What would you think and feel if someone dumped you somewhere completely unlike the place(s) you'd spent your life in until that point? Somewhere where the language was light years from yours, you looked nothing like the locals, and even wondered if you'd catch shit for standing out so badly? Where you had to watch everything you said, because the authorities were scrutinizing you and everyone around you? Where you couldn't drink the water? Where you had no fucking clue how local cultural concepts actually worked, and therefore lived in fear of offending people? Where you were so much better off than the locals, by dint of being an outsider?
What if the person that dumped you in this place was you?
The plan is to take an introductory Chinese class this fall and see how it goes. If it goes well, I may take another one; if it goes poorly, I might just go ahead and try to get a job teaching English in China anyway. Immersion, und so weiter, not to mention the continual fascination I have with the Middle Kingdom. I just don't know whether or not I can go it alone, though I've long since assumed I'll have to.
Shit, it ain't like I've got a whole lot going for me here in Houston. The folks are solid, no doubt, but stagnation is getting to me. Almost ironic, given my advocacy of idleness, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a proponent of torpor so much as of wu-wei.
Who knows, though. I reckon I'll do all right whether I end up overseas or here in Houston.
Damn it, it's six-fuckin'-thirty in the morning and I'm not in the least bit sleepy.
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