Miracles Happen

One major downside that any person who studies Chinese (any English speaking person, at least) will tell you about is that a lot of the time, Chinese people don't understand sarcasm. Everyone has the stories about how they were trying to be smart and sarcastic, and how it completely goes over everyone else's head. That has lead to some awkward explanations, let me tell you. But something amazing happened today: I learned about Chinese sarcasm. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it does exist. You might be laughing at me right now, saying that "Sophie, it's a language. OF COURSE THERE IS SARCASM." But in my defense, when I have tried to use sarcasm, it just hasn't worked. So I was excited to have an informal Chinese lecture, that focused on sarcasm.

It's not quite the same as the sarcasm that we have in English. It's not nearly as intense as ours. You know what i mean. Sometimes, we can have full on conversations where everything said is sarcastic. Not in Chinese. It is definitely much more of an art. But still so much fun to learn about. Obviously, I have only just started, and obviously, you can't learn everything in a classroom, but hey, it's a starting point. I will take it.

BY THE WAY, in case you were curious, I got another hot shower this morning. I think that this is now three mornings in a row. I feel spoiled.

I have actually been in a surprisingly good mood for most of the day. During class, it was all laughter, jokes, and sarcasm, even during the informal debate that we have to have every day during our conversation class. I was feeling on top of the world. I love doing conversational Chinese, as it is both more useful and more interesting than formal Chinese. Not that the literature aspect of Chinese isn't important, obviously, but I don't like reading paragraph upon paragraph descriptions of the wind on the leaves in English, much less in Chinese. I would rather learn things that I can actually use in conversation. Maybe that is why they had this class today. Maybe they could tell that all of us needed a little pick me up.

My normal lunch place, which has been closed for a week, is still closed, so once again, I had to get creative. It's getting harder and harder, trust me. There is no place in our area that is close and has good food. It's like the two are mutually exclusive. Add cheap in there and well, you might as well be hoping for snow in the middle of the Beijing summer. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

I had a good talk with my teacher during our one on one class, during which we talked about our ideas for the future, and then it was off to the gym to see Jack. He was in a super good mood today. I think that he likes making me work so hard so that he can laugh at me as I collapse on the floor. I have noticed that no one else does that, but I really don't care. He also informed me that I am a pretty runner. I assumed that he meant if you see me from a distance, because I know for a fact that my face was tomato red, and we all know that that is not attractive. Still, good to know.

I think that I was still sore from the other day's work out, because I was struggling much more than I normally do. Some of the time, it's not even because my muscles are sore, but simply because I can't catch my breath, or my legs are shaking so badly that I can't do what I am supposed to be doing. When we were doing arms, it got to the point where I just couldn't move them, and I could feel my arm muscles clenching up. That is always a fun feeling. Jack would just say "No problem!" and we would keep going. There was one point where he put a bench behind the two ergo machines, made me put my fore-arms on the bench, a foot on either seat of the ergo, and then pull my feet (and the seat) up to the end of the ergo, by throwing my butt up in the air. I had to use my abs to get my butt in the air, and my legs to steady myself on seats that were designed to move quickly. It was bloody hard, and I had to do it 60 times (3 times, 20 times each.) Let me tell you, there were definitely breaks. But by the end of it, my legs were shaking so badly that I just decided it was better to stay on the floor for a little bit.

I spent the rest of my night doing my homework. That was when my mood turned not so happy. Not for any reason in particular; it's just because when I get tired, I get super grouchy, and I let things get to me that I normally wouldn't let get to me. It has this horrible snowball effect, which usually ends up with me just giving up on the day, and going to bed. It's really the only thing that I can do with myself when I get to this point. What is getting to me this time? Well, I am glad that you asked.

It is, surprise surprise, Chinese. But this is not my normal tape of not being good enough at Chinese. I don't know how much you know about the Chinese education system, but the majority of it is based on the absurd amount of memorization that each and every student is required to do. I don't know how they manage to memorize so much.

Our American education system, as you know, is not based on memorization and recitation. Don't get me wrong, I have a good memory, and it is easy for me to remember things (most of the time). This comes in handy when I want to study Chinese, or remember where to transfer subway lines. But I don't like to waste my time, and I certainly don't like to memorize things that I don't need to memorize, or that will not add to my over all happiness.

So here now is the clash of opinions. We have to memorize these truly horrible literature paragraphs, which describe, in vivid detail, the moonlight on leaves, among other things. It is part of our test on Friday, and we haven't even really gotten the assignment until tomorrow, Thursday. Fun stuff, right? This is my problem. I don't like wasting my time, and that is exactly what I feel like I am doing, by memorizing all of this. On the bright side, when I am next trying to seduce someone, I will just bust out some of these paragraphs, and I am sure that the result will be me holding them all off with a stick. Ask me what I learned in China when I get back. I'll show you how it's done.

So that is my night, up until now. As I am sure you have already guessed, I am about to put myself to sleep, because there is simply no living with myself when I get grouchy. This division of one person (thinking of myself as someone that I live with that annoys me occasionally) may seem like something that I should go see a professional about, but who has time for that?

Night night!