Day 35 - Bidniss

Sunday, March 13th, 2016

Smog Level: 1 Mountain

Chinese "Tacos"

It’s Sunday, but not a day of rest. Instead, at 10:30, I have the parents (who had “interviewed” me before) coming back for an unclear reason. They wanted to see me again, but we said it would be best to have one lesson just so that it didn’t waste everyone’s time. The lesson went relatively well once the parents moved away and the daughter was able to focus more. She's quite young, but her reading is pretty good. They say she's "naughty," but it seems more like she just has too much energy.

I had sent Josh a last-minute message, telling him to expect a family in the apartment early in the morning. I thought he knew, but after the lesson, I checked my phone to see that, no, the message hadn’t sent. Whoops. This is further evidence that a new phone would be useful to have. I followed up and apologized, telling Josh I’d give him at least some warning in the future.

After that lesson, I scramble to eat and make it to my next lesson in time. I teach her “Golf” and we alternate between playing that game and reading from a kid's science book. She really liked the game and didn’t want to work, so I worked english into the game by making her name every card she handled. I’m not sure if her parents will like her learning a card game, as people seem to call cards “poker” here*. This makes me think that they generally have an instant gambling association.

Chinese Police Truck

In an attempt to get more cardio into my life, I decided that I’m going to run the dingy, dimly lit stairs in my building up to the 16th floor. It’s actually only 13 flights, since they don’t have the 4th, 13th, or 14th floors.

I wrangle with the internet, trying to get back to editing more posts, and I almost get one done. This is becoming a real pain, and I wish the VPN suppression would lift. Note the constant struggle.

Dingy Stairs with the Faint
Aroma of Urine

I find myself tired most days and can’t really figure out why. I think I’ve been getting enough sleep, so what’s the deal? Fitbits are generally accurate on keeping track of that, but I can’t really access mine due to the VPN problems. I manage to get it uploaded and find that my average sleep for the past 3 weeks has been 7h a night. I need 9h to function well. Well, that explains it.

This is my worst area for willpower. Shutting down early is something I hate doing, but I know that if I get enough sleep, all time I spend studying or working will become more efficient, and I could possibly kick the caffeine dependence. I guess that’s the next project, going to sleep early.

I tried tonight, but wound up laughing about stupid phrases, like “bù hǎo yì sì, ráng yī ráng” which translates to “excuse me, let me through,” but literal translation: no good reason, let one let.” I find it funny because it's like.. why would you do anything for someone you don't know when they openly admit to not having a good reason? "Hey, I really shouldn't do this.. in fact, I don't know why I am. But... how about you help?"

Words of the Day

English - Mandarin [pronunciation]

hand - shǒu [show]

finger - shǒuzhǐ [show-jur]

Editing Music
Let's Go
Matt and Kim

*: They've literally called a deck of cards "poker"