Rambling
Ah, what to write, what to write? I feel guilty not having some topic screaming for a blog entry--I mean, it's only 20 short months until the planned end of our China adventure and I'm reduced to writing about reverse culture shock and returning to corporate America. (or maybe Yau Neih's new career. We haven't figured that one out yet.)(This week it seems like me staying home full time would be a very bad idea.) I need to be making up hay while the sun shines. (Actually, I need to make up some sunshine, too. The top of Qi Shan is enveloped in fog.) Ah, well, maybe I'll just post some minor commentary and be done with it.I've just been reading the election returns from the Seattle Times website. I've found that election returns are depressing even in China. Not that I've been into the election at all this year--from January through August I was too busy and since then I've been here. But I still don't care to see the same old politicos voted back into the same old offices. If there had been some changes I could at least delude myself that things might be different. As for the defeat of the monorail, I have mixed feelings. I don't like seeing my tax dollars thrown away by poor management, but to have tax dollars thrown away and nothing to show for it seems worse. Ah, well. Maybe I should just get into politics when I return home. ;-)
Had an interesting "middle-aged moment" last night at English corner. That's the one where I help our neighbor, Joan. Joan chose to do a review of some of her classes last night, and since we started with low numbers I ended up sitting in with the students. I'm usually not aware of the age difference between myself and the students, but one of the activities was to describe their families to each other. When the student I was paired with started telling me that her parents were in their mid-40s I was suddenly reminded that I'm a lot older than most of the people in my "neighborhood". Now that I think about it, back in the States I did tend to be a bit segregated from the 20 somethings. Guess I hadn't noticed the change given all of the other cultural differences.
Yesterday I also faced the temptation to buy The DaVinci Code. There was a little book sale on campus and Yau Neih said that they had English versions of that and Bill Clinton's memoirs. Now I had no interest in either book back in the States, but here I'm reduced to reading my kids' school books and even a romance novel Yau Neih had borrowed. Very scary.
For lack of another creative outlet, I've decided to start a project on my Flickr site. I'm trying to document a bit of our life here--a walk down to the big supermarket in town. These days it seems all too routine to us, but you all might find it interesting. And I'm sure that years down the road we'll enjoy the nostalgia of it.
posted by John @ 7:23 PM
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