Friday, March 23, 2007
Springing Back to Form
Leaving the house today (and yesterday) without a hat or gloves has been exhilarating. I don't know if this Spring-like weather will last, but it's a wonderful feeling. This winter in this town has felt positively stifling and oppressive. I know last year I complained about missing the snows of home but this biting, weeks-of-freezing-temperatures nonsense is something I don't need in my life.
The best news as of late has been in the mirror every morning. My face has, at least superficially, been mending itself in a steady fashion. At this point the laceration across the bridge of my nose is nearly invisible and the once-magenta bruises that encircled my eyes are scarcely a ring of pink. If you didn't know any better you might think I had recently used prank binoculars with lipstick smeared on the rubber eyepieces.
One abnormal side effect of my injury has been a impromptu beard. Once I had fallen and broken a prominent, central component of my face I discovered that any activity involving my head was very uncomfortable. Washing my hair, blowing my nose, hell, even brushing my teeth felt like my entire skull was vibrating. Naturally, shaving was out of the question. So at this point, while my eyes and nose are approaching normalcy my mouth and chin look very atypical. I haven't grown a beard this heavy since...04? Pre-blog, I'm pretty sure. Mako says it makes me look like an ojisan, for those who know what that means. It's not a good thing for someone young like me.
School has been going well. Not exceptionally well but well enough. Midterms have come and gone with reasonably good grades on my part. I could have done better, frankly, but I didn't do badly either so there's not much to gripe about. My second quarter class focusing on the "cinematic art" of Zhang Yimou began last week and so far we have watched two films I've never seen before. Both starred Gong Li and were beyond tragic. Thankfully, the professor assured us those two elements would not be constants for the semester. Not that I have anything against her as an actress, but any class where the material all feels the same ends up sapping all interest and reason from my body. If you recall the last Chinese film class I took, you'll remember that after eight weeks of weeping melodramas I went a little nuts.
In more interesting (to me!) news, yesterday we learned all about the elaborate lunar calendar that China has used for thousands of years. I now have several resources for converting traditional Chinese dates to Western dates (and vice versa) as well as determining the specific cycle that corresponds to each year, month and day of history. If anyone wants to know more about their birthday beyond which "animal" they are, I can tell you. Not that I put any faith in it, but it's an amusing exercise to locate one's point of origin in an ancient calendar.
Speaking of Chinese tradition, let's close with another fortune cookie from tonight's dinner (I'm an addict):
つづく... (Click here to read more)
The best news as of late has been in the mirror every morning. My face has, at least superficially, been mending itself in a steady fashion. At this point the laceration across the bridge of my nose is nearly invisible and the once-magenta bruises that encircled my eyes are scarcely a ring of pink. If you didn't know any better you might think I had recently used prank binoculars with lipstick smeared on the rubber eyepieces.
One abnormal side effect of my injury has been a impromptu beard. Once I had fallen and broken a prominent, central component of my face I discovered that any activity involving my head was very uncomfortable. Washing my hair, blowing my nose, hell, even brushing my teeth felt like my entire skull was vibrating. Naturally, shaving was out of the question. So at this point, while my eyes and nose are approaching normalcy my mouth and chin look very atypical. I haven't grown a beard this heavy since...04? Pre-blog, I'm pretty sure. Mako says it makes me look like an ojisan, for those who know what that means. It's not a good thing for someone young like me.
School has been going well. Not exceptionally well but well enough. Midterms have come and gone with reasonably good grades on my part. I could have done better, frankly, but I didn't do badly either so there's not much to gripe about. My second quarter class focusing on the "cinematic art" of Zhang Yimou began last week and so far we have watched two films I've never seen before. Both starred Gong Li and were beyond tragic. Thankfully, the professor assured us those two elements would not be constants for the semester. Not that I have anything against her as an actress, but any class where the material all feels the same ends up sapping all interest and reason from my body. If you recall the last Chinese film class I took, you'll remember that after eight weeks of weeping melodramas I went a little nuts.
In more interesting (to me!) news, yesterday we learned all about the elaborate lunar calendar that China has used for thousands of years. I now have several resources for converting traditional Chinese dates to Western dates (and vice versa) as well as determining the specific cycle that corresponds to each year, month and day of history. If anyone wants to know more about their birthday beyond which "animal" they are, I can tell you. Not that I put any faith in it, but it's an amusing exercise to locate one's point of origin in an ancient calendar.
Speaking of Chinese tradition, let's close with another fortune cookie from tonight's dinner (I'm an addict):
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.Oh yes, and today's Chinese word was "telephone."
つづく... (Click here to read more)
Monday, March 19, 2007
Trustworthy Desserts
Three amusing fortune cookies I've received lately:
Bonus message: the "Learn Chinese" words on the back included "April" and "Europe." I had hoped to take a vacation during my break next month and Europe was a prime candidate. Sadly, I couldn't find any friends willing to share the journey and I'm, quite frankly, done with traveling alone. The whole trip ends up being overshadowed by my regrets at not having anyone to talk to about the experience.
Oh, and the third word was "fruit."
つづく... (Click here to read more)
Your energy returns and you get things done.Sounds less like a fortune and more like a command! I must stress that this one came well before I broke my nose so there's nothing creepy about its pertinence.
Your present question marks are going to succeed.Awkwardly worded, to be sure, but the message is loud and clear. I guess you could call this "reassuring," not because I believe this random piece of paper inserted into a small cookie that I happened to read has any true insight into my life, but because the "question marks" on my mind these days are huge: career, marriage, family, etc.
If you understand what you're doing, you're not learning anything.I hope this one is right because lately I feel like I don't have a clue what's going on. It also compliments the previous fortune quite nicely.
Bonus message: the "Learn Chinese" words on the back included "April" and "Europe." I had hoped to take a vacation during my break next month and Europe was a prime candidate. Sadly, I couldn't find any friends willing to share the journey and I'm, quite frankly, done with traveling alone. The whole trip ends up being overshadowed by my regrets at not having anyone to talk to about the experience.
Oh, and the third word was "fruit."
つづく... (Click here to read more)
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