O is for OMG!

OMG! What is this in my hotel room? How do I read the instructions?

OMG! Who thought of this snack?

OMG! The sense of fashion!

OMG! Perplexity inspiring design

OMG! The signs

OMG! Powerful magnets

OMG! Really? 

 OMG! Let's celebrate spring!

N is for Noise

http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2016/01/05/411253-noise.jpg

I have a few ideas of where my intolerance for noise comes from. I won't bore you with those theories. Suffice it to say that noise bothers me immensely.

I cannot shut out background noise, which becomes as prominent to me as the ongoing conversation I am having. They call this attention deficit. I call it unavoidable attention. If I had a choice, I wouldn't hear background noise.

China is definitely the wrong geography for  someone who cannot stand noise. Noise thrives in Chinese cities.

The language is tonal and loud.
Ringtones are intense and the shriller the better, it seems.
Headphones...not required to play media in public transport. No one frowns upon anyone for playing videos on a train. Unless I happen to be there, of course.
Radio on taxis is played loud.
Honking while driving is mandatory.
The cacophony of music playing form two or three sources at the same time doesn't seem to bother anyone but me.
Kids are encouraged to be seen and heard.
The cleaning staff of a hotel will stand at your door and scream at one another at 5.30 am, and be genuinely surprised when you open your door to ask them to be quiet. The quiet doesn't ever last long.
There seems to be no place or time when being noisy is discouraged, I believe.

I used to think of those bulky headphones as a fashion item that I would never have any use for. Until recently, when while bored at an airport, I discovered they have noise-cancellation devices. One of my best purchases ever. A dream come true. Headphones with a little switch that muff unwanted noise out. If I play quiet music, the noise disappears completely.

Who said that happiness cannot be purchased?

--
Dying to read what Robin has to say about Noise and China! http://startingfromzed.blogspot.com

M is for Mandarin

Hello

I hate it when people assume I can speak Chinese. I can't. I have lots of non-Chinese friends who speak it well. And read it too! So saying that I speak Mandarin would be a lie and quite unfair to those who have studied it seriously.

What I can do in Mandarin is get by. And get the stuff I need. I call it "functional" Chinese, and although I am occasionally embarrassed that I am not a bit more proficient, I confess that I know almost all the Mandarin I want to know.

L is for Lodgings

I like this type of shower/bathroom because glass gives me a sense of "cleaner".

L is for lodgings. And "lottery" too. And in China, picking lodgings is a lottery of sorts. So I spend quite some time picking our hotels or apartments when we go somewhere for the first time.

There are 3 cities in China where we arrive at hotels and I am welcome as an old friend. To me, that is almost enough to become a repeat client. It is very rare to be acknowledged as a return client in China. So a "Welcome back Sonia" goes a long way with me. That, and a place that is consistent in its strengths and tries to improve on its flaws.

Without a doubt, the lowest points in the lodgings lottery were shared with David Novak. In some cases upon checkin in in the middle of the night. So here's a warning: don't EVER stay in Beijing Capital Airport hotel. Or in that fancy-looking place in Guangzhou where they don't have rooms with windows but don't feel the need to specify it during the booking process.

K is for Kids

The only time I went to an astrologer, she said something along the lines of my life being touched by huge amounts of kids. She emphasised the amount, clarifying that this went beyond offspring or nieces and nephews.  And she said that kids would transform my life, or maybe already had.

So what am I going to say about kids in just one blog post? Kids are my life! But not in the doting, drooling, pampering kids of way. What educators do is all about kids and thinking constantly of what kind of world we need to build for them, and who they need to be in this world.

On Friday I did a workshop for teachers and during my intro, I confessed to being someone who gets very excited about curriculum design. (Croatia is introducing a new National Curriculum). For me, curriculum is the ultimate form of applied philosophy. The WHY of the what and how we are going to teach is such a deep philosophical debate.

Anyhoo. I thought I'd just lighten it up with offering George Carlin talking about devotion of children. Most of it is really profound, as excellent stand up can be. (It's not for the faint of heart!)

It is my hope that through Pana Wakke we are making a good contribution. Rather than being "out-of-the-box", we're trying to get rid of the box completely.

J is for Jet Lag

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/175218241727379957/

I confess that there are barely any people whose advice on fighting jet lag I would consider listening to, let alone heeding. And the bastard -jet lag, I mean,- is so random that even I have given up on magic recipes and I just play it by ear.

Before becoming so zen about it, I think I tried it all: adjusting to local time immediately, sticking to the previous biorhythm, melatonin, homeopathic pills from New Zealand, sleeping pills, sleep induction tablets, herbs, tea, meditation, counting sheep, exercise, massage, Malbec, you name it.

And now I stick to just two rules. Walk a lot and spend as much time as possible in daylight. Ideally, you do both at once. For food, sleep, thirst and other bodily functions, just listen to your body and go with the flow.  Bitching moderately about it also helps, but it's not essential.

What I hate about jet lag is that tiredness to the point of nausea; tossing in bed endlessly.  when you finally fall asleep,  waking up with the urge to pee. Five times, at least. Not being able to make up your mind if it is cold or warm. Ordering lunch and not being able to eat.

But jet lag has its ups, I must admit.  I love arriving places, so where there is jet lag, there is excitement. About seeing new places or meeting old friends, or being back home. I also love the ridiculously early mornings, when I feel like the only awake person on earth. And jet-lagged is the only state in which I am freakishly productive between 4 and 9 am. I do heaps of things, I feel awesome, and then by 9 am I can be super lazy with no guilt!

I is for Internet (or lack of)

I is for Internet, and certainly for "irony", as I am posting this from a long-distance* bus that has free wi-fi available. So I have internet to blog on the road, somewhere between Sibenik and Zagreb, but I did not have internet to work from a hotel room in Beijing. Or Shanghai. Or Shenzhen, just name it.

And then, to be fair, I have to remind myself that we actually did have internet. Pretty much everywhere. Irrelevant internet, but internet indeed.

Our tour happened to coincide in time and place with one of the Party's parties. I forget what they call it. Basically, the delegates of all provinces of the People's Republic of China gather to make decisions about the future of their country. They pick presidential candidates and make policy. I cannot imagine something more boring. It is quite likely that there is more heated argument and debate in any meeting of cardinals at the Vatican, than can happen at one of these conventions.

So what any normal being would consider "relevant" internet is shut down to all of us inhabiting Chinese soil. Now matter how temporarily. What's the use of a computer, tablet or smartphone without Google, Google maps, Wikipedia, foreign newspapers, Facebook, Blogs or access to all Pana Wakke email and even our own website?

The truth is that the Chinese government don't give two hoots about what people like Robin or myself do on social media, or what papers we read, or even what we blog about. They are obviously well aware of the existence of VPNs**, which in very lay terms is software you install on your computer (before getting to China)  to fool "the internet" by faking your location.

This time they turned the main switch off. On everything. Stricter and for longer than I can remember. It was incredibly frustrating, and affected my work and my mood. Big time.

But now I note that the very best device installed on human beings is the inability to recreate frustration, regardless of how badly you felt it at the time of the events that provoked it. Or at least, I have that software installed in its most upgraded version.

I am trying to remember my grievances with China, how mad I was, how incommunicado I felt...and it's just not happening.

All I can remember is that I had friends who welcomed me in their fancy VPNed offices, lent me passwords to the stuff that did work, or poured a glass of wine to accompany me in the rants. My sister opened a temporary email account and set my main email to forward automatically to the new one. Clients were patient and I read more in the evenings.

While I write from my reclined seat, on a bus whose driver is not trying to get us killed, with great music playing on my noise-reduction headphones...I am satisfied. And generally happy.

My VPN troubles are behind and I can post a silly Facebook status complaining that my bus has wifi but what I really want is to pee, and there is no toilet.

We just cannot have it all.

* Note that distances are not quite long in Croatia.
**Virtual Private Network

To learn how Robin felt about connectivity, check her blog! http://startingfromzed.blogspot.hr/