Chatty Kathies

I'm not very talkative, sometimes.  In general, I like to listen, think through my thoughts before verbalizing them.  I also find that I get to know people best through time, no  t by asking 20 questions.  It's actually something I mean to work on, since I have trouble engaging people right off the bat.

But there are times when I think silence is warranted.  For example, when I am on a long flight.   Or when I'm in a taxi going home after a long day.  The worst is when the taxi driver is chatty.  In China it's particularly bad, because I can't understand them through their thick accents half the time, and the other half of the time, I just plain don't understand.  So I just smile and nod, but they keep asking me questions and I feel obligated to at least acknowledge the interaction.

I wish people would just get the drift sometimes.  Stop talking to me!  There's no point to this conversation!  Is there?

A new phobia

I think I am afraid of clowns.

Plain view

In China, everyone, whether they want to or not, is intimately acquainted.  Since drying machines are either ineffective or unavailable, almost everyone line dries their clothes.  This means that everyone has seen everyone's unmentionables.  

That means whites have to be kept more than white, and colors have to be kept their original color.  Maybe this indicates China is a more "open" society than most think.  

Not so rose-colored glasses

I always thought that if something felt good at the time you did it, it should stay good.  For example, if you had an awesome time at a concert, but your car got stolen while you were at the concert, the concert should still have been an awesome time.

Likewise, say, you don't tell someone something until after a dinner, or a party, so they have a good time there.  When you tell them later, does it erase the good time they had?

Unfortunately, it seems so.  My last 6 months in China were great... up until the 5th month or so.  Now, my entire China experience feels shitty.  When I think back on it, I know I felt really great at the time, but now I can only feel regret, or disappointment.  

It sucks that feelings are retroactive.

Rememberies

People often say I have more beauty products than a girl, and while I contest that assertion, I do like to moisturize my hands.  And there's a very good reason for that.  

I once got ringworm on my hand (it's like athlete's foot on your hand) in the first few months of teaching when I first started with Teach For America.  It was the first time I used chalk a lot, and my hands were very dry from the chalk.  That's apparently one good way to get ringworm, dry, chapped hands.  So after I cured my ringworm, I started to moisturize my hands like crazy.  I'm teaching at a camp in a poor Chinese school in the outskirts of Beijing, so I've been writing a lot with chalk for the first time in a few years.  

I got involved in this camp through a group in China that focuses on enhancing the lives of migrant children.  Migrant children are in a very precarious situation in China, straddling the grey, murky area of the law.  Technically, it is illegal for people in China to leave their hometown or province without the proper paperwork (e.g. if they get into a university in another province). 

Well, there are probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of migrant workers in China, busily digging and building for the 2008 Olympics.  Well, since they're not technically allowed here, their children can't go to the local public schools.  Where do the children go?  Turns out local businessmen open up "black market" private schools.  

So far, the children are great.  They are so bright, and full of energy, it's really a shame that they are relegated to less than stellar education.  I just hope I can help make their experience with the camp a good one.