Single-Party Government

It's been a while since I've posted. I have several excuses for that, the foremost among them being that Lisa was heading home for Christmas and wanted to surprise everyone, and therefore we couldn't write anything on our blog without getting it away. Another excuse is that I've been busy with the last few weeks of class (exams today and tomorrow) and with preparing everything for when my mom and brothers arrive tomorrow.

But to write candidly, the main reason is that I've simply been in a bit of a depression as of late. Blame it on what you will – loneliness during the holidays, lack of sunlight in a far-northern city around winter solstice, the influence of the conclusion of the semester, the vicissitudes of human emotions, my own introverted personality – but in any case it's been real. I've been having a hard time doing anything in the past few weeks, much less write in this blog.

But last night, I believe I pulled myself out of it. Oddly enough, this happened by reading some entries from an older journal of mine, back from my last semester in college. It put things in a larger perspective for me, reminded me of the story of my life (at least as I told it to myself), of a time when I felt like I was accomplishing things, of days that I felt I could take on the world with a few swipes of my pen.

I think that one reason why I lost that larger perspective is because of the Sisyphean struggle that is foreign language study, especially with a language such as Chinese. It's strange, but you're never exactly sure how much progress you're making or how natural you do or do not sound. Some days, the boulder seems to be nearly at the top of that steep and craggy cliff; other days, it feels like I've moved it about three inches over the past four and half years.

Anyway, I'm sure you would all like to find out what I've been doing for the last few weeks. The truth is far less interesting that what you've been imagining, I assure you. Most days (and this includes New Year's Eve), I eat out, go to a café for internet access, watch a movie, study vocab words, and do laundry. For Christmas I took a trip down to Central Street to see how the young Chinese celebrate Christmas, and, since I had no camera with me, I'll try to capture it in words. That, however, will have to wait 'til my next post.

For now, that is all. Signing off, the sole party of this PRC,

Mask-on-neck