Thursday, June 10, 2004

Tight quarters and other tidbits

A friend I met on loveboat...

Ok, brief aside - in case you don't know, "loveboat" is actually a "study tour" that the Taiwanese government puts on to bring ABCs - American-born Chinese to Taiwan, so later we'll invest oodles of money and support Taiwan when China launches missles at them. Loveboat is aptly nicknamed because Chinese parents send their children on this trip to find spouses. Ameazingly enough, there are some that do. It's officially called a "study tour" because you're seeing Taiwan but taking classes in Chinese, classical Chinese instruments, and culture. Usually, none of the above happens. But it's still a good time, you go to the outdoor night market, get diahrrea, hang out at clubs where everyone is ABC, and go KTV (aka Karaoke). You shop in all the clothing stores where things actually fit right. You marvel at how there are no toilets, only squatters. You get used to cockroaches everywhere. And you become an instant expert on Chinese pop music because the only thing on TV is Chinese MTV.

... and her roommate are in town from Florida. They're exploring the city and thinking about living here. It's a big culture shock for them though, as western Florida is like the deep South, and NYC is a little different from that.

In any case, my brother has been living in my tiny, tiny NYC apartment because he as a summer job and my mommy told me to let him live with me. You can imagine, with four people, it's pretty tight quarters. However, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm realizing now that I can probably fit four small people in addition to me, or three larger people in addition to me, in my apartment. So bring on the guests! (Please BYOSPB... bring your own sheets, pillows, and blankets - I don't have room in my apartment to have extra sets!!)

I went to the gym last night to try and catch my favorite class, cardio tai box. If I haven't mentioned it already, there's this one instructor everyone likes named Keith. He's quite good, but I think all the girls go to see him, not work out. Whatever it takes to help people get fit, right? I'll go to class no matter who's teaching, but the girls will leave if Keith doesn't show, and there's a sub. Well, last night, there was a sub. I was about 20 minutes late coming from a meeting, and thought I could just hop in to class. But when I got there, I saw that there was a sub, I went downstairs to see if anyone was in class, but nope. Empty studio. Figures - the one night I can make class in two weeks, and class is canceled.

The gym is an interesting place - I'm noticing that there are a set of "regulars" that I always see. There are the muscleheads who lift weights only, there are the girls who run on the treadmill or do the ellipticals only, there are the people who can afford personal trainers, and there are the transients, people who you see once or twice and then disappear. Nobody appears to know each other though, you just go in, work out, and leave. One habit of mine: checking out every female that walks by. I can't help it! It happens on the street too. I just have to check them out. It's just a quick up and down (and side to side, if necessary).

Lastly, given that just two and a half months ago, I thought I would never have a blog, it's quite surprising to me that I have one now. My buddy Paul just started one too. I think maybe all the news on blogs and stuff are bringing us close to the tipping point, where everyone will have a blog, kind of like everyone has an email address.

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