I’ve signed up for the gym today. One whole year paid up front there is no getting out of that commitment. Great. Julie is just the gym partner I need she reminds me a lot of my physical therapist, relentless. The only way to describe it is with my favorite joke:

What’s the difference between a Physical Therapist and a Terrorist?*

When I signed up I got a free gym bag which was great! The gym is fairly new and has quite an assortment of machines. We worked on the Elliptical for a majority of our hour and half session. Then did a circuit around the machines. Its so much more efficient to have a partner.

Then the reality hit as I realized I was the prude American walking into a very open locker room. Needless to say I’ve opted for waiting to change at home. So with the semester starting next week I’m finally settling into a routine which will be nice.

*You can negotiate with a terrorist.

Well today I hit it, my first year anniversary. I’ve officially been in China for 1 year.

As I reflect back on the year I can hardly believe it is already over. As a kid years seemed to crawl by at an unbearably slow rate, now they seem to fly by. As I look forward to another year in China I know this one will only go by faster.

I have my list of regrets and accomplishments. I hope to add to the accomplishments and reduce the regrets as my second year gets underway. I know I’ve made the goal before but this year I’m serious, I will not go home until I can carry on a fluent conversation in Chinese.

I always scoffed at those who lived in a country for more than six months without trying to learn the language. I have become the worst offender and am determined to change that this year. I can do it! I can no longer hide behind the excuse of settling in. With a full year under my belt the big surprises are gone. There is plenty of room for the little ones which will inevitably come but I can turn my focus to Chinese and the culture and way from day to day living.

I’d just like to say Thank You to my family for all they support they have given me over the year and continue to give. I could not be here without all your constant love, support and of course Skype calls.

I’m no longer the newbie! I’m officially a Sophomore!

So let me preface this with the fact that it is hearsay. Kelly Skyped me yesterday with a story that will have a profound impact on my future WalMart shopping. Although I’m waiting for the personal experience to write a truly scathing review of the experience, I am grateful all the same never to have one.

While shopping at WalMart with Ryan, Kelly got a truly unique WalMart experience. As she was walking towards the dairy section she noticed an arched stream out of the corner of her eye. She turned to find a Grandmother holding her young grandson over the floor to pee. Kelly couldn’t help but verbalize her surprise and pointed the scene out to Ryan. Kelly even drew attention as she exclaimed  ”You’ve got to be kidding me!” The only response from the Grandmother was a friendly smile. Really people, is the Yogurt aisle not even off limits as a public restroom. To Kelly’s complete horror, she walked past 10min later to find that the puddle was still there. You’d think as peeing everywhere is a common occurrence there would be a designated pee cleaner-upper. But WalMart is a large store so perhaps they were engaged elsewhere.

I just appreciated the heads up. I’ll now be taking the long way around to the milk. I’m not naive enough to know this was not an isolated incident I’m sure the entire store has been peed on but really when you know the exact spot its just not the same walking there anymore.

I admit I’m a slow learner oh and I have a very bad habit of forgetting perfectly sound lessons. The past two days have been frustrating to say the least. To be completely honest I’m having trouble deciding which parts are the most aggravating, the situations that start the frustrations are the ending results that eliminate my ability to complain. I’m a complainer, when you take that I way I guess I’m just fumbling for something to say and silence is just something not to be stood for. To my mother’s utter horror I made the following quote my motto all through my teenage years:

Ah! Oh, don’t the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,
And isn’t your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Princess Ida (1884 opera). Act III

The past two days have seemed like the world has turned against me, from ridiculous class decisions to being swindled out of ¥500. But as I’m in the middle of writing a perfectly sound rant to upload to my blog blessings come pouring in and I just can’t complain. I actually delete the Note and start laughing at the entire situation. I know Mother, I’m recording this in hopes of remembering in the future. Here are a few examples.

Yesterday the Chinese teacher I work with for the young class asked if I was up for class by the river. As I mulled over the plan I knew it was a bad idea but couldn’t pass up the chance at reduced class time. Why a rambunctious class of eight year-olds who can’t managed to sit still in an air conditioned classroom would sit still in humid 98*weather by a river beats me but hey for less class time in front of them I’ll do just about anything.   Things just seemed to go from bad to worse throughout the entire expedition including arriving late back at the school. I was tired cranky and dripping sweat when I finally arrived at my lunch appointment with Kelly. The unproductive trip to the train station after lunch did nothing for my mood and I was fuming by the time I caught a bus home empty handed. But then came the most undeserved blessing of the month. As I reached my apartment I caught up with Julie the new French teacher. I helped take up her groceries and chilled at her place for a while. As I ranted about the horrors of purchasing train tickets in China she chuckled and then did the unthinkable. “Since you have to work tomorrow I can go back to the train station in the morning and get your tickets for you. Just give me the times and dates.” I was dumbfounded. I quickly backtracked and declined the offer. She obviously didn’t know what she was agreeing to. It was at least a two hour errand, it wasn’t like she was running my trash down the stairs. She insisted it was not a big deal as she had nothing to do in the morning and this would give her an opportunity to see more of the town. Finally, on the verge of tears with gratitude I wrote down the information and remained horrified at all the bitter feelings I’d been accumulating all day. I doubt Julie had any idea what the offer alone did for my morale. I was on cloud nine the rest of the day.

Late that evening Kelly called with exciting news, she had ran into Polish Peter at Walmart and was informed of a Train Ticket Booking Office around the corner. She gave me the directions and insisted it was a breeze. I was grateful to be able to call Julie and cancel her ticket run in the morning. I still felt terribly guilty about accepting her offer.

As for today, the big hoopla was my Summer Salary. It had been a struggle and a half to negotiate my terms and I had anticipated problems so came to the meeting prepared. I had printed and kept my weekly schedule and had to remind them of extra classes added last minute. In the end I was still jipped Y500 but have learned sometimes its just not worth the argument. I left determined to black list the school and began writing my daily post. But Heavenly Father was determined to stop the bitter feelings before they could germinate too long. I had a few errands to run and as usual anticipated frustration, miscommunication and more bad luck.

Instead things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. I found the ink refill stall in the Technology Market immediately and discovered that it was only Y10 to refill both my black and color cartridges. I think I confused the poor couple as I was so shocked with the price. After that I quickly found the wonderous Ticket Booking Office and managed the entire transaction in Chinese. To top it off the attendents were helpful and actaully slowed down and repeated things in Chinese instead of reverting to poor English. The blessings didn’t stop there as I caught the bus home a sweet Chinese Lady smiled and said “你好” . That’s all I really want a friendly greeting in Chinese every now and then. Not the constant screaming of “HEELLOO” behind you back from crude shirtless men. Oh and I forgot to mention that Kelly called and asked if she could come by with lunch, my choice, she’d meet me in about an hour. I declined the offer as it was out of her way but she was insistent and who am I to kick a gift horse in the mouth.

At this point I had to make a comment so I begged for the blessings to stop. Seriously Heavenly Father after this morning’s event all I wanted to do was wallow in self pity. I wanted a good well deserved rant towards all those that had made my last two days miserable but all I could manage was a happy light soul with nothing but positive thoughts. I almost burst out laughing as the rain broke as I stepped into my building. It down poured for two hours straight once I reached my apartment and I had forgoten my umbrella today, boy would that have been a disaster.

As I sat down at the computer Victoria Skyped and we had a good laugh as I relayed the last few days.

Why is it that no matter how hard I’ve tried the last two days to write my usual scathing posts of the atrocities of living in China all I can reflect on are the abundant blessings and tender mercies my Heavenly Father has bestowed these last few days. With my iPod I’ve started writing posts as they happen or on the bus between events. But within the hour something changes my mood and the feelings of frustration and self pity dissolve. For goodness sake can’t I just have one hour, one miserable hour to be my old self to find nothing good with my current situation and no sliver of sunshine on a stormy day.

So here is my Lesson learned: no matter how hard the situation there are always blessings around the corner that will lighten ones mood if you let it. I truly do live a charmed life and I spend too much time dwelling on the bad rather than appreciating the good. It is a better feeling going to bed each night reviewing the blessings in your life rather than your misfortunes. Now may I please remember this over the next year as I know many more frustrating days are ahead.

I like noise. I’ve always preferred some sort of background noise to silence. I have according to some, a bad habit of walking around with the world tuned out with earphones in. I argue I’m a much pleasanter person when not constantly focused on the insanity and mayhem around me.

I love to listen to music even if I’m far from a connoisseur. Before coming to China I upgraded my mp3 player for a 32gb Zune which I promptly filled with music. To be completely fair to Microsoft I purchased the Zune second hand on Craig’s List so I knew I was taking a risk with quality.

I must say I was impressed how long it did last. But the inevitable came and not at a more inconvenient time the month before my Tibet trip. The truly frustrating part was that it wasn’t broken all the way to make it impossible to use   and therefore easy to throw away. Instead it just ate earphones. The only logical explanation I could come up with was that perhaps my accident I had forgotten to charge it with the converted which was causing a short within the Zune. It would work fine but within a week my earphones wouldn’t. Even for the cheap earphones ¥17 a pop adds up quickly in a month. With more self control than I thought possible I put away my Zune and resolved to have a music free trip. I know impossible. I did take comfort that I could add music to my Kindle but with limited space and bad luck I ended up with an eight song loop for two weeks!

Katie and Thomas have an iPod Touch and I love its Chinese dictionary as you are able to draw a character. For those of us still learning our radicals looking up a character becomes too laborious an effort. I’ve been a PC girl all my life. I got a Zune as I couldn’t stand iTunes but the dictionary sold me I’m not going to lie. Also I had no idea where a legit Microsoft store was in China. So at the end of the Tibet trip I gave Katie and Thomas ¥2,400 and asked them if they could swing by the Apple Store in Beijing to purchase an iPod touch. They were as usual kind enough to do me the favor even if Thomas did give me a heart attack when as a joke he claimed to have forgotten to pick one up. Mind you he kept up the charade nearly two days. If Katie had told that I would have laughed right through the lie but I didn’t think Thomas capable of such a joke with regards to an Apple product.

My new appendage, I never leave home without it.

Once the joke was up and my iPod Touch was safely in my hands the relationship began to blossom. Okay maybe not right away I had to get screen covers figure out how to sync it get over my hates for iTunes and then learn how to work this thing. But once I started playing, I quickly got addicted. The two winning features in my opinion, first with the Chinese keyboard I can write characters throughout and practice daily and two once I figured out how to sync it to Outlook I can transfer my Notes onto the computer. Writing blog entries on the bus has quickly become a habit. I find I am able to keep up with my blogs on a daily basis and enjoy the diversion. I don’t get aggravated at people staring at me constantly as I’m too busy to notice.  

All is right with the world once again, I have music and I am not eating through earphones on a weekly basis.  

I am even willing to say I love my iPod Touch. I’m still not convinced Apples is better than Microsoft, as iTunes still has a ways to go, but for now I am a satisfied customer.

Now that I’ve moved in reality has decided to pay me a visit. As I lived between apartments I was able to keep reality at bay as I deluded myself with the notion that something big and different was just around the corner. Settling into yet another apartment I realize that I’m looking at just another semester much the same as the last two. Did I make the right decision to stay another year?

Living in China was suppose to be this grand adventure but now it seems rather normal and unexciting.

I have a nasty habit of complaining to people in hopes that they might provide me with a magical solution that will eliminate my dissatisfaction and map out the rest of my life in a nice perfect timetable. Yeah we all dream and then one day we finally wake up and realize the only person who can do that is ourselves.

In all my conversations I’m confronted with the same advice, find your passion and follow it. Okay simple enough but what in the world is my passion or better yet how on earth do I find it?

So here’s my lofty goal this semester, find my passion.  I’ll leave following it for another semester. Baby steps.

If anyone is up for sharing…what’s your passion and how did you find it?

The Central Walk or affectionatly Pee Alley

Once you pass the small shopping lane you reach the tree lined walk to the back buildings. It has affectionately been nicknamed Pee Alley on the left in the picture is a Kindergarten through out the morning and evenings families gather to play and converse. As usual none of the toddlers wear diapers and puddles magically appear along the sides.  

As I return from work each evening I find myself dodging through games or awkwardly smiling through stares. Yesterday was no different. As I caught the eye of a young girl I smiled politely. As soon as I had passed her I heard her announce rather loudly to her mother, “Look, look Mom an American!” Once she assumed I was out of ear shot she said hello. I couldn’t help it, so I turned around and waved only to see her dive into her mother’s skirt. 

In China if you are a foreigner you must be American. Sorry guys. 

Building 5 third from the end

I’ve moved back up a floor. I’m now 301. It is a nice floor to be on in all honesty, safe as it is past the break in floors – one and two and not too much of a climb. I enjoy the third floor as it is high enough that you get a workout going and coming but not too high that you feel you must workout every time you come and go. 

Living room from the door

Living Room - from office

The office - excepting the dust I love to sit in the window

The office is spacious which unfortunately means its prone to getting cluttered. At the moment I’m storing the new French Teacher’s large bags while she is touring Southern China. 

I love the window seat an look forward to a good storm to sit and watch. I also have many plans for the walls in this room. 

More storage space than I know what to do with

Bedroom the window opens into the drying room

 A con to this apartment is the atrocious bed. The air mattress I use for company is in the wings if I can’t adjust to this new level of firm. The mattress is about an inch thick and I’m convinced it’s just plywood with a material cover. I’ve yet to bring over the foam egg create I inherited from Dantzelle. 

The bathroom - The shower placement is great, only half the bathroom gets drenched!

Small Kitchen - Perfect for me

Another step down in washing

Inhale deep and you drift into a barn

Well the caption says it all. Katie and Thomas were presented with these His and Hers buckwheat pillows as a farewell gift. Unfortunately for me they said farewell to them when they left. Only in China is it acceptable to bring the barn smell into your bedroom. I refuse to bring those close to my bed but I can’t bring myself to throw them out either. 

I leave them on the couch and then grumble anytime I catch a whiff of them. I just need to find another home for them. 

Well this is the new place! It’s nice being in a small apartment that can be deep cleaned in a morning. Oh and I forgot to mention the wonderful AC that cools the house down great. Now if only it was a good heat life would be perfect. I guess I will just have to keep dreaming on that one.

Just when you think you’ve peaked at your Frogging* skills you get ran over. After 11 months 0 weeks and 6 days my luck was bound to run out soon. But did I really think I would be taken out a mere foot from the curb, no. Let me backtrack a little and discuss the dangers of being a pedestrian in China.

1. No where do you have the right away

2. No place is convenient for you to walk

3. No where does it say side walks are are the safest choice

4. And the golden rule ALWAYS check before stepping off a bus

I broke the golden rule and somehow in this unjust world I figured I would not suffer the consequences. Tip for your future safety, never play Chicken with a Chinese, you WILL lose. They play it everyday, all day. Their favorite is scooter vs. bus. Surprisingly the bus is not always the winner.

As a bus enters the bike lane all the bikes, scooters and the occasional taxi don’t try to get out of its way, oh no they just pull closer to the curb. Nor does the bus wait to load or unload passengers until these daring individuals progress past the bus, they just expect you to jump out between them. Really why not let the passengers join in all the fun of a good game of Chicken? So the assumption that the two foot gab between bus and curb is an unspoken safe zone for pedestrians is nothing short of laughable.

Today as I disembarked bus 50 during lunch I learned my lesson. As the bus pulled closer and closer to the curb I disembarked with confidence that nothing was or could squeeze into that unspoken safe zone, then HE hit me like a wall of taro. Somehow through the initial stun of being plowed down I managed to grab the door with my free arm and grip the curb with my toes. He caught my shoulders for balance, as he had been running and by the end of the ordeal was most definitely over me I think it was safe to say I was run over today.

But hey it could have been a lot worse. Um lets say that scooter I bearly manged to miss last week with a full basket of groceries. Or the sidewalk inccident outside of work just yesterday.

Just when you think you’ve finished another level that Bright Red Semi always gets you!

*Crossing the street in China is the ultimate game of Frogger. You must cross lane by lane and avoid oncoming traffic.

For those of you who think I have half a brain in my head please don’t read any further I would love that lie to live on for as long as possible. As a child I had this notion that what ever the weather was in Tulare, that was the weather for the world. Yes I now realize how ridiculous that notion was but hey I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest crayon in the box. Nor did I ever stop to contemplate how the snow in the mountains worked when Tulare never saw snow.

Anyway I guess that misguided notion still lingers as I’m troubled by and rather annoyed with embracing my new climate. When I look outside and see clouds I scoff and insist that they will pass with no effect on my day. Oh little do I know about monsoon season! I’m coming to realize that the definition of monsoon means that 20 hours a day some form of precipitation WILL fall.

These forms vary from downpours to sheets of mist that envelope you making an umbrella pointless and cumbersome. I have often wondered while in flight what it would be like to stand within a cloud. Now I know the feeling and wish I’d never wondered. Weifang has been enveloped by one giant cloud. The humidity on a good day hangs around 74%. Other days you just pray it will rain so at least you will have the satisfaction of being soaked by a liquid other than your own sweat.

For all my gripping I must admit the vibrant foliage around town almost makes it bearable. For as much as I love a good dry heat the color brown does not register as appealing to me,thus Tulare in the summer has little appeal. So beautiful scenery or dry heat? The jury is still out on this one. So for all those enjoying the Tulare heat, pull out a lawn chair and sun tan for me for one hour. With this cloud coverage there is just no point here.