When I Say Hate...

I spent a lot of time trying to think up a good title for today's post. There are so many veins that this blog could take, so many tangents that I could go off on. A lot of things happened today that I think should be written down. Maybe not important in the long run, but enough to make my day interesting never the less. In the end, this was the best title I could think of. The one that provides the broadest umbrella for my unending stories. What does it mean? Well now, I am glad that you asked.

I'm going to skip the boring part of my day, meaning that I am going to leave it up to your imagination what happened in class. Like I have said before, there is absolutely no way that I can make 5 hours of Chinese class sound interesting. Except for the one small part where we spent time trying to give Lady Gaga a name. For some reason, she always comes up as the examples in our class.

No, the really interesting part happened after class was over. One of the most important aspects of HBA is the 社会调查, or Social Studies project, that we all have to do in two weeks. The bare bones of the project is basically that we can pick a topic, anything at all to do in China, anywhere in China, research it, interview people, and then write a report in Chinese. Some people are going to Inner Mongolia, some to Qingdao or Shanghai. And some are doing their own projects, or moving out to the Beijing countryside. Me? Well, I spent most of my day trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to do. When I first got here, I was all set to stay in Beijing, and research Chinese medicine, acupuncture to be specific. And then I learned about the Inner Mongolia trip. And all my plans went out the window. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to go to Inner Mongolia? I KNOW. I spent most of my day walking around, asking anybody that would listen if I should stay in Beijing, or go to Inner Mongolia. Basically, I was asking people to make my decision for me. And then I came to a realization. I don't want to do research in Inner Mongolia. I want to go to Inner Mongolia to have fun. I would much rather research acupuncture. That is completely fascinating to me. So, after much stress, I have decided to stay in Beijing, and design my own research project. There goes my weekend.

The second fun thing that happened today? The gym. Oh, the gym. It is a place that we love to hate, a place where we push ourselves to the very brink of our abilities. Last time I went, I was told that I was too fat, and that if I lost 10 pounds, I would be pretty. Huh. It wasn't a nice thing to hear, but it did motivate me to go back. So I walked in, paid my fee for a personal trainer, and got cracking. This guy (I think his English name is Jack) is one of the funniest Chinese people I have met. He has muscles about the size of my head, and thinks it is absolutely hysterical that a white girl like me will go to the gym to lift weights. He also thinks that I am awesome, because I am his strongest female...client, I guess would be the word. And I am white. It cracks him up. Me? I just feel resigned to it. I think that you have to be a bit of a masochist to love working out. Maybe that is why I keep going back. Pushing yourself to the point of muscle failure is so rewarding. At the end of the day, you know that you worked your ass off, and falling into bed has never felt so good.

I worked hard. Sure, it wasn't a Crossfit workout, but my arms and legs felt like jelly, and I was fully ready to curl up on the ground, and just hole up there for a while. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to. I did get some lovely little massages though. That makes it completely worth the money. I do wish that he would drop the whole "lose weight, then you will be pretty" thing though. I have already given him money, bloody hell! The sales pitch worked.

Telling you in detail what I did at the gym would be a boring story. It is enough to say that by the end of it, I was exhausted, couldn't really feel any of my limbs, and absolutely loved the massage that I got at the end. I was happy, right up until the point that Jack told me I shouldn't eat meat, or a big dinner tonight. Now, I don't know about you, but after I work out, I need protein. Stat. And anything else is lovely as well. But I did as he said. I have stuck it out. I ate an obscene amount of fruit (no, seriously. You would be ashamed. Good thing I was in my room.) and studied. 3 tests tomorrow. Fun stuff.

There were so many times, while working out, that he would pick up the weights, look at me, and go "One more time." In the spirit of every exhausted athlete, I wanted to break out into rude words, but unfortunately, there is no such thing as sarcasm in Chinese. Saying "I hate you" would literally mean I ate you, not "Please don't make me do this one more time." So I held my tongue. But damn, it was not happy. Maybe that is why I laugh so much when I go to the gym. It's either laugh, or cry. I chose laughter.

Not sure how this whole, not really eating dinner thing is going to work out. I am a teenage girl, I need food! We'll see what happens. It was nice to actually have fruit again though. My room is overflowing with it. And it is so nice to hurt from going to the gym! It's a nice hurt. It's a proud kind of hurt. You get to look at people and think, that's right, I went to the gym, you didn't. What now? :)

Back to studying now. But believe me, I will show Jack. By the end of 9 weeks, I'll be outlifting him. Well, maybe not, but you get the point. It's a goal, anyway.

Questions and comments!