Heathcare questioner

I got a package in the mail recently.  It was from my mom, and it had a insurance questioneer which was interesting to fill out in China.  Some of the questions were asking about how frequently I exercise.  I wasn't sure how to answer.  Because of badminton and biking the amount of exercise I do regularly has increased.  I also know I've lost weight since I came here, but I don't have a scale, so I don't know how much I weigh (I don't really care but it makes it hard to answer that question).  Then it asked about seatbelts.  In the US I always wear a seatbelt.  Here....I don't think I have worn a seatbelt since I've landed.  They are kinda like helmets.  People here don't use them.  So when I got to that question...how frequently do I use my seatbelt, I was like...which country?   


I have gotten much more comfortable biking.  I also have gotten much more familiar with the traffic patterns.  I only feel like I'm going to die when I cross the street half the time now.  Seriously you have to be careful crossing the street.  Its also interesting riding your bike in the bike lane, going against traffic.  Especially since cars frequently use the bike lanes.  One of the professors here was talking about situational awareness.  I've become very apt at looking ahead and behind and everywhere cause there are so many people here!  I started out riding my bike on campus (less traffic) till I got the hang of it again.  I'm still not 100% comfortable riding, but I think that's a good thing, cause it means I'm paying attention to the world around me.  

Well I have been playing Badminton once a week for the last four weeks.  I have actually been having a lot of fun with it.  It wasn’t till this last time that I actually got upset.  The first match, I was just learning to hit the birdie.  The next two times I got comfortable enough that I was able to do overhand swings with the racquet and manage to hit the birdie.  And this time it occurred to me that I ought to move.  The problem was I kept moving away from the birdie.  I still have this deep instinct to duck when things are flying at me, and I still haven’t quite broken myself of this habit.  I’ve been hit with it before, it doesn’t hurt (even when its going fast), I just need to retrain myself.  But what was really frustrating for me was I have no power behind my swing.  All the other guys can hit it pretty fast.  Even some of the girls I saw playing could hit the birdie with a fair amount of speed.  But it seemed like when I tried to hit it hard, I missed.  And I come home and my arm is all sore the next day.  So maybe I need to start doing push ups, or lifting weights or something to make my arm muscles strong enough to hit it fast.  Yaohui pointed out (accurately) that I was being impatient.  Its just incredibly frusterating knowing what you need to do (put more power behind your swings) and not being able to do it.  But for the last two days my arm and shoulder have been sore from using new muscles.  Maybe by the time I leave I'll actually be able to play with some power behind my hits.  

Last week was the holiday, so I was spending most of my time hanging out with friends. I went out for hot pot, went to the movies 3 times, went shopping, and had a really good time. I went to see Source Code (it was in English with Chinese subtitles) in the theater. I really recommend it. I also saw the Chinese film 画壁 (huabi/Mural) in theaters twice.  It was pretty good, Chinese film English subtitles. The only class that I really had to work on over the break was Chinese.  Chinese is pretty hard.  I'm the only student in the class, so if I don't know the answer I'm pretty much in trouble.  But also we have been working on my tones a fair amount because they are really off.  I know I've been miss-pronouncing individual words but I haven't gotten the individual attention to improve this.  Its also interesting because everyone in Beijing has different accents.  I was hanging out with some classmates Dave and James one day and they said that "90 percent of the Chinese people living in Beijing aren't 'real' Beijingers, but you should listen to our accent because we are real Beijingers".  That led me to ask what a real Beijinger was.  They meant that even their grandparents had been born in Beijing.  Meaning that my friend Christina isn't a 'real' Beijinger by their definition because her parent moved from Shanghai.  Its sort of is like Colorado pride on steroids.  The regional distinctions within this country are pretty large.  So most of the people I run into here don't use the Beijing 儿 (r) pirate accent.  I probably won't pick it up.  

Recently the ICB Advertising class got an assignment to take photos of things that they like about the ICB program.  All the sudden groups of students went up to me and asked me to pose with them in photos. Because I'm the token American student in this program for this semester.  I explained to them that a lot of Americans do not feel comfortable with their photos being taken, so if they ever find themselves state-side they need to make sure they ask first.  More people here don't care as much about their photos being taken, unless they are the older generation.  I wonder how many photos of me actually will crop up in the ICB program, or the UCD study abroad program.  I have been having trouble uploading photos on facebook.  So I'm kinda not updating that.  

Oh the other night I tried brains (I don't know which animal), and pheasant intestines.  The intestines were chewy.  I really felt like I was eating a cat tongue.  I did not enjoy the experience.  But the brains were actually pretty good.  Very soft, lots of flavor.  BTW most Chinese people don't eat foods like that.  Dave wouldn't touch the brains, and he is born and raised Chinese, so don't assume these foods are normal.  I think my friend Sean was trying to give me an oppertunity to try exotic foods.  He didn't push me to eat them though, which is what made me try them.  I really appreciated that he made them available but didn't say you have to try this now.  And he didn't try to hide what it was before I ate it.  So as far as exotic foods go I have tried duck blood (liked it), lungs (pretty good), brain (pretty good), and intestines (gross).  

Well I gotta finish homework now and head to class.  Just thought I was passed due for an update.