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Apr. 29th, 2009 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikOne of these days I'm making myself a biking icon.
It's tempting to write this post by categorizing everything into "fail" and "win". But.
On the Friday before last I went out to practice forms, and found an elderly chinese couple practicing taiji in the same area I normally do. We talked a little (I was coherent, if somewhat tongue tied in chinese). Since then I've seen them pretty frequently - they've been out a little before me most days (I rather suspect they skip the math and yoga) and usually when I've been there the man is doing taiji while the woman does qigong and watches me.
I've been wanting to talk to them more but... I'm *really* shy in Chinese. It's lame. Especially since I've been noticing that when we're all out practicing, I'll often think in Chinese. (Which isn't really surprising, because CWTA is pretty bilingual overall, and I'm used to shifting to Chinese when I'm training.) I'll usually notice when I suddenly realize I don't know the word for something (often something pretty stupid, too).
This morning I headed out early (generally an early day for me) only to find that the lawn had a sign on it saying that chemicals had been applied and we should stay off. So I practiced in the parking lot (nasty gravel on cement surface, but still a good practice). Then the couple came out, and mentioned I was out early. I replied, completely without thinking, that there was an early meeting. So we both practiced, and the two of them did the Yang 24 (the same sequence, anyway, though the moves are different if somewhat recognizable) together. By the time they'd gone through the form twice, it was pretty much time for me to leave. So I gathered my stuff, and asked them if that was indeed the Yang 24. They were excited that I recognized it, and the man asked if I knew the 42. I explained that I don't, and that I mostly study Chen. Then I asked if it might be alright if I could do the Yang 24 with them tomorrow. They agreed (I think). Then the man showed me part of the 42. I then noticed that they put some of their stuff on the grass, and explained that the sign said to keep off the grass. They asked me why, and after a bit of thought I came up with "They gave the grass some medicine. It's not good for people." They thought I was hillarious. (But they understood, I'm pretty sure. Hey, for extempore around holes in my vocabulary, I thought it was pretty good.) Oh, and somewhere on their I got to explain that I was studying neurobiology, which I think they understood, though apparently wasn't so funny.
Hey, this was a major advance in not being tongue tied for me. I know that if I can practice even a little on a regular basis, I'll go back to being fluent if with a limited vocabulary. But it's hard.
So, then to my early meeting. And on the bike to paperwork stop number one. (Another weird Cleveland thing - the difference between a good neighborhood and a bad one is pretty stark, and in the latter the streets are *awful* for biking. I suspect I crossed a municipal line...) And then back to campus, and working on a grant while waiting for my birth certificate to arrive. And my spine declared that something - possibly the bench I was sitting on - was of doom, and plunged me into brain deadening headache. Which then persisted through lab meeting (which was cool enough that I asked a bunch of data analysis questions anyway, which really says something). And by the end of lab meeting my birth certificate still hadn't arrived. (The plan was to bike over to the DOL after the meeting.) So I did some grumpy calling, as I had to get to the DOL by 4:30 in order to take the test, so I barely had time to get there... and then the UPS guy showed up with my birth certificate.
So - ran back up to my bike, and biked over to where google maps said the DOL was.
I *really* have to remember not to trust Google Maps. After a bit of nosing around, I realized that Google maps screwed it again (this isn't just a Cleveland thing, the most recent two times were in Seattle) and it was probably about 34 blocks away. (Which seems two have been about 6.5 miles, though I didn't work that out until later.)
I made five and some of those by 4:30. And there I am, in a part of Cleveland (well, not really, since every neighborhood pretty much is separately incorporated in Cleveland) I don't know, having just busted so serious butt... So I go to a bus stop and figure I'll bus back, 'cause I'm tired.
Of course three minutes later the bored outweighs the tired, and hey, it's not like I have to hurry. And in fact, it was a pleasant ride, and I stopped by a asian foods shop and got some buckwheat soba and bamboo shoots in chili oil, both of which I was short of. (And some ginger cookies because my body was making threats about what was going to happen if I didn't feed it.)
Oh, and my back feels better.
It's tempting to write this post by categorizing everything into "fail" and "win". But.
On the Friday before last I went out to practice forms, and found an elderly chinese couple practicing taiji in the same area I normally do. We talked a little (I was coherent, if somewhat tongue tied in chinese). Since then I've seen them pretty frequently - they've been out a little before me most days (I rather suspect they skip the math and yoga) and usually when I've been there the man is doing taiji while the woman does qigong and watches me.
I've been wanting to talk to them more but... I'm *really* shy in Chinese. It's lame. Especially since I've been noticing that when we're all out practicing, I'll often think in Chinese. (Which isn't really surprising, because CWTA is pretty bilingual overall, and I'm used to shifting to Chinese when I'm training.) I'll usually notice when I suddenly realize I don't know the word for something (often something pretty stupid, too).
This morning I headed out early (generally an early day for me) only to find that the lawn had a sign on it saying that chemicals had been applied and we should stay off. So I practiced in the parking lot (nasty gravel on cement surface, but still a good practice). Then the couple came out, and mentioned I was out early. I replied, completely without thinking, that there was an early meeting. So we both practiced, and the two of them did the Yang 24 (the same sequence, anyway, though the moves are different if somewhat recognizable) together. By the time they'd gone through the form twice, it was pretty much time for me to leave. So I gathered my stuff, and asked them if that was indeed the Yang 24. They were excited that I recognized it, and the man asked if I knew the 42. I explained that I don't, and that I mostly study Chen. Then I asked if it might be alright if I could do the Yang 24 with them tomorrow. They agreed (I think). Then the man showed me part of the 42. I then noticed that they put some of their stuff on the grass, and explained that the sign said to keep off the grass. They asked me why, and after a bit of thought I came up with "They gave the grass some medicine. It's not good for people." They thought I was hillarious. (But they understood, I'm pretty sure. Hey, for extempore around holes in my vocabulary, I thought it was pretty good.) Oh, and somewhere on their I got to explain that I was studying neurobiology, which I think they understood, though apparently wasn't so funny.
Hey, this was a major advance in not being tongue tied for me. I know that if I can practice even a little on a regular basis, I'll go back to being fluent if with a limited vocabulary. But it's hard.
So, then to my early meeting. And on the bike to paperwork stop number one. (Another weird Cleveland thing - the difference between a good neighborhood and a bad one is pretty stark, and in the latter the streets are *awful* for biking. I suspect I crossed a municipal line...) And then back to campus, and working on a grant while waiting for my birth certificate to arrive. And my spine declared that something - possibly the bench I was sitting on - was of doom, and plunged me into brain deadening headache. Which then persisted through lab meeting (which was cool enough that I asked a bunch of data analysis questions anyway, which really says something). And by the end of lab meeting my birth certificate still hadn't arrived. (The plan was to bike over to the DOL after the meeting.) So I did some grumpy calling, as I had to get to the DOL by 4:30 in order to take the test, so I barely had time to get there... and then the UPS guy showed up with my birth certificate.
So - ran back up to my bike, and biked over to where google maps said the DOL was.
I *really* have to remember not to trust Google Maps. After a bit of nosing around, I realized that Google maps screwed it again (this isn't just a Cleveland thing, the most recent two times were in Seattle) and it was probably about 34 blocks away. (Which seems two have been about 6.5 miles, though I didn't work that out until later.)
I made five and some of those by 4:30. And there I am, in a part of Cleveland (well, not really, since every neighborhood pretty much is separately incorporated in Cleveland) I don't know, having just busted so serious butt... So I go to a bus stop and figure I'll bus back, 'cause I'm tired.
Of course three minutes later the bored outweighs the tired, and hey, it's not like I have to hurry. And in fact, it was a pleasant ride, and I stopped by a asian foods shop and got some buckwheat soba and bamboo shoots in chili oil, both of which I was short of. (And some ginger cookies because my body was making threats about what was going to happen if I didn't feed it.)
Oh, and my back feels better.
