So I enrolled in a tea class today. There's a tea shop in the international district (think all Asian countries mixed together), which is next to where I work. I made an appointment with the lady who owns the place for a midday lesson. She seems to like me, and was very kind to me.
I love introductory courses. There are two high points in learning; the beginner's course, and the advanced course. When you're a beginner, everything is new and the light is so bright in your eyes that are just starting to open. When you're advanced, your wings can take you atop a tall mountain; and there you see all the wonders of the mountains taller still.
Even though I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of what tea is, and how to properly appreciate a good tea, it's a thoroughly fascinating subject that I'm going to invest a good amount of time and money in. If nothing else, it's a better way to spend my money than gambling.
In other news, I need to pick up more manly hobbies. My last few have been eerily, disturbingly effeminite. There's something that's really scary when I'm reading a book and it says (roughly translated) "learning how to cook and conquering the kitchen is a woman's pride and joy."
Apparently, there are both comic book and animated series versions of this story.
Needless to say, they will be acquired.
Somewhere between growing tired of crappy television/movies and wanting to recapture my childhood, I blew about $400 on a few sets of VCDs. These VCDs were made by the company that originally broadcast them on TV, way back in the early/mid 80's. There are three sets, each one telling an individual story which fits within an overarching story. In total, there's about 84+ hours of storytelling involved, so there's no way I'm going to get into the details of it.
If I knew how to type in Chinese I would type out the titles here. Instead, I'll use my terrible lack of pinyin skills to write down the titles (I've been told before I tend towards the Wade-Giles system of pinyin; most times I have no idea what I'm doing and just blindly stab at it):
1. She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan (I've seen it romanized as "The Condor Heroes"...silly 80's translations).
2. Shen Diao Xia Lr (I've seen it romanized as "The Return of the Condor Heroes"...silly silly 80's translations).
3. Yi Tien Tu Long Ji (I've seen it romanized as "The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre"...this one's a bit more true).
If you think you're Chinese and you've never heard of any of these (pretend for a second I actually know pinyin), you're not really Chinese. Just ask your parents. They'll slap you around and lament that it's all their fault for raising you in America where you've become completely white washed and have forgotten all the thousands of years of culture your mother country has left behind. Then when you go out to a restaurant and say you want to go to a "dim sum" place when you're not Cantonese and they'll lament some more about how the entire culture's been commercialized.
The series I just finished watching is the second one. The movie "Kung Fu Hustle" makes a reference to the main characters of this story, Yang Guo and Shiao Long Nr. What did the subtitles for that movie end up saying? "Paris and Helen of Troy." Gimp. Paris and Helen of Troy have nothing on this story.
So! If you're somewhat partially marginally Chinese and you haven't seen/read/heard of any of these stories, it's high time to rectify your life and stop being a cultural embarassment. If you're somewhat partially marginally white and you ever ask me if "it took [me] a long time to learn how to use a fork" I'll stab you repeatedly. Same thing if you ever ask "if [I] know how to speak Asian." The only places I've really spent much time are LA, SF, and Seattle, all of which have a fairly large Asian population...is it too much to ask for a little (just a little) cultural awareness? This is not a quiz on the order of the dynasties (I don't know the order of the US presidents either), but just something simple and basic.
What a silly country.
There's a history of people talking about me behind my back via email. That's not too interesting by itself, but somehow these people have a tendency to (through one means or another) include my email address in the recipients list. This then leads to me reading everything they're saying (and sometimes earlier emails too, if they'r quota), and brings me to an awkward question:
Are these people trying to provoke me, or are they just stupid?
It happened a few months ago when I was teaching a course at Berkeley, and one of the student groups had a round of team emails that got sent to me as well. It wasn't anything particularly disparaging; just one of the members saying it didn't really matter what they did since I wouldn't lean on them or anything anyways.
So I wrote them all a little paragraph explaining how if there was only one thing they took away from my class, it should be "always check your email recipients before pushing the send button."
A few days ago I sent out an invitation to a new graduates mailing list at work. Apparently, two different people found it necessary to forward that email to their friends, along with comments like "this is(sic) gotta be the lamest invitation I'e ever gotten" or "this is the dorkest invite I've ever gotten" or what have you. Now I'm not going to argue that I'm not lame, or that I'm not dorky. But really now...are these people malicious, stupid, or a bit of both?
I would be more upset about this if I wasn't so confused about why it keeps happening. I'm sure people say plenty of things behind my back...but most of them are smart enough to make sure I won't find out about it, or at least do it where I can't hear/see it.
On a humorous sidenote, the guy who said my invitation was the dorkiest invitation he'd ever gotten later sent an email to some of his friends saying "hey do you guys want to go? it might actually be kind of fun." How awkward will it be if he shows up? People tell me I make awkward situations; I say awkward situations find me instead.