weird, wild, stuff

As I am teaching a course on the introduction to western civilization I have been trying to introduce the ideas that have helped shape the way the west thinks differently than the east. I have gotten to the part about christ and the whole christianity part and to my surprise the students here, while they have heard of jesus they know nothing about the life or teaching or beliefs or anything. Now I am an atheist. I have a very strong belief in nothing. I dont want to teach the students about christianity, but it is a really important part of the shaping of the west. So how much do I tell them? Do I present it as a story, some peoples beliefs? Is it important that he is born of immaculate conception? Really hard choices for me to make. I think that I will go with the pure history of it. The belief system is up to them to figure out. I will teach them the actual history, try not to put too much bias into my explanation. But it is really odd that these students have never been exposed. It really is such a huge part of the culture of the west. We have fights still about this in our courts and it influences so much of our discourse. It is no wonder why we as different cultures have so many misunderstanding. I have a hard job out ahead. How to make them understand without advocating for any particular belief system.

happy patty day

And last night is a bit of a blur. Went to an Irish bar with some friends and of course there were specials to be had, namely a bottle of Jameson for 200RMB. Oh and a funny Guinness hat can with the bottle. Thats cheap, like the same price at the supermarket (packey) so I drank a bunch of that and then went for a walk to another bar, along the way I saw a brown pot a little bigger than my head. Now it was a nice pot sitting there in the trash shame to let things go to waste so I picked it up without thinking. I just wanted it to grow some plants in. Well I walk into the bar and let me tell you, I have never been so popular, everyone and their mother wanted to talk to me about my pot. I started telling people that I was a leprechaun and the pot had gold at the start of the night but as it was late I had no more. People just believed it. I guess they figured why would I tell them that, or they thought I was insane and wielding a large heavy pot best not to argue with me. The thing that got me was how few people said I was tall for a leprechaun. I guess they have seen tall ones before. At any rate I got the pot home safely and will get some dirt and seeds for the thing, what should I plant? goldenrod?

spring is in the air

Ah spring so lovely, so refreshing such a grand time of the year. The birds sing more, the forsythia has exploded like a bush full of yellow popped corn, and the willows have a sheen of green upon their boughs. I do so love the spring. It makes me want to go outside and lay in the grass and soak it all in.Alas Today is one of my longest days with 5 total hours of work I missed a good portion of the day, however I did stare longingly out of the windows of the classes that I was teaching. I thought about taking one of the classes outside for lessons but the few times I have tried that it never works for me. Perhaps next week I will give it a shot. Ah one thing that I dislike about the spring, mosquitoes. I have had a mosquito in my bedroom for the last three days, I am not sure if it is the same one or if there is a sign on my door that says "all you can drink blood buffet" because I lay awake for the better part of the night waiting for that bastard to land on me and bite and just as I nod off it lands, I jump awake smack myself super hard miss the thing get angry and turn on the lights and look around for it. I never have any luck finding it eventually I go back to bed, lay awake waiting for it to land nod off....repeat ad infinitum. All in all though my legs are happy to be out of pants, my arms happy to be in short sleeve shirt and I am happy to be alive in the springtime.

well, well, well

So yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest. However as it usually does life got in the way of my rest. I was so busy that I didnt even get to go for a run. It all started the night before. I foolishly invited some friends over for dinner and when I got up I realized that I had no food to feed them, thus it was off to the store for supplies. Now I must tell you that Sunday at the grocery store is like hell on earth. After battling through the throngs of bodies I checked out. Got home and realized that I had a shitload of lessons to plan for the week. I had forgotten that the class on monday has a quiz and I needed to write it up. So I took care of that, then I needed to get some drinks for the guests, and make copies of the quiz. After that I still had to cook and clean. For the love of all things holy, why did I invite others to my house for dinner? At any rate dinner was fine, and this morning I woke up and realized that I had forgotten to post. Not that it really matters, just trying to stay in the habit. perhaps I will write another one later, if I am not asleep.

a few of my

favorite things. Vodka, Gin, Rum, Scotch. Whiskey, tequila, bourbon, wine, and beer. tonight there is a bar that will be hosting a 3-2-1 event. that is 3RMB shots or 2RMB shots or 1RMB shots. Now for those of you not living in china there are 6.8RMB for every dollar. That makes the most expensive shot less than 50 cents. and the cheapest shot like 12 cents. I may or may not make it home this evening. Thankfully tomorrow is sunday the prescribed day of rest. Unless you are jewish then its another day or muslim then friday I think. I might convert to all three, long weekends every week.
At any rate I have to put on some clothes and clean up a bit, no need to start out sloppy. Thats the way I plan to finish. Oh I got a little flashing light for the back of my bike, that ought to keep me safe right?

frat boys

So yesterday I went to a bar to play some beirut (google it if you are unfamiliar) and there were a lot of people playing and having a good time. Which is very cool, I do love a crowded bar and people about. However there was one group of people there that really pissed me off. These jackasses acted like they owned the bar, sitting on the backrest of the seats even though there were people in the next booth. So the people in the booth had frat boy ass right next to their head. Just an amazing amount of selfishness and lack of class and respect. Then one of the frasshole stepped over the back of the booth into the other peoples booth in order to go out, instead of asking his friends to move so he could get out. Now as if that werent enough he also stepped on the jackets as he climbed over the backrest. What a good forsaken idiot. Who raises these people? Why are they allowed to remain alive and using resources? Cant we have a moratorium on stupid? Please. At any rate I didnt arrive in time to actually play any beirut and so I just had some pizza and a few beers then went back home to sleep. Not the most exciting day or night but still fun being able to go to a bar at the drop of a hat. It is nice to live in a city again.

sleep

So is it wrong that I love to sleep? I came home from work today at 12 like I usually do and had lunch. Nothing special so far, but then I took a book from my bookshelf and lay down to read. I got an average amount of sleep last night and have not had a particular strenuous week. But as I lay down to read I got tired and said oh well I will just have a quick little nap. 2 hours later I woke up, I looked at the clock and thought just 5 more minutes, another 2 hours with me asleep. Then I wake again, and have to force myself out of bed, I swear I could have slept another week and a half. I dont understand why sometimes I can sleep forever and other times I will sleep like 4 hours at night and be rip roaring and ready to go. Is it the weather is it something wrong with my internal clock? I am really still very sleepy perhaps I will go lay down for another 5 minutes or so.

groovin

On a Sunday afternoon. Actually it is a Tuesday afternoon. But I am still groovin. I have had a good week so far enjoyed the classes that I am teaching and feel like I made some real progress in them, hoping to continue the trend with the rest of the classes this week. I rode my bike to work at the other college today , it takes about 25 minutes to get from this college to the other one, but all 25 minutes are in bike lanes, dedicated separated bike lanes with special lights at the intersections and all. It is something that the US really needs to get cracking on. No urban center should be allowed to widen the roads to accommodate heavier traffic without the inclusion of dedicated bike lanes for us non-drivers. I realize that it is impractical to get around in some places without a car, but I also lived in enough places to realize that if people are given the safe and relatively convenient option of biking to work or using electric scooters(all the rage here) many people will utilize that option. Now I know that it is impossible to bike across Houston or LA but many residents of those cities dont ever cross the city but live in their districts, and urban planning needs to be reinvented. Without the change in how we relate to the city around us we will continually fall back on what we are comfortable and familiar with. Plus why not give bikes their own lanes those people pay taxes too. They have a right to the benefit of those taxes. Why should they continue to pay for services that are not used by them without others reciprocating? Just a thought as I waited for the little bike light to go from red to green. I think I will spend the 20 RMB I saved by not cabbing it to the other job on beer. Then I can bike drunk at night. I wont get killed or run over as I will be in a bikes only lane.

lotion

My kingdom for some good lotion. The spring is trying to push its way into the city and it is getting warmer and warmer here. Unfortunately as the weather warms the humidity has not gotten any better. My skin is dry. I have looked everywhere for a good lotion and the only one I can find is a baby lotion that isnt too good. I can find the expensive stuff like nivea and l'oreal but they have whiteners in them. The look of beauty here is not the same as in the west. Here the idea is, white is beautiful, pale, pasty white is best, the kind of white that we in the west would associate with being sick. I like the tan I go to the beach on my vacation to offer skin to the gods. I dont want to be pale. But I also dont want to have terrible dry skin either. So my mission for the next week or so is to find a lotion that I can use and not get even more white. I have gone to all the major stores and the ones that specialize in beauty products but to no avail. Of course there is no Body Shop here in beijing. I will keep you all up to date on the progress on my search. And the condition of my skin.

Hey wait I gotta new complaint

Not really I just had nirvana in my head and wanted it out. So I got my bike back from the dudes and it is slammin now I am so happy that it is just what i wanted. And to make my life here in beijing even better I went for a run yesterday and I had been running in the park across from my house but it only goes for about 1 kilometer before you have to cross the street the first street is ok but the next one is a big street and it is a pain in the ass. So yesterday I went to the other corner and ran along the canal along a path that is a walking path, it goes on for about 2.5 kilometers without any interruption. So nice, just run and tune the world out and run. I will be going there for my runs from now on I think. But there is some bad news. I have tried twice in the last two days to go and play football(soccer) on the small field my school has and both times the thing has been locked. I must find out how to get it opened and when the hours are. As you probably noticed I have a bit more free time as I get into my groove at planning the lessons. I still have a few powerpoints to make so I gotta run.