The Only Way to Deal With Cravings Is To Give In

I am way too hard on myself. I expect myself to be perfect, so when I am not perfect (which is quite often) it makes me grouchy. I then have to remind myself that I am not perfect, and that I really need to not expect so much from myself. I feel like this is probably the root of many of my problems.

Take today, for instance. All that I wanted to do was stay inside, watch movies, write my fable (that I have to write as homework. Fun, I know.) But I felt like I should go out and do things. I felt like if I didn’t go out, then I would be wasting my time in China. Which is absurd. I should just do whatever I want to do. That may be an easy thing for you to say/do, but believe me when I say it is not easy for me. That’s my little secret. Don’t tell anybody.

I ended up staying in my dorm for most of the day. I wrote part of my essay (250 characters out of 800 done… so not even close to being done yet), and watched a lot of movies. It’s interesting, I think that as the studious part of my brain works harder, the rest of my brain starts to shut down. All that I have room for right now is Disney movies. I need a holiday.

I left my room for lunch today, and completely gave into my cravings. That honestly is the only way to deal with your cravings. I got this yummy bread thing that you dip in sugar sauce (so much better than it sounds), stir fried beef and green peppers, and this weird green bean and tofu dish. And it was so good. Even though it was only me eating, I managed to finish off most of it (and for only 6 dollars). And it was glorious. To finish off my lunch experience, I bought myself a chocolate ice cream, and then headed back to my room. Cravings. Give in. You know you want to.

At 6:30, it was time to get my ass in gear, and go out. Tonight, our program was taking us to the Lao She Tea House, which is a famous Tea House in Beijing. What is a tea house, you might ask? Basically, it is a classically Chinese place, where you go and sit with about 6 other people around a table, and you drink tea and eat their provided snacks, surrounded by probably a hundred other people at similar tables. While you drink tea, there are performances on a stage at the front of the room for your entertainment. There were a lot of actually really fun performances.

The first one was a performance of shadow hands, where the guy made animal and singer shadows. The singers actually sang along with songs. I really wish that I could do that. New hobby! After that was one of the weirdest singing performances I have ever seen. Two singers walked on the stage, and then stuck a holder holding 3 candles into their mouths. Huh? Their job was to sing, without opening their mouths, because their mouths had to hold this holder. AND THEY COULD ACTUALLY SING. Even though they couldn’t move their mouths, I could still understand what they were saying. What I want to know is, who on earth decided that they should start singing without moving their mouths? How on earth did that start?

There were also the obligatory performances of acrobatics and Kung Fu. The acrobatics made me wince. I can’t believe how much they can bend. It made me hurt. I am not a flexible person at all, but I really wish that I was. And the Kung fu was obviously amazing. That always promises to be a good show. Those guys, throwing themselves around the stage, are definitely worthy of all the praise that they get.

There was one last weird performance. Three girls came onto the stage, and started dancing. They were supposed to be fish, so they were dressed in blue sparkly dresses, and very dressed up. And they started dancing. But it was incredibily weird, because honestly, they could have been dancing in a much more intimate place, if you get my meaning. All of us girls at least, were dying of laughter, and every man’s face in that place just lit up. Definitely one of the most memorable performances I have seen. I still don’t understand it.

And that was my night. Good night!