Where to go when you aren’t going anywhere… try the language

February passed without a post now I am looking at the calendar and March has almost passed too.  It’s not that I wasn’t thinking about posting it’s just that, you know, life came up, I didn’t travel anywhere and I didn’t post anything.  Was that just three excuses in one sentence. It wasn’t until I got an email that my China trip coordinator was giving a talk to the new batch of potential China trip students that I realized my blog is linked to the school’s study abroad webpage.  Pretty cool.

This got me thinking about China and some other parts of Asia, and how when I got  back home the first thing I wanted to to was get myself a job, apartment, and a life in Hong Kong or Tokyo.  A decent amount of time went into thinking about how to facilitate this goal much to the detriment of just about everything else in my life.  Some time went into checking out Chinese language shows, podcasts, and food shows.  If I was going to go back to China I wanted learn more Chinese.  I didn’t know how life after graduate school was suppose to function and I wanted to be back in Asia.  Here are a few of my favorite Chinese language findings.

BBC Languages
Sexy Beijing
Pop up Chinese (a Chinese language podcast)- these are hilarious I sure wish I had them before I left.
One minute Mandarin- also a Chinese language podcast.

Then I spent more time than I care to admit watching food shows mostly Bizarre Foods and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations.  After the I don’t want to be home yet finally wore off and I settled into my life these thoughts and behaviors subsided, but my cravings for lamb hot pot and Korean barbecue did not.

The beloved lamb hot pot. It can be spicy or mild.

Phrase books and Hot pot

My weekend is rapidly coming to an end.  It feels like it was really short.

Yesterday was kind of a crazy busy sort of day.  Today has been much more tame.  We went to the bookstore, as a special request of mine, for a phrase book.  I was embarrassed to have forgotten one, but it turned into a group outing because I wasn’t the only one. This little outing landed us at The Foreign Language Bookstore which, if you like books, is awesome.  The sales guy seemed happy to have some practice speaking English and reported that the library is across the street, if we want other books and has five star facilities (restrooms).  This is good to know if you have seen some of the restrooms in China.  (Perhaps more on this topic later).

We had Sichuan food for lunch and Hot Pot for dinner and while I am somewhat concerned that prolonged Hot Pot consumption will have an adverse effects I am enjoying it quite a bit and have come to the  important realization that one of my problems with spicy food is that I am just too impatient to give it the time and attention it deserves.

Tomorrow I am back to acupuncture in the hospital maybe I will have something more profound  or interesting for you then.