Wednesday, August 31, 2005
already an amusing autumn
yay, i get to be a student again. tomorrow i start my first semester here at yunnan normal university and after a year in china i'm finally going to get some structured learning concerning my current language of interest and proximity. long time coming. i'm really more excited than i should be, but it is a really good thing. my mind has been craving this for some time. what do we seek but that which we covet? hmm, not sure i can answer that. but honestly, in two weeks i'll probably be back in that-eight-oclock-class-is-going-to-kill-me mode, but for right now, morning can't come too soon. you all in med school or law school or at your jobs across the world don't feel at all the same, i'm sure, but i don't care. so.. meh! i'm having a good time.
any...hoo. let's sum up what's been going on in kunming. shallllll we? all in all i've been putting the finishing touches on applying for school, culminating in today's activities, where we got our class schedules and bought our books. and for those of you buying books in the states at any point in the near future, mine cost approx 14 us dollars. ha!
yesterday we went to a morning orientation where the dean and the upper level management of our Chinese International Studies Dept gave speeches and told us again about visas and all that shtuff. it was good for my listening skills, as one of the teachers said everything in chinese and then once again in english, but Lordie, that was boring. and then there was a question and answer session where an australian, a vietnamese, a thai, and a korean from last year sat up front and answered very few questions. it was cool listening to answers in korean that i had no idea what they were talking about, but the novelty wore off in two seconds. i was ready for lunch by breakfast.
last week i helped my roomie kyle get a year membership to a local gym. why didn't you get one you ask? well, as i explained to one of the staff at the gym when she asked me "so, you don't like this place?" i don't like exercising indoors much. i'd rather be outside running or playing frisbee or fighting security guards than indoors running on a treadmill or pumping iron or fighting gym staff. that being said, every now and then i'll stretch out in my room (my version of yoga), but i don't have to pay for a year's membership to do so. nuff said. no wait, more to be said. kyle's credit card wouldn't run on their machine, so one of the salespeople in a suit walked us to three or four banks around the area until we found a bank of china that would spit out some money for his debit card. that guy was a trooper and very friendly. i can't talk enuff about how friendly people are in kunming. but since i'm spotty on my blogging, it ends up being just about the right amount of talking.
kyle (subconsciously) wanted me to talk about an incident today in a smoothie shop. he was talking about his days working in a redneck bar in oklahoma and being a bouncer and bartender and all. and somewhere in all of that he said something to the effect of "women love the two-step" referring to the country music version of the electric slide in a very experienced and confident manner. well, i instantly imagined buff kyle in cowboy boots and with a huge belt buckle and black cowboy hat stompin around on a hardwood floor with twenty other similarly-dressed "fellas" with an equal number of fawning ladies watching this process and fainting from pleasure. this all happened in a millisecond, but owing to the amount of time the two of us have now spent together, kyle correctly read the sly smile that flickered across my face. oh, and he also is a wimp when it comes to eating wasabi. and he can't drink chinese milk for some reason. something about the taste. i think it tastes fine, sorta like fresh milk but you can keep a carton of it for a year before it goes bad. i think he just fears the longevity. daunting, it is.
back to school tomorrow, i'm not sure how the other students are going to turn out. i have lots of hope for my thai, vietnamese, japanese, and korean brethren, but i have a not-entirely-ridiculous prejudice against the whities. last year in shanghai, i noticed that a lot of people from america and england came over for many different reasons, most of them not at all compatible with my own. with that knowledge, i'm scared to even try to get along with the western contingent of our foreign student body. risky. a lot of them are studying abroad from their schools, but that could just mean that they're taking a year off to enjoy themselves and are not necessarily interested in whatever culture they end up in to pursue said plans. but, we'll see. it would work out great if they were all losers, tho, since then i would be forced to speak chinese to fill my friendship quota for the year. sad. banking on people being subpar. whatever happened to the belief in the inherent good in everyone? guess they confiscated it in customs.
i've had some nice bikerides around town, mostly dodging cars pedestrians and other cyclists, but also getting a good feel for the city and the traffic laws. of which there are none except, don't get hit dummy. and don't hit anyone either. get it, got it, goooood. i love sitting in the bike lane at a red light with everyone else on their bikes, trying to anticipate the green light and checking out everyone else at the same time, hovering directly behind the scooter cuz i know he/she'll be first outta the gates, glancing to my left and nodding at the shotgun sitters in the four doors, adjusting whatever bag i'm wearing, tensing my foot on the pedal and checking again that i'm still in the lower gear that i drifted up to the stoplight in. i haven't ridden a bike in forever. i'm finding now that i've missed out on it all this time. it certainly enhances one identity, making you not only a person, but a person on a bike. the metal frame becomes a part of your legs, the wheels spinning according to the flexing of your ankles, the gears tendons stretching from your fingertips, the brakes from the forearms and biceps. you become a different animal, linked somehow to the metals of the earth and the evolution of humanity. like the spider-like creatures in their symbiosis with the pod-bearing trees in His Dark Materials, we too pay close attention to our metal fruit pulled from the stony branches of this earth. we too thrill in the speed derived from our connection, riding the man-made lava flows we spew so carelessly, yet systematically, on the earth around us. and when our conveyances wither and become rusted, we spend much time in their maintenance and replacement. if only it were more about improving our identities and abilities and not so much about possession and material gain, i think cars and the like would be a great thing for everyone on this earth. but they're taken for granted, and the reason that they are so great is forgotten in the race for greater. and we push forward as the light turns green.
i recently watched the March of the Penguins, per a funny recommendation - that documentary about the Emperor penguins in the south pole. it was really cute and extremely well done. i had no idea that one, they were so cute, two, they could swim that fast underwater, and three, they moved so much and in such an orderly fashion. china could learn a bit from the penguins when it comes to forming lines. the penguins would walk miles over ice-encrusted land in a single-file line that stretched as far as the camera eye could see. and then, owing to the ccccold, they would get into a big mosh pit and cuddle for warmth. oh, and one of the coolest things about penguins is that, when they get tired, they can just slide around on their bellies and push themselves along instead of walking upright. but yeah.. i could talk more about the penguins and how evil seals and albatross are, but you should just go see the movie. it's french, but i bet there's already a dubbed english version. subtitles are better, tho. the best part of the movie is how they do a good job showing both the birth and death of the species, the day and the night, the sun and the moon, water and sky. it's really beautiful.
in terms of my surroundings: the population has picked up since school is beginning again. lots more kids around with books held in front of them, reciting that day's lesson to themselves. there are moon cakes in all the stores because of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival coming up. the rain has let up a bit the past couple of days. quite sunny today, actually. sunny yesterday. even sunnier today.
i just noticed today that americans often relate to one another when meeting in foreign countries according to the forms of american media that they have in common. i often find myself quoting family guy to other americans, or talking about different music groups, or movies that we both liked. have we become such a media-driven country that talking about our favorite stewie lines is the only way to find intimacy with another soul? or is nature just that boring? well, not from my perspective. but it's hard to find other people that share the impression that it is more worthwhile to talk about dragonflies than x-files.
ah well. guess i'll just go on living and watching for my chance. and in the meantime, quoting family guy'll suffice. i, for one, find it hilarious. oh, that's right, i went there.
it's about my bedtime. gotta get up early tomorrow. i'll try to report back this weekend on my first two days of blissiness.
ta.
ps none of that had to do much with the title of this post, but, i'll leave it anyway. for me.
any...hoo. let's sum up what's been going on in kunming. shallllll we? all in all i've been putting the finishing touches on applying for school, culminating in today's activities, where we got our class schedules and bought our books. and for those of you buying books in the states at any point in the near future, mine cost approx 14 us dollars. ha!
yesterday we went to a morning orientation where the dean and the upper level management of our Chinese International Studies Dept gave speeches and told us again about visas and all that shtuff. it was good for my listening skills, as one of the teachers said everything in chinese and then once again in english, but Lordie, that was boring. and then there was a question and answer session where an australian, a vietnamese, a thai, and a korean from last year sat up front and answered very few questions. it was cool listening to answers in korean that i had no idea what they were talking about, but the novelty wore off in two seconds. i was ready for lunch by breakfast.
last week i helped my roomie kyle get a year membership to a local gym. why didn't you get one you ask? well, as i explained to one of the staff at the gym when she asked me "so, you don't like this place?" i don't like exercising indoors much. i'd rather be outside running or playing frisbee or fighting security guards than indoors running on a treadmill or pumping iron or fighting gym staff. that being said, every now and then i'll stretch out in my room (my version of yoga), but i don't have to pay for a year's membership to do so. nuff said. no wait, more to be said. kyle's credit card wouldn't run on their machine, so one of the salespeople in a suit walked us to three or four banks around the area until we found a bank of china that would spit out some money for his debit card. that guy was a trooper and very friendly. i can't talk enuff about how friendly people are in kunming. but since i'm spotty on my blogging, it ends up being just about the right amount of talking.
kyle (subconsciously) wanted me to talk about an incident today in a smoothie shop. he was talking about his days working in a redneck bar in oklahoma and being a bouncer and bartender and all. and somewhere in all of that he said something to the effect of "women love the two-step" referring to the country music version of the electric slide in a very experienced and confident manner. well, i instantly imagined buff kyle in cowboy boots and with a huge belt buckle and black cowboy hat stompin around on a hardwood floor with twenty other similarly-dressed "fellas" with an equal number of fawning ladies watching this process and fainting from pleasure. this all happened in a millisecond, but owing to the amount of time the two of us have now spent together, kyle correctly read the sly smile that flickered across my face. oh, and he also is a wimp when it comes to eating wasabi. and he can't drink chinese milk for some reason. something about the taste. i think it tastes fine, sorta like fresh milk but you can keep a carton of it for a year before it goes bad. i think he just fears the longevity. daunting, it is.
back to school tomorrow, i'm not sure how the other students are going to turn out. i have lots of hope for my thai, vietnamese, japanese, and korean brethren, but i have a not-entirely-ridiculous prejudice against the whities. last year in shanghai, i noticed that a lot of people from america and england came over for many different reasons, most of them not at all compatible with my own. with that knowledge, i'm scared to even try to get along with the western contingent of our foreign student body. risky. a lot of them are studying abroad from their schools, but that could just mean that they're taking a year off to enjoy themselves and are not necessarily interested in whatever culture they end up in to pursue said plans. but, we'll see. it would work out great if they were all losers, tho, since then i would be forced to speak chinese to fill my friendship quota for the year. sad. banking on people being subpar. whatever happened to the belief in the inherent good in everyone? guess they confiscated it in customs.
i've had some nice bikerides around town, mostly dodging cars pedestrians and other cyclists, but also getting a good feel for the city and the traffic laws. of which there are none except, don't get hit dummy. and don't hit anyone either. get it, got it, goooood. i love sitting in the bike lane at a red light with everyone else on their bikes, trying to anticipate the green light and checking out everyone else at the same time, hovering directly behind the scooter cuz i know he/she'll be first outta the gates, glancing to my left and nodding at the shotgun sitters in the four doors, adjusting whatever bag i'm wearing, tensing my foot on the pedal and checking again that i'm still in the lower gear that i drifted up to the stoplight in. i haven't ridden a bike in forever. i'm finding now that i've missed out on it all this time. it certainly enhances one identity, making you not only a person, but a person on a bike. the metal frame becomes a part of your legs, the wheels spinning according to the flexing of your ankles, the gears tendons stretching from your fingertips, the brakes from the forearms and biceps. you become a different animal, linked somehow to the metals of the earth and the evolution of humanity. like the spider-like creatures in their symbiosis with the pod-bearing trees in His Dark Materials, we too pay close attention to our metal fruit pulled from the stony branches of this earth. we too thrill in the speed derived from our connection, riding the man-made lava flows we spew so carelessly, yet systematically, on the earth around us. and when our conveyances wither and become rusted, we spend much time in their maintenance and replacement. if only it were more about improving our identities and abilities and not so much about possession and material gain, i think cars and the like would be a great thing for everyone on this earth. but they're taken for granted, and the reason that they are so great is forgotten in the race for greater. and we push forward as the light turns green.
i recently watched the March of the Penguins, per a funny recommendation - that documentary about the Emperor penguins in the south pole. it was really cute and extremely well done. i had no idea that one, they were so cute, two, they could swim that fast underwater, and three, they moved so much and in such an orderly fashion. china could learn a bit from the penguins when it comes to forming lines. the penguins would walk miles over ice-encrusted land in a single-file line that stretched as far as the camera eye could see. and then, owing to the ccccold, they would get into a big mosh pit and cuddle for warmth. oh, and one of the coolest things about penguins is that, when they get tired, they can just slide around on their bellies and push themselves along instead of walking upright. but yeah.. i could talk more about the penguins and how evil seals and albatross are, but you should just go see the movie. it's french, but i bet there's already a dubbed english version. subtitles are better, tho. the best part of the movie is how they do a good job showing both the birth and death of the species, the day and the night, the sun and the moon, water and sky. it's really beautiful.
in terms of my surroundings: the population has picked up since school is beginning again. lots more kids around with books held in front of them, reciting that day's lesson to themselves. there are moon cakes in all the stores because of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival coming up. the rain has let up a bit the past couple of days. quite sunny today, actually. sunny yesterday. even sunnier today.
i just noticed today that americans often relate to one another when meeting in foreign countries according to the forms of american media that they have in common. i often find myself quoting family guy to other americans, or talking about different music groups, or movies that we both liked. have we become such a media-driven country that talking about our favorite stewie lines is the only way to find intimacy with another soul? or is nature just that boring? well, not from my perspective. but it's hard to find other people that share the impression that it is more worthwhile to talk about dragonflies than x-files.
ah well. guess i'll just go on living and watching for my chance. and in the meantime, quoting family guy'll suffice. i, for one, find it hilarious. oh, that's right, i went there.
it's about my bedtime. gotta get up early tomorrow. i'll try to report back this weekend on my first two days of blissiness.
ta.
ps none of that had to do much with the title of this post, but, i'll leave it anyway. for me.
