10:38 AM Wednesday: Time and day here
10:38 PM Tuesday: Time and day there
____Monday afternoon in numbers____
2: friends I met
4: approximate distance in miles into town where we needed to go
1.75: US dollar equivalent of amount it would have cost to take a taxi
12: approximate minutes to get to where we needed to go in a taxi
15: minutes if we had the slowest taxi in the country (and there aren''t many slow ones)
100: percent of the time that students here perfer taking a bus over taking a taxi
15: minutes we spend looking at the bus board determining how to get where we needed to go by bus
1: calls to the bus/transportation dispatch place to find out which busses we should take
38 & 79: the two bus numbers that got us close to where we needed to go
3/4: approximate distance in miles that we had to walk after getting off the bus to get to where we were going
75: minutes it took to get to where we were going
$0.75: dollare equivalent of whet it costs all three of us to ride the two buses
2: hours we spent in town
1: miles we walked to what we thought would be the correct bus stop to begin trip home
25: minutes we waited for the 79 bus to come
0.5: miles we walked to a different bus stop
50: number of bus that we would take in order to meet up with...
336: bus that would bring us back to campus
15: minutes we waited for 50 bus
7:00: time 60 bus stop running
7:20: time when we realized that we missed 50 bus
97, 001, 41: series of buses that we then decided to take
10,000: taxis that passed us during this time and could have taken us home quickly
3/4: miles we walked after getting off the 97 only to realize that it didn't match up with the 001 bus where they thought it would
15: minutes spent waiting on a 336 bus at the new stop
0.1: miles we traveled on the 336 bus before it died in a busy intersection.
5: minuutes the driver spend looking at the engine (you can access it from inside the bus) before asking everyone to get off and push. One of my friends said that he only meant for the boys to get off and push
2: number of boys on the bus
3: times the driver repeated his request before people got off and started to push the bus (I didn't but one of my friends did.) The driver was able to jump start the bus.
135: minutes to get back to campus by bus
$1.75: dollar equivalent of what we saved by taking the bus instead of a taxi
3: extra hours it took for us to travel by bus instead of taxi
87: times I almost told my friends that their idea about taking bus was stupid but I refrained becasue they have this whold saving face concept.
____Other numbers_____
3: square footage of the bottom of our shower
5'9'': approximate height of shower head
2: times I have shaved because it is impossible to do anything other than stand perfectly upright in the shower and besides I can claim to be culturally relavent
3: times I will end up having done laundry
6: hours it takes laundry to dry on an overcast day.
2: hours to dry if it is sunny and there is room on the outside line
5: days until we come home
Have a good rest of the week. I will see you soon.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Last week
So on Thursday when we went to get a simple hair wash, the girls talked me into getting a hair cut as well. I should have listened to my inner voice that was yelling "NOOOOOOOO!"
And so now I have a hair cut that I hate. If for the rest of the summer I only wear it in a ponytail, you will understand why. Be nice. Even my friends that I made here will say, "It looks, well... okay."
And on top of the bad hair cut is the monster zit I got on my lip last week. My fireds would point and say "Oh, what is that?" They, of course have perfect procelin skin. We almost didn't go to eat Hot pot on Friday becasue they think that the spice is bad for your skin. I kept assuring them that it would be okay & that the disease on my face would go away whether I ate hot pot or not.
So we went to eat Hot Pot and it was really good. We went to a place where you picked your own meal on skewers and then out it in the bolining pepper soup to cook. After it was cooked you then put the food in a dish of oil to cool down both in heat and in spice. (I honestly think that if anything was bad for their skin, it is the cup of oil bit.) My friends ate weird stuff like Chicken feet and what not. I stuck to mostly vegetables because they were recognizable. I did try one stick of imitation crab b/c it was one of the girl's favorites. And it tasted just like nasty imitation crab. I ate lots of potatoes and what I thought were sweet potatoes but turned out to be pumpkin. My stomach only complained breifly and even it calmed down after I drank 3 yogurts.
On Saturday all of the Americans went to KTV. Chinese Kareokee (sp?). Really that is all I need to say. There were only a limited number of songs in English (including of course celine dion's "My Heart will go on.") and most were old. Sara, sadly they did not have any Christmas carols or even any dixie chicks.
We will be here until Thursday and then begin the trek home. This time next week I will be sleeping of some serious jet lag.
Hey momma- my knee is actually feeling much better. Do you think I should cancel the doctor's appointment or wait to see how it is doing after climbing on the Great Wall and sitting on a plane for 14 hours? I will call you this week.
And so now I have a hair cut that I hate. If for the rest of the summer I only wear it in a ponytail, you will understand why. Be nice. Even my friends that I made here will say, "It looks, well... okay."
And on top of the bad hair cut is the monster zit I got on my lip last week. My fireds would point and say "Oh, what is that?" They, of course have perfect procelin skin. We almost didn't go to eat Hot pot on Friday becasue they think that the spice is bad for your skin. I kept assuring them that it would be okay & that the disease on my face would go away whether I ate hot pot or not.
So we went to eat Hot Pot and it was really good. We went to a place where you picked your own meal on skewers and then out it in the bolining pepper soup to cook. After it was cooked you then put the food in a dish of oil to cool down both in heat and in spice. (I honestly think that if anything was bad for their skin, it is the cup of oil bit.) My friends ate weird stuff like Chicken feet and what not. I stuck to mostly vegetables because they were recognizable. I did try one stick of imitation crab b/c it was one of the girl's favorites. And it tasted just like nasty imitation crab. I ate lots of potatoes and what I thought were sweet potatoes but turned out to be pumpkin. My stomach only complained breifly and even it calmed down after I drank 3 yogurts.
On Saturday all of the Americans went to KTV. Chinese Kareokee (sp?). Really that is all I need to say. There were only a limited number of songs in English (including of course celine dion's "My Heart will go on.") and most were old. Sara, sadly they did not have any Christmas carols or even any dixie chicks.
We will be here until Thursday and then begin the trek home. This time next week I will be sleeping of some serious jet lag.
Hey momma- my knee is actually feeling much better. Do you think I should cancel the doctor's appointment or wait to see how it is doing after climbing on the Great Wall and sitting on a plane for 14 hours? I will call you this week.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Week 3
I can't believe that it looks like I am only going to be able to write one blog a week. What an utter dissapointment. Last year I was so good about writing. Oh well.
Things have been much improved since the bus accident last week. it turns out that one of my American friends was close by and saw the child awake with only minor injuries.
Let's see if I can catch you up on my week.
Friday we went to what was being described as a farm. We made bets as to who would catch the bird flu or some other non-curable disease from being in thr rural area. It turned out to be a place maybe 5 minutes away and more of like a farm-reenactment (think colonial williamsburg, but smelly and farm like and in an Asain country). We had tea and learned to play Majohng. Then we got to help make our lunch. It was hot.
Saturday, I wento to the tailors to pick up some things and even though I swore that I was going to not have a lot made this year, I put in another order for a skirt, 3 pairs of dress pants, and a dress all from a JCrew catalog. They will be ready on Monday. and it will cost all of about $40. Nice.
Sunday was a lazy day.
Monday. Class. And then ping-pong. And more ping-pong. I don't think that I have played ping pong since Calico peed on our ping pong table and warpped it. Even then I wasn't very good. When it comes to me verses a chinese person, there is simply no hope for me. But I am getting better because I have played so much this month. I have also been suckered into playing basketball, but I am not improving there.
Tuesday. I was sick and I stayed in bed all morning. It is mostly a sinus thing and I think that I am about to kick it. And I think that it has something to do with the beautiful irises that my roommate received from some of the guys she is traveling with. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I think they were making me sick. Especially in light of the fact that she feels she has to take her bananna peels down the hall to throw them away. And she has been the source of much entertainment since she has started talking in her sleep in Chinese. It's great.
Wednesday. Same old thing. Class. More ping pong.
Today. This morning I had my exam. It was okay but not great. We all had to wait in a holding room where we were suppose to study a few more minutes. We had to draw numbers and one at a time go to take our exam. I got number 12 out of 12 and so I had to wait for about an hour and a half. The first thing I had to do was read some words from a card. They were written in pinyin (pheonetically) and it was just to check my pronounciation. And then they held up flashcards with characters and I was suppose to give the word. I think that I got 5 out of 6. And then the simple questions. "What are you studying?" "What is this?" (A magazine but I forgot the word for it). "Whose magazine is this?" (I don't know, maybe his?) And finally the role play were I had to pretend that I was going to the market to buy some fruit. I did really well on the role play bit. I think that tonight we are going to go back to the hair washing place and pay someone the equivalent of $2.50 to wash (and massage) and dry our hair.
It has been raining again all day long. It is either sunny and incredibly hot. Or cloudy and muggy and hot. Or raining and miserable. A lot of the walking surfaces are marble and so I have more than once almost fallen. (I did fall once yesterday but that was inside on the stairs and had nothing to do with slick surface, just my clumsiness.)
Abd on a final note, I can count 30 bug bites on my arms and legs. And I promise that is no exaggeration. I have never been eaten alive like I have the past 3 weeks.
We will be headed to Beijing next week and then home on the 2nd. My how a month flies.
I will try to write at least once more.
Things have been much improved since the bus accident last week. it turns out that one of my American friends was close by and saw the child awake with only minor injuries.
Let's see if I can catch you up on my week.
Friday we went to what was being described as a farm. We made bets as to who would catch the bird flu or some other non-curable disease from being in thr rural area. It turned out to be a place maybe 5 minutes away and more of like a farm-reenactment (think colonial williamsburg, but smelly and farm like and in an Asain country). We had tea and learned to play Majohng. Then we got to help make our lunch. It was hot.
Saturday, I wento to the tailors to pick up some things and even though I swore that I was going to not have a lot made this year, I put in another order for a skirt, 3 pairs of dress pants, and a dress all from a JCrew catalog. They will be ready on Monday. and it will cost all of about $40. Nice.
Sunday was a lazy day.
Monday. Class. And then ping-pong. And more ping-pong. I don't think that I have played ping pong since Calico peed on our ping pong table and warpped it. Even then I wasn't very good. When it comes to me verses a chinese person, there is simply no hope for me. But I am getting better because I have played so much this month. I have also been suckered into playing basketball, but I am not improving there.
Tuesday. I was sick and I stayed in bed all morning. It is mostly a sinus thing and I think that I am about to kick it. And I think that it has something to do with the beautiful irises that my roommate received from some of the guys she is traveling with. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I think they were making me sick. Especially in light of the fact that she feels she has to take her bananna peels down the hall to throw them away. And she has been the source of much entertainment since she has started talking in her sleep in Chinese. It's great.
Wednesday. Same old thing. Class. More ping pong.
Today. This morning I had my exam. It was okay but not great. We all had to wait in a holding room where we were suppose to study a few more minutes. We had to draw numbers and one at a time go to take our exam. I got number 12 out of 12 and so I had to wait for about an hour and a half. The first thing I had to do was read some words from a card. They were written in pinyin (pheonetically) and it was just to check my pronounciation. And then they held up flashcards with characters and I was suppose to give the word. I think that I got 5 out of 6. And then the simple questions. "What are you studying?" "What is this?" (A magazine but I forgot the word for it). "Whose magazine is this?" (I don't know, maybe his?) And finally the role play were I had to pretend that I was going to the market to buy some fruit. I did really well on the role play bit. I think that tonight we are going to go back to the hair washing place and pay someone the equivalent of $2.50 to wash (and massage) and dry our hair.
It has been raining again all day long. It is either sunny and incredibly hot. Or cloudy and muggy and hot. Or raining and miserable. A lot of the walking surfaces are marble and so I have more than once almost fallen. (I did fall once yesterday but that was inside on the stairs and had nothing to do with slick surface, just my clumsiness.)
Abd on a final note, I can count 30 bug bites on my arms and legs. And I promise that is no exaggeration. I have never been eaten alive like I have the past 3 weeks.
We will be headed to Beijing next week and then home on the 2nd. My how a month flies.
I will try to write at least once more.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Bus
This evening I was on a bus that hit a little boy who lookd to be about 4 years old.
The bus was really crowded like every bus in this country. I was standing in the aisle near the front because if I can see where we are going it makes me less nervous to be alone on a bus in a country where I understand very little of the language.
We weren't going very fast becasue we had pulled away from a stop. We were on a very crowded and narrow street where there are many vendors and students.
I didn't see the little boy until after we had completely stopped and people rushed out into the street to lift him out from under the front of the bus. There was just a lot of screaming and everyone fell forwards like dominoes when the driver slammed on the brakes. We all fell to the ground. I have minor bruises across my shins where I landed on the raised part of the bus that covers the engine. My fall was broken by the grandmother next to me and her bruises are worse.
But know of that is significant in light of the anguish of the mother, child and bus driver. The little boy was not moving as she carried him away in her arms to get help. But there was also no blood and I am hoping that is a good sign.
I didn't know what to do and so I just followed the lead of everyone else on the bus; I got off and walked the rest of the way to my stop where I was meeting a friend for dinner.
When I got on the bus to come home, we passes the scene of the accident and the bus was still there waiting (I assume) on an investigation. The driver was sitting in one of the seats and there was another driver with him. He looked like he had been crying.
It is truly one of the scariest and most sad things that I have experienced here.
Sorry for the lack of posts. Internet access is really hard this year.
The bus was really crowded like every bus in this country. I was standing in the aisle near the front because if I can see where we are going it makes me less nervous to be alone on a bus in a country where I understand very little of the language.
We weren't going very fast becasue we had pulled away from a stop. We were on a very crowded and narrow street where there are many vendors and students.
I didn't see the little boy until after we had completely stopped and people rushed out into the street to lift him out from under the front of the bus. There was just a lot of screaming and everyone fell forwards like dominoes when the driver slammed on the brakes. We all fell to the ground. I have minor bruises across my shins where I landed on the raised part of the bus that covers the engine. My fall was broken by the grandmother next to me and her bruises are worse.
But know of that is significant in light of the anguish of the mother, child and bus driver. The little boy was not moving as she carried him away in her arms to get help. But there was also no blood and I am hoping that is a good sign.
I didn't know what to do and so I just followed the lead of everyone else on the bus; I got off and walked the rest of the way to my stop where I was meeting a friend for dinner.
When I got on the bus to come home, we passes the scene of the accident and the bus was still there waiting (I assume) on an investigation. The driver was sitting in one of the seats and there was another driver with him. He looked like he had been crying.
It is truly one of the scariest and most sad things that I have experienced here.
Sorry for the lack of posts. Internet access is really hard this year.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Some Numbers for you
1: The number of days that the sun has been out since we got here. Today is that day.
98: the percent humidity everyday
407: my room number
59: number of stairs to get to the 4th floor
2: the number of cokes I have had in the past 6 days. Coke light is still not popular over here and is still really hard to find.
1.12: the amount in US dollars that my lunch cost
1: the number of times that I have eaten a western meal. It was at McDonald's.
2: the amount in US dollars that my McDonalds meal cost.
37: the number of times I have thought that it would be nice to go to Chick-fil-A or Moes for dinner.
2: the number of times I almost threw up at dinner last night.
6: the number of times I had to chew in order to swallow the nasty duck egg that made me want to throw up at dinner last night.
2: The number of takes it took to get our voice recording correct today.
So, out of those numbers, probably just the last two need more explanation.
Last night the girls and I went to eat with some friends and they said that they were going to treat us to traditional food. (I am sure that the words that they used was actually "some very famours food." Here is what was on the menu:
baotzi- these steamed dumpling type things that aren't too bad. It is a big dough ball with something in the middle. A surprise if you will. meat or veggies or seseme filling. Supposdly, Marco Polo had them and when he went home from his travels he couldn't figure out how to reproduce them and he ended up with pizza. Strangely, they don't taste anything like pizza. At all. Not in the least bit. hmm. pizza would be good.
the rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves- I don't remember the techinical name. I had these last year and liked them. They are also very famours. you unwrap the bamboo and inside there is a sticky sticky rice ball with again another surprise in the middle. Last year, I had meat ones and fruit ones. They were good. Last night it was some whit substance. I asked my friends and they shared that it was "meat fat." Yup. One big glob of melted fat. I know that my cousin Robbie would love this one.
gelitin soup- cold. sweet. weird in texture.
some sort of wonton soup- good but extremely spicy. I drank a yogurt after dinner to hopefully head off any indigestion.
And then the eggs-
There were two different eggs, both prepared differently and cut into about 8 slices. One was perserved in salt and I think that it may have been what they can the humdred year egg. I don't think that it was every cooked, I think that the salt just cooks it. You don't eat the white part, only the yoke and it tasted like sand.
The other egg....I am not sure that I can write this without gagging.
I always use to say that I could be on fear factor and do the eating challenges. And when Rebecca and I talk about the Amazing Race, I am always the one to do the eating things. I am not so sure after last night.
They said that it was just duck egg, and I am not sure how it was prepared. they also said that it is okay to leave this kind of egg out for 6 months.
The yoke was the same color but the white part was translucent yellowish orange and had a consistancy of harden jello. When you think that it is going to be an egg, there is just no preperation for what I put in my mouth. You should all have the same joy.
And then the recording. So, there is a high school English teacher in the city that needed some English voices recorded for her classes. From what I understand, it is for an exam that her students will have to take. She needed us to do the part that the students will listen to and then answer questions. A guy friend and I went with her to a recording room today and read the very cheesy script. There were 10 texts total. This was text 2:
Female: I would like for you to go shopping with me on Sunday.
Male: Why do you need me to go?
Female: It is very difficult to buy shoes for you without your feet being present.
We got paid 200 kuai each to do it (about $25 USD). But to me the best part is that all over this part of the country, there will be high school kids learning English with a Southern accent. I will be very very FAMOURS.
That's it for now.
Zai Jian
98: the percent humidity everyday
407: my room number
59: number of stairs to get to the 4th floor
2: the number of cokes I have had in the past 6 days. Coke light is still not popular over here and is still really hard to find.
1.12: the amount in US dollars that my lunch cost
1: the number of times that I have eaten a western meal. It was at McDonald's.
2: the amount in US dollars that my McDonalds meal cost.
37: the number of times I have thought that it would be nice to go to Chick-fil-A or Moes for dinner.
2: the number of times I almost threw up at dinner last night.
6: the number of times I had to chew in order to swallow the nasty duck egg that made me want to throw up at dinner last night.
2: The number of takes it took to get our voice recording correct today.
So, out of those numbers, probably just the last two need more explanation.
Last night the girls and I went to eat with some friends and they said that they were going to treat us to traditional food. (I am sure that the words that they used was actually "some very famours food." Here is what was on the menu:
baotzi- these steamed dumpling type things that aren't too bad. It is a big dough ball with something in the middle. A surprise if you will. meat or veggies or seseme filling. Supposdly, Marco Polo had them and when he went home from his travels he couldn't figure out how to reproduce them and he ended up with pizza. Strangely, they don't taste anything like pizza. At all. Not in the least bit. hmm. pizza would be good.
the rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves- I don't remember the techinical name. I had these last year and liked them. They are also very famours. you unwrap the bamboo and inside there is a sticky sticky rice ball with again another surprise in the middle. Last year, I had meat ones and fruit ones. They were good. Last night it was some whit substance. I asked my friends and they shared that it was "meat fat." Yup. One big glob of melted fat. I know that my cousin Robbie would love this one.
gelitin soup- cold. sweet. weird in texture.
some sort of wonton soup- good but extremely spicy. I drank a yogurt after dinner to hopefully head off any indigestion.
And then the eggs-
There were two different eggs, both prepared differently and cut into about 8 slices. One was perserved in salt and I think that it may have been what they can the humdred year egg. I don't think that it was every cooked, I think that the salt just cooks it. You don't eat the white part, only the yoke and it tasted like sand.
The other egg....I am not sure that I can write this without gagging.
I always use to say that I could be on fear factor and do the eating challenges. And when Rebecca and I talk about the Amazing Race, I am always the one to do the eating things. I am not so sure after last night.
They said that it was just duck egg, and I am not sure how it was prepared. they also said that it is okay to leave this kind of egg out for 6 months.
The yoke was the same color but the white part was translucent yellowish orange and had a consistancy of harden jello. When you think that it is going to be an egg, there is just no preperation for what I put in my mouth. You should all have the same joy.
And then the recording. So, there is a high school English teacher in the city that needed some English voices recorded for her classes. From what I understand, it is for an exam that her students will have to take. She needed us to do the part that the students will listen to and then answer questions. A guy friend and I went with her to a recording room today and read the very cheesy script. There were 10 texts total. This was text 2:
Female: I would like for you to go shopping with me on Sunday.
Male: Why do you need me to go?
Female: It is very difficult to buy shoes for you without your feet being present.
We got paid 200 kuai each to do it (about $25 USD). But to me the best part is that all over this part of the country, there will be high school kids learning English with a Southern accent. I will be very very FAMOURS.
That's it for now.
Zai Jian
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Crazy
Well, classes are going well. It is harder to learn when things are going so fast, but I think that I will probably learn a lot. Everything is in characters which is completely different for me.
It is really weird for the other students to defer to me.
Yesterday we went to eat and I was trying to order dumplings for us to eat. I thought that I was ordering 20 for the table, but it turns out that I ordered 20 for each of us. And these things were spicy. I managed to eat about 12 of them, but 2 of my friends could only eat like 5. We left a ton on the table and I am sure that the owners/waitress were just munbling- stupid Americans.
It has been raining a lot here and I haven't actually seen the sun since we were on the plane before landing in Beijing.
What else?
Right now, I don't think that there are any other super funny stories- I am still fighting jet lag pretty bad (today I actually managed to stay asleep unil 6 AM) and I think that it is affecting my ability to be funny.
In a closing note, I read the first card that momma sent with me, and it made me cry. Wendy, I am sorry to say that I think she has you beat.
I am sure that something good will happen soon.
It is really weird for the other students to defer to me.
Yesterday we went to eat and I was trying to order dumplings for us to eat. I thought that I was ordering 20 for the table, but it turns out that I ordered 20 for each of us. And these things were spicy. I managed to eat about 12 of them, but 2 of my friends could only eat like 5. We left a ton on the table and I am sure that the owners/waitress were just munbling- stupid Americans.
It has been raining a lot here and I haven't actually seen the sun since we were on the plane before landing in Beijing.
What else?
Right now, I don't think that there are any other super funny stories- I am still fighting jet lag pretty bad (today I actually managed to stay asleep unil 6 AM) and I think that it is affecting my ability to be funny.
In a closing note, I read the first card that momma sent with me, and it made me cry. Wendy, I am sorry to say that I think she has you beat.
I am sure that something good will happen soon.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Here we go again
I hope that you are ready for another fun summer of entertaining (and poorly spelled since I don't know what "spell check" looks like in Chinese) blogs.
We arrived after a good 24-26 (I lost count) hours of travel. My friends, Xanax is a glorious creation. I was able to sleep a lot on the long flight that went directly over the North Pole. The last flight I tried to do unmedicated and it was the bumpiest we had.
Our rooms are like really small hotel or dorm rooms with really hard beds. Of course, I think that we are paying about 4 bucks a day, so I can't really complain.
I don't have any good stories yet. I am still really tired.
But don't worry, tomorrow I start classes and I am sure that after I sit through just 1 intermediacte level class, I will have made a fool of myself and have some stories to share.
By the way, with the whole missing out thing, I am really just a baby. I am doing much better.
We arrived after a good 24-26 (I lost count) hours of travel. My friends, Xanax is a glorious creation. I was able to sleep a lot on the long flight that went directly over the North Pole. The last flight I tried to do unmedicated and it was the bumpiest we had.
Our rooms are like really small hotel or dorm rooms with really hard beds. Of course, I think that we are paying about 4 bucks a day, so I can't really complain.
I don't have any good stories yet. I am still really tired.
But don't worry, tomorrow I start classes and I am sure that after I sit through just 1 intermediacte level class, I will have made a fool of myself and have some stories to share.
By the way, with the whole missing out thing, I am really just a baby. I am doing much better.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Off to the other side of the World
While I was drying my hair yesterday morning, I suddenly realized that I only had two more nights to sleep in my bed. That is how I count down days until big events.
What I didn’t account for was that if I went to bed right this second, I would get less than 3 hours of sleep. And I am obviously not going to bed right this second.
If I am completely honest with you, my anonymous blog readers, I would have to admit that it has been a little hard to get myself geared up for this trip.
Not too long along, Rebecca observed that she believes I don’t like change. To a degree, she is probably right, but I think that my issue goes deeper than that. In fact, I think that it is one of my driving forces. The simple fact of the matter is that I do not like the idea of missing out on something.
And it is this little fact that explains so much about me.
It explains why, as a child, I was always the last one to order my ice cream at Baskin Robbins. With 31 flavors, I was sure to miss out if I decided on one.
It explains why I am a constant over-achiever and run myself ragged trying to do too much. If I can just be involved in everything, then I am not missing out on any of it.
It explains why I will usually wait until the last minute to make plans. Wendy and I use to accuse the Mike and Charlie of waiting for a better offer before settling on plans with us, but I am just as guilty.
It explains why I avoid conflict like the plague. Everyone has to be happy with me so that I am not missing out on the inside jokes or fun times.
And it explains why I am not as excited about this trip as I feel I should be. This year, my friends and family and their plans sound like they offer a better option than studying abroad for a month.
I guess that sometimes you just have to miss out.
The next time you hear from me, I will be 12 hours ahead.
What I didn’t account for was that if I went to bed right this second, I would get less than 3 hours of sleep. And I am obviously not going to bed right this second.
If I am completely honest with you, my anonymous blog readers, I would have to admit that it has been a little hard to get myself geared up for this trip.
Not too long along, Rebecca observed that she believes I don’t like change. To a degree, she is probably right, but I think that my issue goes deeper than that. In fact, I think that it is one of my driving forces. The simple fact of the matter is that I do not like the idea of missing out on something.
And it is this little fact that explains so much about me.
It explains why, as a child, I was always the last one to order my ice cream at Baskin Robbins. With 31 flavors, I was sure to miss out if I decided on one.
It explains why I am a constant over-achiever and run myself ragged trying to do too much. If I can just be involved in everything, then I am not missing out on any of it.
It explains why I will usually wait until the last minute to make plans. Wendy and I use to accuse the Mike and Charlie of waiting for a better offer before settling on plans with us, but I am just as guilty.
It explains why I avoid conflict like the plague. Everyone has to be happy with me so that I am not missing out on the inside jokes or fun times.
And it explains why I am not as excited about this trip as I feel I should be. This year, my friends and family and their plans sound like they offer a better option than studying abroad for a month.
I guess that sometimes you just have to miss out.
The next time you hear from me, I will be 12 hours ahead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)