October 12, 2002

Whew! Talk about taking a break from my computer!! Seems like ages since I last put together a new page. At least the break did do me some good in terms of helping in the recovery of my neck and shoulder problems. I also changed a few more things that I also feel helped me get to the point where I am now. First, I no longer carry my backpack on my back. Instead, I use a real sissy-looking basket on the front of my bike, and when I do need to carry my books around I do so by handling the backpack like luggage. Sounds lame I know, but it helps! Second, I do regular neck, shoulder, and back exercises to strengthen the muscles in those areas. Third, I sleep with an orthopedic pillow which helps keep my neck in the proper position. Stomach-sleepers beware!!! My doctor has warned that it is the absolute worst position to lie in!! Anyway, the most important thing I do is receive therapy from Dr. Khanjani, who, through spinal and cervical manipulations, muscle therapy, ultrasound, and dietary recommendations, has really brought me a long long way from where I was nearly 5 months ago. I still have some pain and there's still numbness in my right thumb, but it is SO much better. In fact, since my last session, my thumb is at about 95% of normal feeling! In the beginning of my problems it was so numb that I might not feel a hammer hitting it! I just can't say enough about how happy I am to be avoiding surgery, and more importantly, how happy I am to have so much less pain! I now feel a real empathy for those suffering from chronic pain. It's really a miserable thing.

Gotta have the bad news to balance out the good right? Well, one result of all my therapy has been a HUGE drain on my pocketbook! Despite being covered by insurance, the therapy has nearly put me in the poor-house. In fact, it has gotten to the point where I need to consider leaving school early and looking for a job. This is something I definitely want to avoid, especially considering the fact that I already paid for the semester. Really bums me out, but all I have to do is recall the time where I would have given all my money away to make the pain stop. Another good way for me to look at it is that it's probably a drop in the bucket compared to what I would spend had I needed surgery. All in all it's just something I have to deal with and despite this unplanned misfortune I can still look anyone in the eye and tell them that without question my living in China has been the right and best decision for me. I am still so much happier than I was in the States, and this without a lot of money to spend and all the difficulties that go along with being a foreigner living in China!

Oh, almost forgot another negative! My buddy Mike has chickened-out and returned to the United States to find a job. alright, I'm absolutely joking about the chickening-out thing. <Mike, just one little fun stab at ya!> In reality Mike is once again pursuing his career in the field of Journalism where he has worked as a reporter. It's just too bad nothing held him in Beijing as he was great fun to hang out and party with. Mike, best of luck to you in your search, and I hope to see you again someday real soon!!

As you can tell by now, school has resumed and I now find myself struggling to learn almost 30 new words a day. This is more than just a little difficult because I am expected to know how to write all the characters for them as well. To be really honest, there's no way I can possibly do it! Hanzi, the Chinese writing system is just so far removed from my native one. I find that the difficulty exponentially increases with each additional character stroke. So those characters with 5 or less strokes are quite manageable while those with more are headache-inducing! Here's an example of a recent word I had to learn: - ganxie (to thank, to be grateful) Looks pretty tough doesn't it? No? Well you try remembering this word amongst the hundreds of others you have been force-fed!! It really is difficult, but when you start learning the various components of the words and the individual meanings of those components, you can understand why the character looks the way it does. Doesn't make it any easier, but you can at least start to understand why. So, enough of the Hanzi crash-course! Best to move on to some other aspects of my new class.

Unlike last semester which saw me in a room full of students that were true beginners in Mandarin Chinese, this semester's class is a higher level and thus, before enrolling, my classmates and I could all speak, read and write the language. Some much better than others! Yup, I'm at about the bottom of the ability and competency scale again. Hehe. Perfectly understandable since many of my classmates come from countries that use ideographic character systems like Hanzi (South Korea & Japan), or have been exposed to spoken Mandarin at home. Beyond that fact, I'm not going to name names, but more than one student in my class could easily be moved up into a higher level of instruction. :) Like last semester, I am taking it all in stride with the main goal of learning and improving my Mandarin skills. Whether or not I am languishing at the bottom of the class on my path to improvement is not so important. I am trying I tell ya!!! Oh, this time around I am the only American, but it really doesn't make any difference in any way. As mentioned earlier, my class has students from Japan, and South Korea, as well as from Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, France, and Italy. Another big melting pot! They are all great people and the classroom atmosphere is really cool! For pictures of a dinner party many of us attended, click <HERE>.I also have 3 teachers as opposed to only two last semester. For my general class my teacher is Ms. Zhang, for speaking it's Mr. Wang, and for listening comprehension it's Ms. Zhou. I feel very lucky because they all seem to be very caring and talented. With me, they also seem to be very patient and understanding. :)

Let's see what else has been going on? Guess I could mention that some of my classmates from last semester, like me, have returned for another round at BLCU. They include Chris from England, Neil from Hong Kong, and Andreas, and Hong from Indonesia. Chris lives really close to me so we often grab lunch or dinner together, or hook up for a few drinks on the weekend. I have only briefly seen the others and assume they are doing well. Oh, forgot to mention that another classmate has made an appearance in Beijing, although it is for an uncertain amount of time. Michelle, from Australia, is in Beijing doing some work before traveling to various places around the globe. I am so envious. :)

Beyond all this, there's not much more to report! Obviously, my health and financial circumstances have limited my ability to do a lot of things, but I hope there will be more room in future journal entries for more of my take on Beijing and the people who live here. I still find many things interesting, confusing, and humorous, so hopefully all the studies won't wreck my memory or ability to describe them to you!

Everyone take care, and if you are interested, check out the mailing list information on the front home page for information on how to be notified of new journal entries. I know many of you check my page on a fairly regular basis and I would like to make things easier for you. I don't want to be responsible for any amount of disappointment in anybody's day!