A Recommended Channel

So a discovered a YouTube channel that does stereotypes of countries. They are done in a very funny way. The YouTube channel is called Well.

For smaller countries, they go by regions. Canada is sorted by province, and the United States is sorted by states.

I’ve been watching the Spanish stereotypes over and over. The animation style is kinda wacky, but it works. The heads and faces are done in good detail. The bodies are literally black spaghetti. Seriously.

I learned about Caga Tio, and the tradition in Catalan. I’d never heard of this and it’s pretty funny. You can get Caga Tio figures, and also Caganer figurines. I wondered if South Park’s Mr. Hankey was inspired by this, but it wasn’t. Apparently Trey Parker’s dad used to threaten him by saying Mr. Hankey would come out and eat Trey if he didn’t flush the toilet.

Anyway, Caga Tio is a Catalonian Christmas tradition in which a log has a face painted on the end. It is “fed” and on Christmas, little kids beat the log with sticks and other things and the log “poops” out candy and little trinkets.

There are also Caganer figurines in which the figures are squatting and pooping. I guess you can get well-known Spaniards squatting and pooping. And these figures wind up in the nativity sets. I never knew about this until a few days ago. What a hilariously disgusting Christmas tradition!

Oh, I put up another video, this time about Lemon Coke. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/c9kSNHmCybk

Another American in Fuzhou

So I’ve met my first American here in Fuzhou. He’s fron D.C. and is related to someone who came over on the Mayflower, but he doesn’t seem upper crusty at all. We talked about Vietnamese coffee, the Barbie movie, and tamales, so I showed him where La Mesca was on the map.

My good deed for the day.

Campus Kitten, Where Art Thou?

I haven’t seen Campus Kitten in a few days. I went by yesterday, and the bowl of food looked untouched, but it had been moved farther away from the fence than normal. I could barely reach it. The water bowl was gone. Fortunately, I had one with me so I refilled it.

Part of it is that I haven’t been coming by as late as I normally do. The freshmen have completed their military training, so I have three more classes to teach, bringing me to a total of six. However, I have about four more weeks of my argumentative class. They’ve split it up somehow, and I am only responsible for the first eight weeks. Once that is done, I’ll be back down to five classes and a bit more time off.

I hope Campus Kitten is okay. I will probably go by every couple days to see about food and water. There are lots of stray cats here in China, and there are people who will set food and water out for them. Also, it doesn’t get terribly cold here in the wintertime. Although living outside wouldn’t be ideal, it’s better here than suffering through a Beijing winter.

Still, if I never see Campus Kitten again, I’m hoping she grows up as healthy as she can for being an outdoor cat, and has a long and adventurous life. I asked if pets were allowed in our complex, because I hadn’t seen too many, but I saw a small dog being walked in the courtyard yesterday. So it’s possible I may cross paths and become Campus Kitten’s mom, but I really feel uncomfortable adopting a pet.

Pets are expensive. And after my beloved Daphne got sick and I was about to take her to the low-cost vet, she died in my arms before I could get her there. I felt really guilty about that. Then my kitty, Summit, was left with a foster mom because I couldn’t afford to take her with me. Summit developed health issues and had to be put down. I felt guilty about that too. She was probably scared and confused that I took her to an unfamiliar house that had lots of dogs and cats. She lived in the basement and came upstairs periodically, but I have to wonder what she was thinking.

To go from our quiet house after Daphne died, to an unfamiliar place. I knew it would be a good home, and it was, but I’ll always feel guilty.

So even though I could get Campus Kitten a good home, I don’t want to leave China without her.

So if she can make it on her own, that’s good.

A Great Present!

Mid-Autumn Festival (and an eight-day vacation) is coming up and my teacher’s union gave me a gift card worth $216.30. This particular grocery store delivers, so I’m looking forward to that. The last time I had something delivered, it was from Ikea, my wardrobe doors that I bought for cheap to turn into shelving. I’m still waiting to scrape up enough cash for storage boxes, but I put up the shelves (with plastic trash can supports) and it has made such a difference. Much better than the saggy moving boxes I’d been using.

I really haven’t taken advantage of having food or anything else delivered to the apartment. My favorite rice place is quite far away from my house, and I wouldn’t want anyone having to navigate that on an ebike. Plus, I feel the exercise I get walking a half hour to McDonald’s, or to the little Muslim place nearby helps to negate any calories I might consume.

The food that I HAVE had delivered is whatever I can order through Baopals. But for some strange reason, my new (to me) computer is not allowing me to access Baopals. I have to order on my Chinese phone. It works, of course, but I’m used to having a big screen to scroll through all the choices I have.

Even using Bing (ugh) doesn’t work. VPN, no VPN, I just can’t get Baopals on my newish computer. Oh well.

Jimmy’s Back!

I don’t watch the Jimmy Kimmel show, but I AM glad he’s back. Freedom of speech is extremely important. I thought his monologue was simple, yet brilliant. Catch it on YouTube. He gave shout outs to lots of people. I didn’t know that Erica Kirk had forgiven the shooter, and that moved her up a couple of notches in my mind. Christians make a big deal out of forgiving, and I know if I’d been in her shoes, I wouldn’t have forgiven. I’m too bitchy, bitter and vindictive.

But I hope this incident makes us realize that no one deserves to die for their opinion. NO ONE. The first amendment applies to everyone, even to people whose opinions you don’t agree with. If you don’t like the message, change the channel, turn the TV off, or maybe write a rebuttal to that person–but realize that this great freedom is for all. They can have opinions, and so can you. Walk away, turn off the internet, go take a nap, do something to get the anger out.

Just don’t take it out on another person.

Typhoon Ragasa

Is on her way in. It started raining earlier, but I was able to feed and water Campus Kitten. Her food bowls/plates are gone, but the water bowl was still there. I fed her on my way home, after a somewhat sleepless night.

I’ve been in the habit of watching tons of YouTube, and I leave my computer running all night to videos I’ve watched before; sort of like falling asleep in front of the TV. It’s probably unhealthy to do that.

But I’ve noticed I’m very sensitive to changes in the barometric pressure, which of course I can’t control. If it’s been rainy/gloomy for weeks, I literally have a brain fog. Then, when it changes to sunshine, I’m sleepy for a while, until the weather changes again. I hate it.

So last night, I went to bed rather early, but woke up absurdly early, like around 12:30 a.m. I couldn’t really get back to sleep, so I watched videos and tried to rest my eyes a bit. So when class was over today, I went straight home and didn’t do anything, even though I had plenty to grade.

I’ll get to it.

But because it’s hard for me to sleep sometimes, I take my rest whenever I can get it. And it turns out a gloomy, rainy afternoon and some peanut M&M’s were enough to make me doze off. Now, the question is, will I be able to get back to sleep and be rested for my classes tomorrow?

I wish I could keep my current schedule. It’s awesome, but I’d probably be paid half of what I’m getting now, and right now is barely affordable. The freshmen have military training for a few weeks, and next week I’ll be teaching the rest of my classes. But–after another five weeks, my argumentative class will be taught by someone else, and I’ll be able to snag another day off during the week.

I’m a bit spoiled. But after all I’ve been through here in China job-wise, I’m happy to have great work-life balance, so I’m gonna stay with it.