Thursday, January 23, 2014

Happiness Is A Morning Bike Ride

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My arm span not being wide enough to keep my bike upright and lift the free-swinging end of the parallel slabs of wood that served as Ettore’s (the German Shepherd) barrier to the free world, I would have to roll my bike beyond the radius of the gate and then speedily lean my bike against the large car garage door and close the gate.  The gate, attached to the side of the sliding wooden door, which allowed cars to drive in and out, was perched at the top of a short, but steep incline.  It was from this high elevation I would swing my leg over, push down on my right pedal and coast down the hill to Strada Buon Respiro, the Street of Good Air. My years in Italy were as wonderful as you can imagine, but it’s the small things that make memories and for me it was the daily bike ride to school.

During my second year in Viterbo, I lived with the Fabi/Turchetti family on a 14-acre farm that had olive and cherry trees. Located on a ridge south of Viterbo, I would ride my bike to and from school every day, well, at least in the fall and spring. As my bike hit the intersection of the inclined driveway at the end of a hairpin turn on Strada Buon Respiro, I would point my bike, already moving at a fast clip without having expended any energy, towards the right fork of the hairpin turn and coast along the single-lane road that gently curved to the right. The cold morning air in my face was an added bonus sensation to what I saw on my a right, a hillside of knarled trees, with branches that hung over the wire fences and created long tree tunnel. Also vying for my attention, the vista on my left was down into the basin in which the town of Viterbo lay, with it’s stone buildings and towers.

After 20 seconds of coasting, I would start the gentle uphill ride of one and a half kilometers to the intersection Buon Respiro and Strada Sammartinese. The incline required pedaling just enough to get my blood pumping but not to sweat, I would feel a rush of happiness at how lucky I was to be in that exact moment. Every day, I would not think about the events of the day or but be present with what I was seeing, the sensations of my legs going up and down and most importantly, I would feel the emotion of happiness and pure joy of biking in the Italian countryside. Even now, in my mind I picture myself from a birds-eye view and see myself winding my way along the sinuous turns of Strada Buon Respiro and it seems like a movie, but I can conjure up those feelings in an instant and I am transported back to those moments of joy and contentment.

Here in Beijing, the bike commute is different. Instead of a country road, I bike down a “hutong,” essentially an alleyway. The ride lasts two minutes at most. Instead of the sensation and beauty of that Italian bike ride, what makes me happy about my morning ride here could not be any more different. The ride begins with myself riding as slowing as possible to allow for my boyfriend to get astride the bike and seat himself on the padded cushion that has been installed above the back wheel. I actually don’t know how he mounts the bike, but I know that when the bike jolts a bit forward and my downward moving leg meets resistance, that “Onions” is ready for our morning commute out my complex’s parking lot and down the hutong to the main intersection. The next thing that happens as I gain speed is that he puts his hands in my coat pocket because he knows I’ve left them open and then promptly zips them up. Now the hutong itself is as the Italian’s say, a “casino.” Cars are parked on both sides leaving enough room for one car to drive. But cars come both ways and often times one finds two cars facing each other with a kind pedestrian orchestrating the dance of finding the geometric angles so the two cars can find a way to pass each other. When this occurs, our two-on-one bike riding comes to an end and “Onions” has to dismount and I walk my bike as he walks beside me to our destination. However, there are those great days, where we turn into the hutong and it’s smooth sailing. No cars, no honking, and way in the distance I can see the buses on the large street through the gap between the buildings at the end of the hutong. On these days, I pump my legs as hard as I can to take advantage of the unobstructed pavement in front of me and for a minute and having the leg workout of my day. As we near the end, I slow down again, “Onions” (however he does it), hops off the back of the bike and gives me a push. He peels off to the right to catch his bus and I turn left to go to school. The happiness comes from the bike ride itself, but the joy of having someone in your life in which there is routine. The joy also comes from having that unobstructed ride down the hutong.

Happiness through something as simple as a bike morning bike ride to work. I take pride in the fact that this simple thing in life gives me such great pleasure.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

发票 "Fa Piao" Winner!!

In China, when you pay your bill, you are asked if you want to "开发票" (kai fa piao) which is to have the restaurant issue you an official receipt on which they will have to report the income.  If you don't they can just pocket the money and not pay the taxes.  So, the government, to create incentive for you to wait the extra few minutes for the "fa piao" makes it into a lottery, where you can win money.


Usually, you get "谢谢" the equivalent of "thanks for playing."  But today, Onions asked for the "发票" and I won 50 RMB!!!


The LOOT!!!


Chinese Character Writing National Championships

I was flipping through the channels this weekend and saw this young woman (in her traditional minority dress) on TV and stopped long enough to realize that I was watching......

.....the Chinese equivalent of the National Spelling Bee, but in this case, a character writing competition.   It works much the same way as in the States, except instead of being an individual competition, it's groups of 5 students from provinces all across the country competing as a team.  Here, we have the announcer giving the word and then the definitions of each word or word in the the word set (up to four characters).

The student has one minute to write the characters.  Everyone in the audience (Onions next to me as well) is writing the words with their fingers on their hands.  Ooohh, the intensity....

The final four province teams were Yunnan (here with their minority dress), Shaanxi, Hunan and Inner Mongolia.

A proud mother (or teacher).

Split screen...."no no...it's the other radical!!!"

Final answer.....submitted!

And the judges turn on their lights to signal the correct character!!!  The team from Hunan province won.  But the one final student from Inner Mongolia put up a brave fight as it was her on her own against all five remaining students from Hunan.