Let it Snow! and Other Randomness

After 100 days of drought, we finally received rain last week in Beijing, and snow for the first time this winter. Some say the precipitation was "man-made" and coincidentally, the storms came on the 101st day, but hey, whatever works to cure the dry spell right?

As you can see here, snow in Beijing isn't exactly pleasant. Unlike the white fluffy snow we're used to in the US, the snowflakes in the Jing turn gray before they hit the pavement. Yesterday, while walking to work, I slipped on a patch of ice and landed on my knees. Surprisingly, my knee isn't badly bruised, but the swelling hasn't fully gone away yet.

On another note, I attended a networking event last night and met a visitor from Libya. He told me that China has invested in $30 billion worth of construction contracts in Libya. Hmm...I wonder what are they doing there? Anyway, I had a fun time talking to him, and he even wrote my name down in Arabic. Here's what it looks like:

Pretty cool right?

Last random thought of the day - I literally laughed out loud today when I saw this doctored picture of the CCTV tower (courtesy of weliveinbeijing.com).

That's all!

I miss teaching!

Guys, I miss teaching. I realize that whenever I tell stories about my former students, I'm always laughing my head off, and inundating my listeners with details about each of the kids. Some of my former 12th graders are in my Facebook network, and every now and then I get the pleasure of seeing the pictures they post. Some of them have turned to party animals, some are finding themselves, and others will IM me over Skype about boy problems (hahaha). Lauren and I were chatting this morning and saying how we don't have funny stories to tell anymore. Like that time when Yoyo threw a shoe smeared with poo into Ms. Bao's (head of the primary school) office. And when I punished Dione for passing a note around in class and she cried. And how I shocked my 6th graders by being overly mean (poor things, they were the first students I taught last year) and they were always so quiet, so well behaved...and scared (haha)...but later warmed up to me. I remember how Angela gave me a mug as a good-bye present that was decorated with dogs on it because she knew I loved dogs. And cute little Andrew who worked so so hard so he could move out of ESL and into non-native English. Chubby little Dustin who's nickname was "Dustbin". I miss my 10th graders too who are probably stressing over PSATs, classes and homework now. See? I can go on and on...

I miss the blatant, unfiltered honesty that I saw last year. Maybe someday, who knows when, I will return to teaching.

Life

In Buddhism (or frankly, any religion), we're often taught that life is a gift, and it is precious. When I used to attend meditation classes in New York City, I was reminded how life is not only precious, but also fragile, and it can be taken away at a moment's notice. We humans, including myself, tend to focus too much on the future, when we should take care of the present moments. The future is not guaranteed, but simply our imagination of wishes and desires. If we don't train our minds properly, we can easily get carried away and worry incessantly about life's trivialities.

Last week, while I was busy having sun and fun in Boracay, I found out that a former teacher colleague of mine passed away. I didn't know him well, but he was my next door neighbor last year. He kept to himself, but I got the impression that he was a brilliant man. He authored a number of books, and he was well-respected by the rest of the faculty and his students. The only downfall that I noticed, was his incessant drinking (he reeked of bai jiu all the time) and smoking. In fact, I once got into an argument with him because his smoking set-off the fire alarm for over an hour, and he was pretty drunk and incoherent.

Point is, I never really thought about him passing away. But I guess that's how life is. One minute, you're here, next minute, you're gone, and the only things you leave behind are eerie traces of yourself before the final moment. So, as morbid as this may sound, tomorrow is not a guarantee. Laugh as much as you can, enjoy every present moment, perform good deeds and embrace life. I would hate to pass away at a point in time when I'm busy worrying about silly things. In other words, don't sweat the small stuff.

RIP Richard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gordon_(Scottish_author)