Hoowah! Force of will!
So I’ve been able to keep up with my latest resolution to update this thing more … at least three days going. How long does it take to form a habit in your brains? At least longer than a week, as that seems to be when my mind wonders over to something else. A glance at any random month in my archives can probably provide enough evidence to back that up.
I am still plagued by the question of why. Why is my mind so prone to scatter? It’s really quite frustrating. Frustrating for other people, too. Mainly Christina … she has to deal with me every day, anyway.
Good lord, I’m tired. I taught another three classes today and then Christina and I went to a nearby public pool to swim laps. I remain pathetically out of shape. Christina kept laughing when I tried to do the backstroke…. (though that may have been because of my random declarations of being “Michael Phelps” and “the greatest(!)”)
Two Chinese children stared at me while I changed out of my bathing suit.
I understand if you’re stealing glances out of curiosity. And, naturally, how could you not be captivated by this bod? But these two kids were staring at me, and while I stripped down. The Chinese really don’t get how unnerving that is to an American. They saw my penis. I guess, in all fairness, I did see theirs. But they didn’t seem to care….
They were talking about me, too. Even if I didn’t know the Chinese for “American” and “foreigner,” it was obvious they were talking about me. And the older gentleman they were with just chuckled at them. Made me grumble. I ended up talking to them very briefly (once I was fully clothed, natch), and, well … lied to them.
They kept referring to me as “American person.” That’s a common assumption here: that all foreigners (read: white people) = American. I wanted to rattle them, because they had so rattled me by studying my nakedness. I told them I wasn’t American, I was English. One of them seemed amazed I knew any Chinese; the other didn’t look like he particularly cared. I left after that.
A petty lie? Yes. I remain human.
They started it!
The Brain Dump 