A Pet Peeve I do

So for the last week I've been thinking about what to write on my blog and for awhile was considering one on crossing the street.  Here is why.  I go to work about 5 days a week and try to ride my bike at least 3 out of those 5 days.  Riding my bike I definitely get down and dirty with the traffic, weaving in, out, front, behind and so on with other bikes, motorcycles, cars and even buses.  I don't mess around.  So with all this stress I've found the most frustrating thing is not all the times I nearly die by a car door flying out in front of me, or when the bus doesn't see me or when the car doesn't care, its the pedestrians.  There is a strange problem here, where people just don't look where they are going.  They step in front of me all the time, which causes me to swerve and thus causes the many instances of my near death experiences.  So I was going to write a whole blog on my pet peeve and complain about people's issue.  But then, I did it.  Not as a pedestrian, but as a biker.  I ran a red light, not even thinking twice about it, believing it must not apply to me and by doing that I caused about 3 cars to slam on their brakes.  Yes, at least three cars. 
So I've learned its not the individuals, but I got sucked in.  It's the rules of the road here, red lights are mere suggestions, danger is subjective and everyone watches their front, not their backs.  I have fit in well and have adapted the rules of the road to my own life, leaving behind the ones from my home country.
I'm not going to lie, I'm scared to go home, what if I don't fit in anymore.  I will say things and do things that helps me fit in here, but in America will cause me to stand out in and awkward kind of way.  People will expect me to know American culture, to understand it, but for one year I have tried everything in my will power to become part of China.  So what happens in those two months of America time?  Will I go back to being American or will I retain my half Chinese that I've worked hard for.  How will that mess up my life here, my cultural acceptance of life.  I don't know the answers, we will have to just try and see.

A Stress Fracture and A Stress Factor (Kids)

So I have some unfortunate news to share, it looks as if I might be suffering from a stress fracture.   Which means, that I will have to stop my running for at least a month.  Although most websites said 6 to 8 weeks.  Which means at the soonest I would be able to start running again, it would be too late for re-training for the Marathon.  This was a pretty hard blow, considering I've been working towards it mentally and physically sense December and paid a ton of money to do it.  But I'd rather slow it down then end up with a broken foot!  Although there is some good news to it all!  Well maybe not good news, but all right news.  I should hopefully be able to do the half marathon, which is still 13.1 miles.  I can keep riding my bike, which I will start doing more (although with that I will have to figure out a better way to protect my lungs) and I can keep strengthening other parts of my body.  I'm pretty bumbed about the whole thing, but its not the end of the world.
So now with bad news over I want to share a couple funny story.  I teach kids, usually 3 to 6 years old.  In one of my classes there is a little boy who always tells me (in Chinese) I'm fat.  "Natasha ni hen pang" (You are very fat), "Natasha ni hao pang" (a different variation of you are very fat), "Natasha ni fei cheng hao pang" (Natasha you are SO fat!).  I think you get the picture.  Well in class we have a no speaking in Chinese rule, but as you can imagine, its a bit hard to enforce all the time.  So usually if a child says something in Chinese I teach them in English.  But it just seems inherently wrong to teach this kid how to say "You are fat" in English.  But I also can't really say "Don't say that".  Mostly cause when he does say it we are in class and also because I wouldn't know how to say it.  I could try.  It would come out something like this "You can't speak, it so bad, Americans don't like, so stop"  I feel it mind hinder me being respected as a teacher rather than helping me.  So this same child (we will call him David) came up to me one day and asked (in Chinese) "Natasha, you are English, right?"  So I said "No, American"  He then stopped and looked very confused and said "Americans huai bu huai"  Which at first I didn't understand.  So I enlisted the help of another teacher (who is Chinese and we shall call her Emily).  David then asked Emily the same thing, which I still didn't quite understand.  Emily then responded so violently I was surprised, "Not true!!  (^Y@&@*$%#(*E*NCBCJDE*E&EHDKCU!"  (Random letters and symbols represent a ton of Chinese I didn't understand).  Then she turned to me and said "Don't listen to him!!!  He is just a child, he doesn't know what he's talking about!!!"  Well as you know, now I really wanted to know what was happening, but Emily refused t tell me.  So I asked another teacher, Lisa.  Finally Lisa told me.  David was confused about me being American because he thought all Americans were bad people.  So when he found out I was American he had said, "Aren't Americans bad people?"  So Emily was embarrassed, but Lisa told me what she told David, "America is a big place and some people are bad, but some people like Natasha are good."  So hopefully this solves the dilemma and David can rest assured a mass murderer is not teaching him the devil's language.
In my class the kids like to play a game with me, like most things, it eventually went too far.  The game is "No".  It's my fault really, I taught them its ok to say no, I taught them to have a voice, to have an opinion.  In fact I encouraged it with funny behavior.  What can I say, there is a soft part in my heart for the rebels.  But now that they all say it, I like the rebels who stand firm and say "yes".  Now what do I mean by these "yes" and "no"'s?  Example, "Do you like my hair?" "No!"  "Do you like the sun?" "No!"  "Do you like me?" "No!"  So from here on, I had to start switching it up I started asking "Do you want?"  Which means they have to say "yes".  But they are smart, they now know the difference, and they still tell me they don't like my hair, or earring or shirt or shoes.  But now that their English is getting better I get to teach them fun things like, "Sunny, say 'I'm sassy!'".  So she copied me, snaps, attitude and all "I'm sassy".  Now Sunny just don't tell your mom it was me :)  Although, I spose who else would it be, I'm the only American there.

Living Life in C town, while preparing to go to SEA-town

Ok, so my last email was about my fitness life, this email will cover some of the other things happening right now. Let's start with me going back to America. I plan on getting there May 29th and should stay for about 2 months. I don't have my ticket yet, but its not a stressful thing because it will be standby, so i can book it almost anytime. Even though 2 months is a good size visit, I will be pretty busy. I'm throwing a dinner to let people know more things about my life in China (if you are interested in coming it will be Friday, June 15-just let me know if your gunna show up!). I will be running a Marathon, the STP, might surf on the Oregon coast, do a late (very late) birthday drive to Canada for Nadia, and spend lots of time with family and friends!
Until then, what will I do? I'm pretty busy on this side of the world as well, but def enjoying life. I'm working on College stuff and only have a couple more weeks to go, which will be relieving and exciting to make it through my first semester of college! I'm in more maintenance mood for my Chinese, than improvement mood, but I'm in a decent place. I feel comfortable to go do almost anything on my own (unless its complicated like getting custom made curtains, or asking about paint differences and so on, lol). I work most nights, actually enjoying it for the most part. The students know me pretty well (they are just kids), I like the other teachers and most classes are fun rather than stressful. Although by the end of the day I admit, I'm usually pretty wiped. Saturdays I have a group of my Chinese friends over and make them dinner. It's always a lot of fun and it is so good to know that I'm going to see them at least once a week, cuz sometimes I'm too busy to do other things with them.
Later this week a group of foreigners will come stay with me, so it will be interesting to interact with foreigners who haven't been China-ized (don't know China culture). It's funny, but its different and I've found that the way I interact with people has changed based on my change of balancing cultures. Then next month a family will live with me and that will be an interesting experience.
It's crazy to think I only have a short time left before I go home for my first visit "away from home (China)". All is good, if not a bit crazy.

Fitness Honor Part 2

So, I've noticed it has been way to long sense I've posted a blog, and its been awhile sense I gave an overall view of my life. So I want to touch on a post I blogged in December, about getting healthier, I called it Fitness Honor. Around that time I decided to start training to run a Marathon this summer and do the Seattle to Portland (STP) bike ride. I had also mentioned perhaps doing a 10k or something on the Great Wall of China, but that is looking to be out of the picture now. So did I mention all of these things and lose my spark? No! When I first started out running I used a program called Couch to 5K, and after about 2 months, I could run 30 min straight. Then I moved from that to a Beginning Marathon Training schedule. I've had some up and downs, which is normal to life. It's so exciting for me to see my progress because I've never been able to run a mile straight before and now a mile is nothing. My long runs will be up to 2 hours in a week or so. I've had some drawbacks, the last month I've had two severe colds, which has put me a little behind on my schedule, but I'm starting to feel better and getting re-motivated for my Marathon!

I've also been riding my bike to work which is about 10 miles there and back. I like the work out, but the pollution is so bad, I will probably have to stop for awhile cuz my lungs have been struggling. The good thing is if I keep getting stronger and fitter, by the time I get to America I should have enough time to train there, to get my endurance up to where it needs to be for the STP (a 2 day, 200 mile bike ride, haha).

Running and biking are both cardio though and as I've mentioned in my "Tips" tab, cross training/strength training is important. So to add that into my routine I started a program called Challene Extreme, which I've been doing for about a week and a half and I've really enjoyed it. I get my strength training in, but the work outs are relatively short, while still being effective (I know, cuz I can feel it).

Now with all this working out I've had problem eating, and not the normal kind, it is so hard to eat enough! Trying to fuel my body and fuel my body on the right stuff! It's been hard, but I love everything I've been learning about fitness and nutrition and I hope to continue to keep it up! One thing I should mention while talking about my "Fitness Honor" is my decision to become a BeachBody Coach.

Let me take a small bunny trail real quick. As I started to work out more and more and see results and felt my body getting healthier and as I learned more and more about what to do and what not to do, I realized something. I really enjoy this. I had heard about a shake called Shakeology, which I became interested in because I knew it had tons of nutrients that would be good for my body , especially as I'm on this somewhat intense work out regimen. So I figured sense I wanted the products I would sign up as a Coach, that way I had an excuse to help others get motivated and reach there goals. I'm still on my own journey, but I feel and hope I have something to give for those who may just be starting or want to start. With being a Coach, I make a commission, which as you guys know is really helpful for supplementing my income. So I felt it was win, win.

So with all this being said, what have been my results? I've lost about 20 pounds, I can't tell you how many sizes clothing I've gone down, cuz I haven't been able to buy new clothes (don't worry, my old clothes don't look shabby on me), but my clothes are a lot looser. So I'm enjoying those results. And I can't wait to have a mini shopping spree this summer. :)

And one more thing with my new outlook on fitness honor. I've decided to run and bike for a cause this summer. To bike and run with the hope of raising some money for my friends to adopt one of their Chinese Foster daughters. My goal is to raise at least $1000 for them. This summer I will be hosting a dinner in Seattle (June 15th to be exact). I will share some more details about her situation and if you are interested in pledging, that would be a good time.

Hope this gives you an idea of how I'm doing physically, in a few days to a week I will post more on the other sides of life. Thanks!