This blog is admittedly a long time in coming and I beg your forgiveness. The trouble with real winter, that is not the SoCal version, is that people unused to it, that is me, tend to stay inside. The side effect is that the exposure to local flavor that might prove blog-worthy is limited. The result is that one can only blog so many times on the cold before it becomes complaining, something I am trying not to do. Experiencing real winter is something I am striving to enjoy.
So instead of posting again on the coldness of cold weather, here is a smattering of observations that have happened as a result of winter. It will be a little while longer before I can go walk the streets of Hailar and gather fun and interesting experiences to post on.
It is still winter and I still haven't been out much. Not that I don’t like winter and snow and freezing temperatures and below freezing temperatures and ice. It is has been enjoyable, the parts that I wasn’t numb for. Rather, it is the dressing up that has hindered my participation.
Growing up one of my favorite books was Froggy. It is a cute little tale about a frog who wakes up in the middle of winter, something frogs are not supposed to do. He decides he wants to go enjoy the snow. The entire book chronicles how he gets dressed. Each time he goes outside, his mother yells out the window about a certain article of clothing he has forgotten to put on. Having never played in the snow, he forgets almost everything. He must come back inside, strip, put on the forgotten article, put everything previous back on, and go back outside, only to be reminded of something else. The last time his mother yells at him, it is “Froggy, you forgot your underwear!!!”
While I have been fortunate not to go that far in not knowing how to dress for winter, I can certainly sympathize with Froggy, who went back in for the last time, slowly took off his hat, his gloves, his coat, his socks, his shirt, his pants, etc., only to decide that he was too tired to get redressed. He crawls back into bed to finish his winter sleeping.
Several times coming back from getting groceries, I have realized after changing into inside clothes that I have forgotten something. Froggy had it right—sometimes it is just too much work to get ready to go back outside and time to call it a day. I can’t sleep away the winter like a frog, but I have discovered youku, which for a human can be about the same thing.
Ever see “You’ve Got Mail”? Personally, I think it is pretty much “Sleepless in Seattle” for the new century. However, given that Ryan and Hanks do well together, I am willing to forgive them for making a remake of their own movie. Anyway, one of the little rants has the Ryan character saying "People do strange things in foreign countries," to which the Kinnear character responds, “Absolutely. They buy leather jackets for much more than they are worth.” He should have also said "Watch really dumb movies and/or TV shows they never would watch otherwise."
No, this is not going to turn into a confessional where I blab all of the stupid things I have watched out of the country. I have learned to limit the amount of teasing ammunition I freely supply my friends and family. But here is one example, since some of you already know. In Romania, I saw the Lizzie McGuire Movie. Yes, I know, I should be ashamed of myself.
I am. Moving on.
Why do people do such things? I have several theories. And here they are, no drumroll necessary:
One, it is a chance to hear English that the mind does not have to tax itself to understand. I don't mind listening to broken, heavily accented English. After all, anyone who talks to me gets the same thing, just in Chinese. Speaking is the only way anyone gets better at a language. But listening takes a lot of energy.
Two, as far fetched as Hollywood is, it is closer to “home” than what is outside. You know the cultural rules. Even a brief whiff of "back home" can be comforting.
Three, boredom, plain and simple. That is my defense for the aforementioned flick, in addition to there being nothing else at the theater that I had not already seen and that was not rated higher than I was comfortable watching.
Back to youku. Thanks to this little site, I have been (mostly) kept from a repeat of my Romanian stupidity. Jericho, Heroes, Numb3rs, CSI—they are all there, as well as the dumb ones. In not-so-great quality. With Chinese subtitles. For semi-hampered load times.
The point is that they are there. I don’t really mind the first because I don’t really “watch” so much as listen while sewing. The second has actually been helpful in learning some characters. And the third? Well, that is just part of life outside the States…things take longer, whether it be getting groceries or watching TV.
Now that you know one of my secrets for staying sane, I must end by saying this is not all I have been doing. Most of my time is spent working. But let’s face it. A blog on internet research and what are essentially reports on said research just wouldn’t be interesting. The squeal I let loose when Jake said “Nuts!”…that might actually be blog-worthy.
Maybe.
Probably not.
But I tried.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what winter does to a person.
