Would you rather....?

Lately, inspired by the wonderful Tara Stephens, we've been playing rounds of "Would You Rather?" with some frequency. For those who don't know, "Would You Rather" is just a typical conversational game....a car game...whatever you call it that consists of someone posing two odd choices to another to see what he/she'll say. It calls for some creativity in order to have fun.

I've been wanting to bring out some of my students' creativity lately--get their heads out of the book--and make them stretch their imaginations a bit. So we played the game in class. After they played in their groups, I had each group choose one question to ask me. Here are some results--I'll include my responses in red:

WOULD YOU RATHER:

-marry a man who is most ugly during the day and most handsome man in the world at night OR marry a man who is the most handsome man during the day and the most ugly man in the world at night?
(handsome at night...I'm a night owl anyway)

-run on campus naked during lunch hour OR kiss the world's most disgusting guy ever for 5 full minutes?
(run naked--no question.)

-have a Chinese boyfriend OR have an American boyfriend?
(no way to answer this one diplomatically in this style game...so I'm pulling a SKIP)

-be extremely beautiful in the face with the fattest body OR be very very slim with the ugliest face?
(I guess the ugly face, slim body--fewer health costs in an age of bad health insurance...)

-marry a man who is very ugly and old but very rich OR marry a young, very handsome man who will always be poor?
("it's all about the personality..." but yeah...young, handsome and poor...this girl can earn her own $$$)

-be single all your life till death OR marry a person who you don't really like?
(single till death...apparently true to life.)

-have a head that has only one side with hair OR have a head with no hair at all?
(hello Sinead O'Connor...I'm all for the baldy)

-marry a foreigner (non-American) but live in the USA OR marry an American but you must always live in a foreign country?
(this was a good one...I'm gonna say marry the American and live internationally)

-be a very fat woman with 600+ pounds OR be a skin and bones woman?
(the obsession w/weigh continues.....I chose skin and bones...)

-live with a ghost OR become a ghost?
(get ready to be haunted with really random and lame pranks--I'd be a ghost)

-marry a Chinese man OR an American man?
(you've got to be kidding me...)

-live in a place with earthquakes OR live in a place with floods?
(yikes....I guess floods...I always liked houses on stilts)

-have many boyfriends who like you but don't love you until the end of your life where you are sort of happy most of your life OR live a very boring life for most of your life but find one true great love very late at the very end of your life?
(I'll always choose non-boring over boring: bring on the boyfriends.)

-fall in love with a Chinese man OR an American man?
(oh good grief-this question is asked to me on a weekly basis with or without 'would you rather' as the pretense. And once again...since I live in China and don't want to offend anyone...I'm not going to answer.)

Perfect Rainy Saturday

I think the photos speak for themselves as to the kind of day I've had. I love China. To help you have as lovely of a Saturday as mine, I'm sharing an excerpt from the book pictured above: E.B. White's "Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976". I related to his message. Enjoy.

Unwritten

4/26/30

SOMETIMES WE REGRET OUR FAILURE to write about things that really interest us. The reason we fail is probably that to write about them would prove embarrassing. The things that interested us during the past week, for example, and that we were unable or unwilling to write about (things that stand out clear as pictures in our head) were: the look in the eye of a man whose overcoat, with velvet collar, was held together by a bit of string; the appearance of an office after the building had shut down for the night, and the obvious futility of the litter; the head and shoulders of a woman in a lighted window, combing her hair with infinite care, making it smooth and neat so that it would attract someone who would want to muss it up; Osgood Perkins in love with Lillian Gish; a man on a bicycle on Fifth Avenue; a short eulogy of John James Audubon, who spent his life loafing around, painting birds; an entry in Art Young's diary, about a sick farmer who didn't know what was the matter with himself but thought it was probably biliousness; and the sudden impulse that we had (and very nearly gratified) to upend a large desk for the satisfaction of seeing everything on it slide off slowly onto the floor.

--E.B. White

Success is not an ointment...

I meant to post this weeks ago but am only catching up now. Last semester, I initiated a little challenge to Katera at a speaking competition and....well...you'll just have to read her account of the hilarity that ensued. It's a pretty fun story, so I hope you'll check out her post on China Times and enjoy the tale! Happy Easter!

Limbo

A friend once said: "Come to China for a week....and you write a book. Come to China for a month...and you write an essay. Come to China for a year...and you put down the pen."

Looking at my blog over the past year and a half, I'm finding it to be true. Sorry that my posts have been dwindling lately--I'm just livin. Everything continues to be really really wonderful. The THINGS that I really WANT to share with you--I can't. I'll tell you all that when I get home!

Also, I haven't been writing because I'm in a limbo waiting period right now. March and April are the Months of Big Decisions for those of us over here as we decide if we will return to China for another year and where we will work/live if we do, etc. I have a few things up in the air and some decisions that will be made once those things come down from the air and settle into my lifescape--but it's best to share those once it's all fallen into place. Please Lift me Up for guidance and discernment as I consider next year!

Until I start writing again...pictures:

Playing with Geno, Katera, and the twins on a night out!

Starbucks w/friends

Kunduz, me, and Yultuz at hot pot. I LOVE these ladies!

At a monthly Wuhanren gathering--this was right after our SE asia trip so we're still tan.

At a St. Patricks day party w/Tara and Julie--all of us have green eyes!