Sunday, April 10th, 2016

Smog Level: 2/3 Mountains

Didn’t get to bed until 3am. Around 10, I drag myself out of bed and start buckling down on work. At 10 to 1, I have to leave to tutor. You know how I said that the girl had told her dad that I was bad at vocabulary? Apparently Shimou had mentioned that in front of the Maggie herself, who then said “I didn’t say that!” It’s hard to tell who’s lying at this point, but whatever. She's an ongoing client.

During our lesson, I wonder how the words “prisoner” and “jailer” could seemingly be the exact same thing, yet hold completely opposite roles. That must be very confusing. French sometimes had those issues, but luckily Mandarin has been exceedingly logical.

Sunday, March 27th, 2016

Smog Level: All 3 Mountains

Turning Green

Slept in, hoping to kick the cold. I think it’s getting better. Either way, I’m going back to the gym on Tuesday. Despite walking 8-10km on average per day and generally avoided desserts, I’m fairly certain that I've gained weight since arriving. Great. Maybe it's just all the salt and oil making me bloated? Denial might just be the answer to everything!

I tutored one of my students, and have used Golf (card game) to motivate her. She wants to play that, and really doesn’t want to do any work other than just  basic conversation. That can only go so far when speaking with an 11 year old, so now we alternate rounds and learning/writing a vocabulary word. Upon reviewing at the end of the session, I don’t think she learned as much as she should, but at least her parents have a piece of paper with vocab work on it. Appeasement.

Food Prepping

August 9th, 2015

Cotton mouthed and a mentally off-balance, I remember that we drank the night before and chug a few glasses of water. Shimou continues to sleep for another hour, while I relax next to her. After getting out of the shower, she informs me that there is actually a full house, with a handful of additional Chinese people over for making a big lunch. I wish I could stay, but today is the final game day and I had committed last week. I'm always torn between organization and chaos. If you're too organized, you have everything planned but no freedom for random events. This is a problem younger me would never have faced, except for being so disorganized that I had to scramble to finish things.

Note: Unrelated pics, there's not usually
much to see during these games.

August 2nd, 2015

Today is the second last game day! They moved it just for little ol’ me, saying they didn't want to finish our current campaign without me. I'm honored, especially considering my character was mostly useless until recently.

I gather my things and make pancakes from scratch. Shimou and Co. have only ever tasted the bottled ones. I told them it was probably cheaper - and better - to do it make them from scratch, so here I am. I'm not actually sure it would be cheaper, but generally buying pre-made, smaller servings is more expensive per serving. I haven’t done the math - sue me.

I pop my pills and make sure to bring them with me. This is going to be a bit of a test to see if I can make it through a 6 hour game session without problems. Please be the correct antibiotics! Please work against this particular strain! And please, for the love of god, don't be allergic!

I actually thought to take a picture this time.

July 12th, 2015

Game Day - possibly the last one! I know, I know, you’re totally crying because of it. Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.

Since my sleep schedule is more normalized, I have time to fit the gym in before the pickup time, and stop at Tran’s on my way home. I read “The Go Giver” this week, which is definitely a worthwhile read. For some it may be intrinsically obvious, but for others it may be eye opening. It’s also a great compliment to the 4 hour work week, which can make you start thinking more about scammier approaches to business. Bad dog! Bad!