the hell?

The first thing I question is the videos that appear when a person sings KTV. Some of the videos, I applaud. Well done. However, there are other videos that are a bit concerning. The best example that I have is the video for the Bloodhound Gang song, "Bad Touch." It starts off nice enough. Pretty beach, clear shores. Nothing too crazy. Just enough that it's easy to tell no one really understands what the song is about... And then there's a clip of children playing on the beach while the raunchiest part of the song is playing. Really? Please, look up what the songs are about before putting children into the music videos.

The second thing I need to say, "What the hell?" to is your sense of efficiency. When something as big as APEC is in China, wouldn't it make more sense to make the subways more efficient? Example:  Opening both ticket booths so it doesn't take so long to buy a ticket. When you're running late because you had to run home to grab your uniform, it's not exactly a comforting thought to have to wait in line forever for a very inefficient subway.

Fortunately, that's all I need to question today. I still enjoy this country. I still enjoy being able to live it up. And I definitely enjoy the thought of having my own mysterious theme music if my neighbors had movies about their lives because I'm the foreigner next door. Yeah, I said it. So until next time, cheers!

The Curious Foreigner.

The Reason to Never Forget Laundry

For the past few months, I've been all but begging to get my air conditioner fixed. At least three of my Chinese co-workers had talked to the agent I worked with until finally I enlisted the help of Wu, another co-worker. I'm still not exactly sure how she did it, but she managed to make my life easier when it came to getting the A/C fixed.

Before today, two men were sent, at different times, to see what was wrong. Both had said the problem was the A/C was too old to fix. I also learned that five years of Chinese doesn't pay off when trying to talk to your agent about broken appliances. Especially when there's a chance of talking mechanics. So when Wu stepped in, it was like a miracle.

Fast forward to today. After three hours of waiting around my over-heated apartment, a third repairman stepped in to check out what was wrong. It took him a little bit, but somehow he managed to get the air conditioning working again, despite its age.

As the repairman, or shifu as he's called in China, was working on the A/C, my agent came in. Both men stepped outside so they could talk about the air conditioner a little bit. And by stepping outside, I mean stepping out into my enclosed balcony. Shifu could point out issues with the A/C.

Going back in time a bit! Last week, I had a massive laundry day. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was washed. Unfortunately, due to both laziness and forgetfulness, I didn't put my clothes away after they'd been dried. So when Shifu and my agent went out to my balcony, the first thing they saw was underwear looking at them. I'd never felt so awkward in my life.

Moral of the story: Put your damn laundry away. Especially if the first thing you see when you walk out are bras and panties.

A Post of Appreciation

For the past year, I've noticed that I'd been getting a lot of messages on facebook from people telling me that they love my posts, and they love how I've been doing. Not exactly in those words, but the gist of what they were saying is there. These messages stuck out to me because I'd get these messages from people whose facebooks I'd look at to see how they were doing, but I hadn't talked to in a long time. But I still had an interest on how they were doing in life.

These messages would make me smile all the time. It was actually pretty awesome knowing that someone that I didn't normally talk to was liking what I'd posted. Some have said it was inspiring. That was something that really struck me.

To me, it was really humbling to see that something I was doing was making an impact on someone's life. It was the coolest thing ever.

For those of you that have been sending those different messages, I thank you. It's been inspiring to me to receive these messages, regardless of who you are.

Captain America

Finally, I saw Captain America, The Winter Soldier. I've been wanting to see this movie for a while, despite never seeing the first Captain America movie before. Luckily, I didn't need to see the first one to follow along with the second one. I was able to catch up nicely. Maybe that was because the movie ws doing a pretty good job setting up for what will be the second Avengers movie.

Either way, the movie amused me greatly. There were some parts of the movie that I saw coming, but at the same time, I almost feel like it was set up for a third Captain America movie. We'll have to see after the next Avengers movie comes out. For I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Third Captain America movie after Avengers.