Tuesday, January 25, 2011

practice

Today I went with along with Andrew to Dallas to run an errand.  After waiting in the office for a while I went outside to take medicine for a blooming headache.  out in the car I picked up one of my books about living in China and started browsing it.  It begins...

"Is China right for you?" was the first sentence of the book's introduction.  I mentioned in of my first entries how I know many things will be hard for me.  According to what I've read about people who will enjoy or adapt to living in China, I am the perfect candidate to not go.  I don't mind people staring much; that happens a lot here with my long hair and rebel-look.  But, "you'll have a rough time if...you have high standards for cleanliness and service"...I really like cleanliness, I would even say if it could be, it would be a hobby of mine.  As much as I try to be laid back (and have even become more laid back over the past few years), poor customer service is irritating.  There have been times I have ended up walking behind the counters at restaurants because I got tired of waiting for refills.  Also, some people call me patient...but others don't, if you know what I means.  Oh yeah, personal space is always a hobby of mine....



However, I really want to do this.  By now I have probably spent more time researching going to China than I did researching everything I ever researched combined during my college career.  I guess that alone doesn't mean anything but maybe it sounded cool.  Constantly I am excited to read and research China, look at maps and practice Chinese.  I even managed to rearrange my room so it's more conducive to research, print out maps to take notes on and send out dozens of messages to strangers in China about moving there.  For me it's a pretty big deal considering I will soon have a blog entry called "the myth of a sandwich" which will chronicle and analyze my ability to stand in front of the refrigerator and eat (by themselves) the ingredients of a sandwich while perplexedly being unable to assemble those ingredients into a sandwich.


126 yuan and a map of China posted to the wall...my office.

None of this really has anything to do with what my actual experience in China could be though; it's all theoretical right now, but I am definitely going to go and see for myself.  Today while we were in Dallas and I was waiting for Andrew I decided to explore unfamiliar territory.  So daring, this recluse walked around a handful of city blocks while trying not to feel or appear nervous and unsure of what I was doing.  I picked up some free papers from one of those free paper stands and watched the DART go by.  I walked by an assisted living center and looked up at the windows with their beautiful towering view of a medical plaza and 75.  I even saw an old person up there staring out the window...and I waved at them!!  This is practice.  I'm practicing for being in China!!  Maybe one day no one will have the slightest idea how uncomfortable I am just living in this world.  jk.

So...let me know what you think.

5 comments:

  1. "Cleanliness" really depends on where in China you go from what I've read. The more industrialized the are, the more "western-friendly" I would suspect. But from what I've been told, be prepared to squat over a "toilet" (aka a hole in the ground).

    Personal space and privacy are habits of mine as well. Asia should be interesting!

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  2. definitely agree with you. I guess you bring your own toilet paper with you too...that blew my mind when I read it. we might be closer to each other in Asia than we are in the states!

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  3. Tis really funny that you used the word "blooming" in this post b/c it is not too common unless you frequent Outback Steakhouse. The co-in-ki-dink is that on this very same day, before we went out on said errand, I was at the mechanic and an elder gentleman who is in town due to his daughter's recent relocation asked dad and I "when the city of Colleyville started blooming".

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  4. Prior to attempting the PC, I had spoken with a couple that spent two years in China (I forgot which city/town), and they regaled me with their Chinese tales. They touched on the cleanliness and staring. They also said that there was a lot of pointing shouting/laughing/etc. from kids when they would walk by, as well as everyone wanting to say "hello" to them, and quite a bit of "rudeness" (run-on sentence king).

    Your bit about sandwiches confuses me, I guess I'll have to check it out.

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  5. I tried a long time to make that sandwich statement understandable. I guess I should've erred on the side of comprehension as opposed to attempted cleverness.

    basically it is this:

    1) I go to the fridge and take out cheese, ham and a piece of bread.
    2) then, I eat them all as individual entities--without fashioning them into a sandwich.
    3) I wonder why it is impossible for me to be motivated enough to assemble a sandwich.

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