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I COLLECT YOUR ISSUES

LIKE A MAGAZINE

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Taj Mahal

My favorite for-real food in the whole world is pad thai. I've been trying to find a thai restaurant here pretty much since I showed up with very limited luck. The one that I've seen in real life is really intimidating, like you're only supposed to go there if you're very rich and have both an entourage and a reservation. I am not rich and have neither of those things, so I'm afraid to go in. Maybe I could wear a shirt that says "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" in Chinese, but I don't know if the humor translates.


I asked two of my students tonight if they knew where any Thai restaurants were in the area, and they pointed to an alley right next to the school. "REALLY!?" I shouted excitedly. They assured me yeah, just walk back there and I would find it.

I walked back, and I saw a restaurant with the character for "Thai" in its name, which I've memorized just in case. I wasn't sure that this place would actually have pad thai, but I decided if it was worth a try. In my currently terrible Chinese, I asked if the host spoke English. Nope. I looked at the menu which was in English, and it appeared to be pretty much exclusively Indian items. I asked some more in my terrible Chinese if they had Thai food, and after a while they agreed that no, they didn't, and I should try yet another street (which I later tried, and also failed).

I found out that the reason "Thai" was in the name is because the name of the restaurant is supposed to be "Taj Mahal," and they use the sound of the Thai character for the Ta in Taj.

Peace out.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Me First

People say that one of the problems with China is that the people have a "Me First" complex/issue/problem. I don't know if it's true of every single person or in actually meaningful situations, but it definitely applies to cutting in lines. It doesn't matter where you are - train station, police station, bank, hospital, your own funeral - someone will try their best to cut in front of you if you leave even a millimeter of space between yourself and the body in front of you. That might be part of why Chinese people pack so tightly in those types of places.


I was at the store across the street tonight getting a recharge card for my phone. I tried to do it online, but I spent about 20 minutes navigated the site in Chrome-translated Chinese and made no progress. I don't think paying online here is as easy as it is in the states. Anywho, there was one little old Chinese lady at the counter. I was standing right by her, leaning against the counter with maybe ten inches of space between myself and the old lady.

I saw a youngish girl walking towards the store. I thought to myself, "Hm, I wonder if that's enough space for someone to try to steal it. I bet this girl wouldn't be that rude."

WRONG.

She came back to the counter when she had her things and bolted right for the space in between me and the old lady. I couldn't believe it. Before she could cement herself to the counter in front of me, I reached my arm forward and gave her a little elbow on the side and basically boxed her out of the way like you would in soccer or basketball. I should say that I've NEVER seen the victim of cutting do this in China before.

The girl seemed quite taken aback. She gasped a little bit. I forced her behind me in the line. She tried to say something to me in Chinese. I didn't catch much except for the phrase "don't have." I wouldn't have cared even if I understood, so when she spoke I just turned and glared daggers at her, which I'm told I'm pretty good at. Once I turned back around, we didn't glance or speak to each other again.

Peace out.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Little Meow

The Chinese word for "cat" is "mao," which I'm personally convinced is an onomatopoeia for the sound that the animal makes. The word for a kitten is just "xiao mao," where "xiao" means small/little. So in my head I think of the Chinese word for kitten as "little meow." I dig it.

I was in a restaurant a couple days ago just across the street from the college and on the second floor of the restaurant, one of the ones I don't go to very often and I'm actually not sure of the name of right now. It's very thin, with vibrantly colored floors and menu and a TV that's way too loud. I haven't had much luck with the things I've ordered there before, but I don't just want to go to the same two or three restaurants for 10 months so sometimes I try to do something new.

When I showed up, a guy who I'm pretty sure is the owner was sitting at a table two across from me, and there was a kitten on the table with him that kept poking at his food. The waitress girls - possibly his daughters - were eyeing it, and then I think he picked it up and put it on the ground. It kept running around his feet searching for bits of food or trying to pull its way back up, so one of the girls grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, opened a door to another room in the side of the eating area, and closed the kitten behind the door. I was a little sad, because I wanted to eat with him/her.

Later, after my food came out, the kitten managed to walk out of the door when someone else walked through it. It walked around for a little while, and then I think one of the girls noticed it again. She picked it up and was walking towards the door, but an older woman noticed that I was watching intently, and probably looked sad. She said something, and the girl looked at me. I put my hand out. I didn't know what to say, because I didn't know the word for "cat" or "kitten" yet. I know the words for "I want" and "it," but I don't know if it's for humans or animals. If it's for humans, I didn't want to look at some 14-year-old waitress girl and say "I want it." I ended up just saying "Wo yao!" [I want!]. It was clear enough what I was talking about, so she came over and handed the little meow to me.

It sat on my lap for the first little while and I pet it while it rested on my knee. Sometimes it was claw and knead my knee, which I didn't mind because it's just a kitten and not actually painful in any way. Eventually he got a little bit nosy and started aiming for my food, and then insisted on jumping up on the table. I held him off for a little while by putting pieces of meat on a napkin in very small chunks and letting it try to eat them, which it would manage after a bit of effort. But then it kept going for the noodles, and I didn't really have anything more to give him. He wanted the whole plate, not just the pieces. So I put him back on my knee, but he didn't like that, so he hopped down to the floor, and the waitress took him back again.

Peace out.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Not Creative, Just Poor


My desk was too low.


Peace out.

Monday, August 06, 2012

The Rules

1. The Rules are written in pencil so that you can change them if you really fucked up. They go into effect at 12:30PM, Monday, August 6th, 2012, China time. But you should start earlier than that.


2. Write a blog post every day. It doesn't need to be long, or current, or true. It can just be an idea. But you have to do it.

3. Carry your camera with you outside of class. Remember your graduation speech? Remember how happy you were to see your Digital Pictures 2 folder? Who cares if your jean pockets ruin one per year? It's worth it!

4. If something is too personal for a blog, that's why you're going to do your absolute best to take up stick figure art again. You'll be glad you did. So grab a fucking hard-back spiral bound journal ASAP and get on it.

5. Stop feeling inadequate/being a pussy and try to write some fucking songs. And don't blame the guitar. Stop being lazy, get over it, and get better at it.

6. You have 30 minutes on Reddit per day. No link hogging. DO COOL SHIT instead.

7. Email or elsewise contact old friends sometimes. You'll both appreciate it.

8. Explore more once you get a bike. Look for buildings to climb, good public pieces, places you could put your own, ways to interact with the environment.

9. DETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETAILSDETA

10. Spend as little time eating as you can. Be wary of lingering conversation.

11. Studying Chinese gets moved up the priority list. Now is th etime.

12. Once you get a bike, exercise at least 4x/wk. Try to get skates/stick/puck.

13. Acceptable pastime activities: Blog, photograph, draw, guitar, piano, write, email friends, study Chinese, exercise, watch a movie/lecture, read a book, do math.
Unacceptable: Reddit, Facebook.

14. You listen to to-do lists so MAKE SOME! And then follow through.

15. Read the rules sometimes to help remind you of them/enforce them.

THE AMENDMENTS

I. Program for at least 15 minutes a day. Project Euler counts; so does Udacity.

II. Aim for 3 pages of AoPS per day and 1 page of The Math Book. per day.

//

In real life, they're highlighted and underlined. I didn't write the word "pastime." I actually wrote "past-time" and realized that it was wrong, underlined it to shame myself, and draw a smiley face with equal-sign eyes over top of it.

Peace out.