Saturday, January 20

Mission

To follow-up on two posts from last year:

The rainy days mystery:

I was recounting how I had a mission to complete, and I positively had to do so before the long rain stopped. At that time, in mid-September, it rained for over a week straight, without a clearing in the sky. As you may know, I most love rainy weather. At the time, I was falling deeply in love with Lillian, who at the time had no particular interest in me. I knew that in order to make steps forward in my dream to gain admittance into her heart, I must first purify my heart. Well, the mission was successful, in that I was honestly able to sublimate my love for her, such as to truly wish her happiness and success, regardless of the results for me - regardless of whether or not whe would reciprocate the kind of love I had. Hurray! and now look at me: the happiest man alive!

Unhappy danio:

In another post, I mentioned how I had to face how sometimes I am unhappy. Well to contradict the last sentence from the last paragraph, I have recently found myself feeling unhappy more frequently than I can remember in long years. It has a lot to do with my job in primary school, where I cannot control the classroom, I get exhausted and impatient, failing to serve consummately in my workplace. I just decided to try to take concrete measure to help ensure that the standard jubilant danio's demeanor endures. I don't know how I'll do that, but it's exciting to really tackle this mission full-on. One new aspect is the presence of my life-long companion, Lillian, who is here to listen to me and accompany me on my mission. The sense of companionship is most precious (even though I remain a weirdo for living life the way I do - such a dreamer-thinker that danio...)

Wednesday, January 10

Faux Pas

Some of you will really appreciate this:
Some years ago, I made a big booboo - I had a friend at work who really wanted to go out for lunch once or twice per week, so she offered to even pay if someone would accompany her. I said, "I'll eat on you, I have no shame!"

I have outdone myself twice here.
Xiao3 Jie3 (numbers are the tones) kind of means woman, and can be used to call on a waitress in a restaurant. Outside of this context, it means prostitute. I heard Liz call Jacqui xiao3 "J" once, mistaking it for the above. It was quite an insult when I called on her out loud the next time...

Today's takes the cake, though, the summum of embarrassment.
At our NewBeat (my school) meeting today, we were passing minutes from previous meetings around, to make sure everyone had signed them. Actually, we're supposed to put our initials - in my case a small "d". One piece of paper was passed along to me, Liz and Stephanie indicating that my "d" couldn't be seen. I responded in Chinese, saying, "ok, fine! you wanna see my 'd'?!? I'll show you my 'd'!!" Well it turns out, I was pronouncing di4, which of all things, happens to mean penis.

So there you have it...

---

What I like on the metro:

* People staring at my vocabulary notebook, allowing me to start a conversation with a complete stranger!
* People asleep, so cozy-looking
* The arhu players with their little bowls for collecting money
* So many different people, with so many different lives

What I don't like on the metro:

* Beggers, especially children trained to bow down their head to your feet, or mothers with their babies
* Having to put not only my backpack on my lap, but also my coat, because it's too hot
* Bad smells you just have to live with for the duration of your trip

---

Lillian and I have had dinner a couple of times with Maryam and Andy - who are married, and will help us avoid some legal annoyances that may come with marriage between a Chinese and an American citizen.



---

Just a few more weeks before we take off to the other side of the country to visit the beautiful Xingjiang and "meet the parents"!
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, January 3

Video

Hey there!

Please watch a new video of Lillian and me!

Tuesday, January 2

It's a New Day

I am delighted to announce that Lillian and I are engaged to be married this year!

We are both very happy, and wish you, dear reader, much much joy in this year 2007.

La vie est belle!

I will share more in future posts.
Posted by Picasa