Hot Mess Minimalist

I am back in the United States. While hiding from most of the world till I become re-acclimated to this fusion of cultures on demand, before I get back to all the blogs I need to write because I was blocked from blogger in China, I want to write something about the issue on the top of every paper and political magazine around here... Healthcare. So currently I have no health insurance, or dental. I am looking forward to getting both of those things, because I want to get a checkup on both. I had an individual health care plan from around July to February of this past year. It wasn't too bad I payed $85.34 a month and had more coverage than I did previously with my employer. I think I was paying about the same amount out of my own pocket too, just after taxes in this case. Now I have to go through the fun process of looking for health insurance on these overwhelming websites again. It got me thinking that every member of congress who is considering these bills should go throu...

So I haven't posted for quite a while because currently I am blocked from blogspot in China. My fiance offered to post my blog for me, which is great as I have an awful lot to write about. This blog is sort of serving as my personal forum for my ethnographic field notes this trip, because I have no paper to write this time. Either my parents did a really good job, or a really bad job with me, because I have a very strong sense that I need to do everything I can to not inconvenience other people. Maybe it was Girl Scouts and believing that you should always leave a place better than when you found it. In college I realized that a lot of people really lack this sense of personal responsibility for the welfare of yourself and others, and environmental conditions. I was the person who when our communal kitchen sink was stacked with dishes, before our RA would throw them out I would spend Saturday morning cleaning them all. I remember thinking... if I wash them, so they don't ...

Nature is rather controlled in China. I can somewhat understand why. It seems that people are rather afraid of anything they don't know much about. They may allow the stray dogs to exist, but most people are afraid to touch a pet dog. I have been told not to go onto the small hill next to my school because there are snakes (never seen a snake, only a few run over, but I have heard plenty of birds in there.) Parks seem to be very strategic and planned down to the last shrub. Sure they get a little overgrown sometimes, but really, that's a rarity here. Hiking in the woods doesn't happen. A hike is always on a paved road or stairs. I may have mentioned to some people how it is that this city has changed so much in the past 10 years. How mountains were bigger, there were more woods, and their was more natural environment and areas for people to plant crops. Here are some photos, showing what I mean. The first is my students in front of the school, maybe a month and a...

The class that I teach here in China is a speaking English class. I often have my students interact to practice dialogues with each other, or come up with role plays. I think in large part for cultural reasons quite a few of my students will sit and read out loud to themselves. In one of my first classes where I did this type of exercise there were only a few students who were reading to themselves. I can recall thinking that I should tell them that they are not an island, and needed to interact with other students. Then I though... I should give myself this same advice. I think being brought up in America makes a person very independent. I think that in part the fact that we as a culture also value self reliance makes many people unlikely to ask for help. By this I don't mean asking questions or for directions. What I mean really is, when you can do something yourself as an American usually you will do it, you don't want someone else to help you, and take it on as bein...

So I've been in China for about a month and a half. I've had a rather interesting experience, that is somewhat out of the norm. So I ended up contracted through one of those agencies that they warn you about, because I was stupid and trusted the non-profit organization that I went with. So the way that I got here is I went though a non-profit organization in the states, who contracted with a company in Jinan, Shandong China. The people who work at this company are kind, but clueless. The visas everyone came in on were student visas, with 90 days on them. The state department specifically advises against teaching with any type of visa, other than a work visa. So we spent about a week in a hotel in Jinan and were slowly sent out to schools through out the country. So long story (filled with headaches, and most of the other teachers leaving the country) short, I was taken the other day to get my health certificate in order to get the proper visa. This was a trial to begin ...

So a lot of things have changed with me lately. Part of the reason I have stopped posting about veterinary care (other than being lazy) is because I quit that job in November. I have been just substitute teaching since then. However I am going to be teaching in China in February for a year. I am looking forward to it, but don't have a contract yet. So we will see. In addition to all of the career stuff that has been going on I got engaged. Twice! I am a non-traditional person and so is my fiance. At some point back in 2007 we had a conversation about what happens if I have a proposal plan, would that be a problem? He said no, and we talked about it more, and both agreed that we should both continue our own plans regardless of who asked first. So back in 2004 on election night we had an informal party to watch the results come in. The entire night my fiance sat on the arm of the chair I was in. He had been flirtatious before (he got the nickname fraternizer in college, and...

It's amazing that someone can come from my neighborhood and get the support of millions of people across the nation (which I would not expect coming from a "freak state") and around the world. That even today with all the information we - the American people - constantly have coming at us, with all the different opinions about what needs to be done to make things better; if you can get the message through to people, that you will fight for them because you know who they are and what they are going through, they will work with you to achieve your goals. They will help you to push through you're obstacles, in hopes that in the end you will improve everyone's situation, and make everyone's lives a little bit easier. Before this election I thought this type of grassroots idealism was next to impossible to accomplish in national politics. This inauguration proves that it isn't; it has been proven by a politician who played fair, who has fought to have his i...