Halfway Around the World/Enter Shushu!

It's 3:00 in the afternoon, I'm walking out of Beijing Airport baggage claim. Nacho’s dad is waiting for me outside customs somewhere and I have no idea what he looks like.  To any person in my situation a couple of questions would inevitably come up.  1) why didn't Nacho's dad e-mail me a picture of himself after I kindly asked him to when when he has a decently fast internet connection  2) what the heck am I doing half-way around the world in China and 3) who in the right mind names their Chinese son Nacho!? After making it safely back to the U.S., I really still can't answer 1),  the answer to 2) is my friend Nacho offered me a position at his family's school as an English instructor, one thing led to another, and now I'm surrounded by rather tall, shovey Chinese people at the airport, and the answer to 3) is Nacho isn't actually his name, but simply an alias I've christened him with after my spell-check corrected his real Chinese name to the surprisingly fitting Nacho. 

After combing the crowd, which is holding paper signs with names written in Korean, English, and a couple of other scripts I don't recognize, I see a short man holding up a paper with my name. This is Shushu*, or uncle, or Mr. G at work. After a quick glance at each other we realize who each other are and shake hands. He doesn't seem very pleased at my arrival. So, I begin fearing that Shushu’s solemn expression might actually reflect his personality and that I'm in for a 2 month long dose of harsh Asian parenting, you know the stereotypical kind you see in the movies where the parents start rattling on their kids for dishonoring them by doing something slightly stupid.(truth be told I only ever witnessed one instance of mother threatening to kick her son to death for having lid to her my entire two months in China, then again I didn't go out much..)

* It's customary to call an older man or woman you are associated with uncle or aunt even though they are not actually related to you.

It has been 2 months since I have made any contact or even thought about Mandarin Chinese, but I manage to use one of the canned phrases I learned back in Intro Chinese back in College to introduce myself. I soon find out Shushu's English is just as bad as my Chinese, so I start a simple conversation regarding the blazing heat at airport as we head to the bus stop. To my relief, he is actually a pretty funny and kind guy who has the uncanny ability to transform his usual expression of grave seriousness to the kindest most genuine eye-wrinkling, make-you-feel-good-about-being-alive smile at will.

My first impression of the city, as we head to my new home for the next two months, is it is immense. Most buildings are at least four stories high and many much taller than that. The people are surprisingly thin. I may be wrong, though. You see my hometown, San Antonio, Texas was actually the fattest city in the U.S. a couple of years ago( Oh, look what you do to me you yummy tex-mex puffy tacos! ). So, naturally moving from SA to any other city would make its denizens look relatively slender. I got to hand it to Beijing, though, there sure are a lot of fat guys downtown with their shirts pulled up over their sweaty, glistening bellies aka belly flashers.

My first authentic Chinese homemade meal

After about an hour bus/taxi ride we reach the G's living quarters and I'm shown to Nacho's room. There is a wall piano, a big screen, a bunk-bed, a computer, a big screen, and a wardrobe-looking bookcase that is filled to the brim with books in about 5 different languages. Two minutes after settling my things, Shushu comes into the room dressed in nothing but a muscle shirt and a pair of boxer briefs, offers me a Coke, and then goes to the living room to check his mail on his laptop. I haven't even taken off my backpack yet and I couldn't be more at home.

Wait....Wuh?

This site is a window into the world of the whimsical, the naively optimistic, the toils of a budding autodidact linguist, and a probably not so unique Mexican-American perspective on China, Japan, the US and possibly other places in the world.

If you like reading interesting articles regarding the inner-workings of the human brain, the tales of tall, fearless, square-jawed men reaping success in foreign lands, or just plain WIN

then you've come to the right blog.

That Feeling...

You know that feeling when something you are about to do feels completely right? That relaxation you are entitled to after spending all of those sleepless nights researching the economics, demographics, weather, position of the planets, and other highly relevant variables in the hopes of ensuring a path headed towards the manifestation of all of your most precious hopes and dreams. That feeling of certainty when the concentrated, deliberate effort you've put into a project is so likely to reap rewards so great and sweeping in their impact on modern society that the very meaning and implications of the terms 'SUCCESS' and 'CREATIVITY' will be altered and the contemporary god of pop himself, Taio Cruz, will be all but incapable of beaming down from London and declaring in his sweet and soulless autotune " Your moves are Die-no-might!" You know, that feeling? Well, that feeling has absolutely nothing to do with most of the decisions I have made throughout my life. I guess this fact is reflected in the inconsistent and unfocused route my life's path has taken.

 As a preteen I was convinced studying and being smart was for loser geeks and that life was about Rock and Roll and videogames! However, I desired to rock even harder so I started studying music theory in order to do so. I then discovered the beautiful world of the autodidact(teaching yourself stuff) through my efforts with guitar and decided to concentrate my efforts on academics as well. Somehow, I got into one of the best colleges in the nation and decided I would work hard and become a Music, Math, and Economics Triple Major. I wound up sucking at school so that didn't work out. Working with my strengths, and not what I liked, I graduated with a degree in Japanese...  yet I am still unable to speak the language fluently. When I get concerned about the kind of life I have led I remember what my dad told me as a child

"Son, there will come a point in your life when you will decide what your profession will be for the rest of your life and I want you to be happy with whatever it is you choose. Just know this. All that matters in life is that you have a clean conscience, treat your body and self with respect, love your fellow man, recognize your value as the beautiful human being God created,...and that you NOT become ANY kind of school teacher."

Looks like I messed that one up! I'm heading to China to teach English this summer. I have a beginner's proficiency in Chinese and no experience or training teaching English. This is probably the worst situation I could be in, as far as my dad is concerned: I am not only a teacher but I can't even communicate with my students...

My life is that of a flip-flopper.

Stay tuned and see what other crazy adventures the majestic SEV(short for Severino) will be diving head first into.

Maybe something like this?