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Holiday: Turkey Day 2006

Posted on November 23rd, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

Being outside of America means working on Thanksgiving (and, again, on Black Friday.  Sigh…)  We also work on Christmas Day, and if the schools could arrange it, they’d have us working Easter Sunday, too.  This year, however, I finally got a good Thanksgiving meal - better than I’ve had at the Westin or the Hyatt or any such place, and, amazingly, it was made by the notorious school kitchen.

 
[My class watching in awe as another teacher carves the bird.]

For lunch, the entire Kindergarten dined on turkey (with gravy), mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn-on-the-cob, and cranberry sauce.  We had a whole turkey on each floor - and by whole I mean that not even the head had been chopped off.  We had to make the gravy and stuffing in our classrooms, which turned out fine thanks to my wonderful co-teacher.  (Well, these were the “Just Add Water” kind of cooking, so I probably could have managed fine, but it was nice to not have to worry about it.)

[Good ol’ Stovetop Stuffing…right up there with cereal on the list of comfort foods.]

My students made handprint turkeys in the afternoon - which I still need to find some space to hang up - and passed out thank you cards they made for members of the office staff, the cleaning ladies, the bus drivers, and/or their parents, as they saw fit.  Next up is Christmas - holy crap, it’s almost 2007!!

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Meaningless Rant: Travel Tea Set

Posted on November 15th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Meaningless Rants.

Angelica and I went to Yingge last weekend (after talking about it for six months) for a wonderful little shopping excursion, and conveniently enough, neither of us had our cameras.  (I had forgotten mine at work Friday afternoon, and she had left hers at home - woops.)  I suppose I’ll have to go again just to take pictures now - such a pain.

[Translation: Travel Tea Set]

Yingge specializes in pottery, largely tea sets and plant pots.  The shops range from cheap, utilitarian goods to art gallery-type stores that, even as a supposedly rich foreigner, I did not feel comfortable entering.  (All foreigners are rich in the minds of…pretty much everyone in Asia.) 

The best find during our shopping trip was the Travel Tea Set.  Chinese tea set for six, all packed into a small, converted camera bag.  (Not a bag for large, bulky cameras like Uncle Matt’s, but for a small, cute, point and shoot digital camera like mine.)

It really fascinates me that the whole works can fit in the camera bag - it’s so wonderfully convenient.  Now all I need is a mini bamboo tray for pouring tea on to go with it.  Must return to Yingge to continue inexpensive shopping extravaganza after payday next month.

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Book: The Eye of the World

Posted on November 14th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books.

Title: The Eye of the World
         (Wheel of Time, Book 1)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 782
Date Read: December 2006
Anna’s Rating: 4/5 (Most Enjoyable and Worthwhile)

Summary: Typical fantasy - unlikely group forms and travels about the world together, facing mystical enemies and realizing their own innate talents.

I think I first bought this book in 7th grade, and I was intrigued, but just didn’t get into it.  So now, more than ten years later, I’ve purchased a second copy, determined to read the damned thing in its 800 page glory.

I loved it.  I loved the detail of the people and the places, habits and customs.  Like all good fantasy novels, the book has a large map in it, which necessitates extensive travel on behalf of the main party, of course.  Maybe that’s part of the appeal of fantasy novels to me - traveling around the world, seeing far off places, enjoying their foods and learning about their customs…maybe I view fantasy novels as travel journals…

So that’s the good.  The bad is that there are like ten more books in the series thus far, and I think they average about 1,000 pages each.  And at nearly $10 per book (I pay a premium for English books in Asia) it’s gonna cost me $100 for this new addiction.  Sigh.

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Meaningless Rant: Quit My Job Day!

Posted on November 11th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Meaningless Rants.

On this day, one year ago, I gave up my badge and saw it sliced in two - I took the last of my things and headed for the door.  No more cushy job.  No more stable income. Piles of clothes donated to good will.  Furniture given away.  The rest of it stored.  It was time to travel.

I went to the East Coast.  I went to the West Coast.  I’ve traveled around East Asia.  I’ve been to weddings, but thankfully, no funerals.  I’ve traveled by plane, train, car, bus, boat, motorcycle, subway, light rail, and three-wheeled vehicals - both motorized and man-powered.  I’ve climbed mountains and I’ve swam in the ocean.  Enjoyed national parks, world-famous monuments, and white sand beaches.  I’ve slept on beds, floors, cots, trains, buses - I’ve slept alone, and I’ve slept in rooms with as many as 15.  I’ve been on the countryside among humble farmers of third-world countries, and I’ve joined the masses of humanity in the mega-metropolises of Shanghai and Tokyo.  I’ve communicated in English, Mandarin, crippled Japanese, and countless games of charades.

I’m not certain where I intended to go, but I think I would up where I intended to be.  A few good friends, and an awesome cat.  17 eager young minds that think I’m the best thing since steamed rice.  A small niche in the wall to call home, and a mind that once again is capable of creative thought.

For once, it was about going more than getting.  Once again I had time to stop and talk and know people and discover kindness and generosity in the common person.  I had time to get lost in a foreign city.  I had time to slow down and enjoy life.  In the end, I think that was what I needed most of all.

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Meaningless Rant: Super Squirrel (Supersquirrel?)

Posted on November 7th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Meaningless Rants, Squirrels.

As a follow-up to me Jedi Squirrel rant from last month, I now bring you Super Squirrel. (Supersquirrel? Should it be one word or two? It looks a tad strange all strung together like German, but then, who ever wrote “Super Man”? It’s Superman.)

[Is there a plush Super Squirel out there somewhere???]

What disturbs me more than anything is the sheer amount of super-powered squirrels that people envision. I mean, why squirrels? Why not dogs or cats, if you’re going to pick an animal? (I was searching for a Supercat costume when I came across Super Squirrel.)

Squirrels just don’t seem that amazing to me, unless they’re albino and, preferably, living on the University of Minnesota campus. Yet they must have a fairly large fanbase out there if people are creating images of them as Jedi Knights and super heroes.

Which makes me wonder: what other kind of squirrels are out there? Are there squirrels in wedding gowns or designer fashion clothes straight off the Parisian runways? Are there green Hulk squirrels, or Wolverine squirrels with knives coming out of their fists? Are there special holiday squirrels, like Santa Squirrel for Christmas, and perhaps a squirrel laying chocolate eggs for Easter?

Is there any place in the world where they keep squirrels as pets? Or perhaps employ them to carry notes like messenger pigeons? Are squirrels perhaps some sort of advanced species, like mice are revealed to be in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

[Apparently Super Squirrel is even a legitimate business…though it is from California, and, in that lights doesn’t seem quite so strange…]

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Meaningless Rant: Tarzan’s Artistic Endeavors

Posted on November 5th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Cats, Meaningless Rants.

I’ve been on an artsy streak lately. So has my cat. Every time I paint, he has an irresistible urge to touch the wet paint. Usually, I’m quick enough to defend both my painting and my palette. Occasionally, he’s managed to get a wee bit of paint on his toes and squirmed away before I could stop him, but the damage was always minimal.

Not this time.

I had a small set of paints that came with a kit for making your own mask. I brought it home to try the product out before subjecting my students to it. The night before the lesson I planned to make the masks in, I made to pack up all the parts of the kit: but the paints were missing from the shelf I thought I had left them on. Not that I’ve never misplaced anything. Lately, I seem to misplace lots of things. Which is odd, because my entire apartment is only 125 sq. ft. There aren’t many places to place things at all.

Yet my set of six paints was gone.

It happened around midnight a week after the disappearance of the paints. I saw Tarzan carrying the paint set in his mouth. It had been him all along. I might have snatched them back then, but the lesson was over and I no longer had a need for them. And it was funny to see a furry little cat carrying them around. But after turning away I caught a glimpse of something terrible in my peripheral vision. Half of my students had not been able to open the paints, but Tarzan had popped open the cap on the first color with disturbing ease.

Red paint was spilling onto my floor.

Shocked, I turned to take the paints away from him: just as he deliberately reached forward with his front left paw to soak his toes deep into the colorful new puddle. My attention quickly turned from the paints to the cat. The puddle wasn’t going anywhere: the cat was a different story entirely. Tarzan sensed my eyes locking on him, and his brilliant green eyes turned up to look at me just as I was moving towards him. And he knew he was in trouble.

He bolted.

The ensuing scramble left red paw prints here, there, and everywhere, like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Red paw prints in the bedroom and the bathroom, everywhere from the toilet to my clothing. I grabbed hold of him and took him to the bathroom sink to wash his paw, only to discover that, as he ran, that front left paw had made contact with his back right leg, and one or both of them had also managed to produce stripes of red along his cream-colored tummy. A simple paw-washing would not fix the problem.

An emergency cat shower was the only solution.

Tarzan is not a joy to bathe - no cat is. Tarzan howls like a mortally injured sheep might as he is bludgeoned to death. And my neighbors might be sleeping. But what choice did I have? So we battled with each other for a half an hour as I struggled to wash all the red paint out of the young demon’s fur. By 1am I had a soaking wet cat that had finally reverted to his original, god-given color pattern. All I had to due was dry him and finally get to bed.

Cats are not easy to dry.

They squirm. They struggle. Claws flail wildly. Eventually, all cat-owners give up and let the cat deal with it by itself. So after removing a large quantity of moisture from his fur, I settled him down in one of his favorite spots on top of the mini-fridge where he could repair the damage I had inflicted upon him.

He did not want to sit on the mini-fridge.

He took off and leapt onto the bed. I had already turned down the covers for bed, and he proceeded to soak the sheets and pillows that I required for my rest. I teach kindergarten. I require rest. I removed the cat from my bed, but each time I released him he immediately returned to my bed.

I was doomed.

The moral to the story is this: a cat carrying around a set of paints is not cute: it is a recipe for disaster. They say that curiosity killed the cat - unfortunately, I think it’s far more likely that the cat’s curiosity killed the cat owner. (Not that anyone owns a cat - it’s he who owns me, and I fully acknowledge that fact.)

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Meaningless Rant: Almost Died Day

Posted on November 3rd, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Meaningless Rants.

Today marks three years since the day I was nearly killed by an upper-middle class, middle aged woman driving an imported SUV with the legal minimum amount of insurance.  Yes, I’m still bitter.  And no, I’ll probably never forgive Linda Kay Breckenridge, who showed neither remose for her inability to adhere to traffic laws - or even avoid hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk on a lighted intersection - nor sympathy for the injuries she inflicted upon me.  I don’t think about her every day anymore, but a bitter pain in my knee reminds me when I do strenuous exercise, ride in a poorly-pressurized airplane cabin, and when the weather gets cold.  Alas, a year of therapy can get me over Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but it couldn’t teach me to forgive and forget.  I’m far too stubborn for that.

I am bitter.  I curse her every time someone notices that my glasses never sit straight on my face…because my nose was broken.  I loath the thought of her in her upper-middle class home every time I feel the dents on my left thigh that still today show the place where the Land Rover’s front bumper hit me at 40mph.  And as for the cop who didn’t even give her a ticket…he removed any faith I ever might have had in police.

Yet on this day, I did not dwell upon my bitterness - amazingly.  I thought of the things I am thankful for, and planned a lesson in class for my students to do the same, although they didn’t know my inspiration.

Is it possible to be grateful for the moment when your life flashes before your eyes?  Can I find good in the moment that I looked down to see on the pavement below me a puddle of red six inches wide and eighteen inches long as I watched the blood drip down from my face and wonder if my head was cracked open?

Amazingly, I can.

I am grateful for the moment my life flashed before my eyes, for it made me realize my goals in life, and inspired me to pursue them.

I am grateful for the moment when, as I tried to prepare myself for my possible death, I considered all I’d done in my life and relized my sole regret in life.  A regret which I acted to rectify even while I was laid up in bed, hardly able to move.

I am grateful that I was able to right the sole wrong I saw in my life, and I am grateful for the love and generosity of the one I sought to rectify things with.

I am grateful for the love and support of those who helped me through the first couple months after the accident, when I was rendered all but completely incompetant in life.

I am grateful to the doctors in the ER - one in particular from the X-ray room who, sympathizing with me in my situation, offered to go out of his way to get me anything I wanted that would make me feel better.  (The irony there is that the one thing I wanted was a glass of water - I was parched - and he informed me that was pretty much the one thing I couldn’t have because they didn’t know if they’d be sending me into the OR for surgery or not at that point.  I think it broke his heart that I asked for something so simple and he couldn’t oblige.  Wanting to ask for something to make him feel better, I asked for more gauze as the blood was already spilling out of the gauze they gave me befoe sending me in for my X-rays.)

I certainly can’t say that, given the choice, I would do it all over again…but it’s comforting to know how far I’ve come.  It’s comforting to know that I can finally look back and see good among the bad.

Most importantly of all, when I reached the top of Hohuan Mountain with Matt a few weeks ago - an activity which caused my knee to protest against me in a fiece way - and we sat down to enjoy a pomello(sp?) together as we gazed across the the beautiful green mountains of Taiwan, I realized that I am thankful for being alive.  And I am thankful for being able to walk, and climb mountains.  I am thankful for the opportunity to breathe fresh air and smell the sweet scent of foliage.  I am thankful for the opportunity to smile and laugh.

Every day since November 3rd, 2003 has been a gift.  Bonus days that every doctor I saw said I should not have had the chance to experience.  I remember that even days after the accident, doctors observed that my body was still trembling.  None of them knew why I didn’t die - but that’s not the important part.  What’s important is that I lived.

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