W-Days

Chicago is nice
Autumn is cool and crispy
Leaves crunch under foot
_

When you are young, you go to bed early. You walk to your room and hear your parents still watching TV or closing doors and turning off lights. You watch camp counselors preparing for bed while your part of the cabin already lies in murky darkness. You hear your siblings listening to music or doing homework as you fall asleep.

Then, one day, you wake up, and you are the camp counselor or sibling, or perhaps the parent who sent yourself to bed years ago. You find out what it's like to have your light still on while the young ones sleep. You tip toe around creaky spots on the floor to attempt to not wake them up. You go to sleep later and wake up earlier than them. You're the one who checks that all the doors are locked.
_


I teach Mandarin at Morgan Park Academy to first and second graders this trimester. My students call me "Mr. Kyle". The teachers refer to me as "Mr. Kyle". I am Mr. Kyle. I feel I am a kid who gets paid to play the part of a grown-up... who plays with kids... and gets paid to do it. 
_


I have recently discovered that it's one thing to have many tasks of the exact same nature to complete, but it changes everything when the tasks I must complete are diverse and spread me all over the place. In other words, if I have a stack of papers in front of me that have information on them that needs to be added to a computer (or some other mundane task), that stack of papers can be a foot tall, but it will still present less of a stressful situation to me than the challenge of completing a variety of different tasks.  
_

Rockwell- Childhood Memories
Bjork- Crystalline (Current Value Remix)
Indigo- Ayahuasca
Seven Lions

19104 and a Strong Jawline

Hi!

Well....... I started this blog a few years ago to document my travels and experiences in various places throughout the world, but I feel I've only done an exceedingly mediocre job at it. I think half of the things I write here are just bitter rants that I don't want to bore even my close friends with. Sure, it may be therapeutic, but I still get plenty tired of my own negativity.

Anyway, the times they are a-changing. I've had some crazy adventures over the past couple of years, but my blog consists of some gaping holes and does not accurately reflect those adventures, i.e. consistency has not been a forte of mine! Let us hope that this changes.
_

So what are these adventures? Well, the most recent ones are as follows: I left Chengdu, China in March and returned to Phoenix. From Phoenix, I went to La Ceiba, Honduras to stay with and hang out with my sister and brother-in-law there for a couple of months. We left Honduras on June 16 to attend a Kyle family reunion in North Carolina, after which we drove up to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where my parents and brother now live. My sister and brother in law returned to Honduras while I started job-hunting soon after I got here.

I am now sitting in a room in an apartment in West Philly which I am temporarily renting, and, as of this morning, I have accepted a job offer as a Residency Advisor caring for and essentially acting as a parent for Chinese students who come to the states to attend private high schools. I will move to Chicago in mid-August, and the students I care for will attend Morgan Park Academy.

Sometimes I think about my desire to travel and how it used to be somewhat of an obsession of mine. My geographical stagnancy bothered me and formed a burden on me. Now, I'll watch movies, and there will be certain points at which, in the past, I would have pined for change and felt the weight of the lack of... experience? adventure? or something... There are many reasons for this, but my point is, I don't cringe or feel a burden anymore. I realize I'm doing exactly what I wanted to be doing for so long. Ups and downs, exhausting laughter and cathartic heartache, I'm alive.

Not everyone can say or write these things. Perhaps the burden still persists for some, or perhaps it has been lifted, but there was or is more heartache than joy.

Hope always remains.
_

Now, for a pick-me-up! 

(Thanks Christy!)
_

Did everyone born after 1990 make a tacit agreement to refuse to use correct capitalization and punctuation in casual messages? I know it's a generalization so don't take offense, and I'm more amazed than I am irritated.
_


South Korea has long had a corner on the pop culture market in East Asia. I propose that western pop music is going to start taking it's cues from South Korean artists very soon.

Ultimately, though, good music is good music.
_

There are many reasons that a 25-year-old male might possess negative feelings toward conservative news outlets like Fox News and radio personalities like Glenn Beck. I don't watch the news. I don't subscribe to any news outlet in particular, and, if I did, I'd most likely head toward the BBC. You probably already know that I'm "apolitical" in that I tire of the bitterness and fighting that politics causes among those I care about, I tire of the disunity and I think that, at the end of the day, the results are almost  the same, regardless of who's in what office. I'm fed up with the system, and I think it's fooled us all. I care with all my heart, but I don't.

So, understand where I am coming from when I write that the reason I most hate Fox News is because of what it does to my father.
_

This is interesting: 30 x 30
_

Here is one thing I learned during the process of my job and temporary apartment searches:

It sometimes hurts to send a billion emails out and get only one or two back in response. 


I'm so glad that I got responses at all. 
_

I've recently realized that I consistently tend to most enjoy the not-popular songs off of mainstream hip-hop and rap albums. I sit there wondering, "Why'd they pick that song to be the single?"

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though.
_

Most of you probably already know about this, but just in case... some of my music.
_

Given that I haven't posted in a long time, my music recommendations are going to be plentiful. So, I hate to do this, but all I can recommend today are albums, because I just enjoy the songs on these albums that much.

Audrey Assad- Heart
Ellie Goulding- Lights
Esperanza Spalding- All of her albums, ever
Gil-Scott Heron and Jamie xx- We're New Here
M.I.A.- Maya
_

As usual, comment, question, prod, poke, cut down, sneer at, etc. everything and anything that you'd like!

I'll write again soon! Hopefully...

Need the Light but Not the Heat of the Day

I'm back in Phoenix, Arizona. I returned on March 2, 2012. I flew through Tokyo and LA to arrive in Phoenix at around 3 in the afternoon, after which I proceeded to take public transportation to within 2 miles of my parents house. Upon arrival, I placed my distinguishable luggage in plain sight of the front door, knocked on said front door, and ran away. My parents and brother slowly came to the realization that I had returned and was likely in the area. And then... suddenly, Chris!

It was a fun, enjoyable, and emotional time.

_

Since my return, I've been readjusting to life in the United States, and relaxing. I've also been contemplating my next adventure.

_

I find that one major form of contentedness in Chengdu, China during the winter (which feels like it lasts between October and March) is simply to possess warm fingers, and especially to have warm toes. In fact (and quite unfortunately), warm feet and hands are nearly a prerequisite for any other forms of potential happiness to manifest.

_

The American suburbs are startlingly quiet. After living in the city (a large Chinese one, nonetheless) for more than a year, the lack of noise hits me like thunder as I walk through my parents' Phoenix neighborhood.
_

My uncle and aunt who live in Guangzhou, China invited me to visit them last year. With the first foreign television channels at my disposal in more than a few months, and despite the fact that multiple soccer matches were on, I found myself naturally drifting toward nature documentaries.

This tendency of mine at that time satisfactorily illustrates the numbing effect of Chengdu; the literal and figurative clouds tend to cause one to forget that there is a huge world outside of that bubble of a city. I had forgotten about lions and tigers and sunshine and safaris and waterfalls and rain forests and diversity and color, to the extent that those nature documentaries turned my world upside down in a great way.

I love being in that city, but I hate that White Wall of China. I despise it with all of my heart.

Naturally, I've been hanging on Alec Baldwin's every word as I watch "Frozen Planet" episodes recently.

_

Sometimes, I really miss the 90's.

_

I could never fathom that people would prefer silence when the chance to listen to music is available, but I know people are not all alike in that regard.

Staying at my parents', I haven't been waking up to music, nor is there a set of speakers in the room in which I am staying, both of which are the norm (if there is such a thing).

For this reason, I've discovered at least one reason regarding why I can't handle being somewhere quiet without music playing. I often wake up with songs that I find unpalatable going through my head, and, with no speakers in my room, I can't get those songs out of my head until I reach the headphones at my laptop in the kitchen or some other source of music. Sure, my thoughts may remain in the foreground, but that music is always in the background...

_

::Begin Rant::

I used to be really competitive about my musical tastes. I'd have to hold myself back when an artist I'd listened to for years started getting popular among my peers.

I've gotten a lot better about that. In fact, I don't even feel that way any more. If artists or genres I enjoy get popular, I'm glad that more people in the world get to enjoy the music.

That being said, I cannot stand some of the abomination that is on the American radio these days. With all my heart, I hope I'm not just getting older and turning up my noise at the kids and their MTV and Pokemon. Ultimately, that's impossible, because any bones I have to pick are not with the people who consume the music, it's with the money-craving hounds who are making it(or cutting and pasting, rather).

No, it's not everything. There's still some great stuff out there, even on the radio. I guess I'm talking about situations in which samples from songs and music videos that got popular on Youtube are tossed into hip hop songs shamelessly.

I have no qualms with mixing genres, nor do I have any issues with so-called "genre-less" music. What I have an issue with is when popular, talented artists take part in songs which involve samples from songs which got popular from the internet, and these tracks are placed over the most popular beat at any given time to create a sort of misfit "super-song" which has been created and marketed for nothing more than mass appeal, and, therefore, to make someone rich.

Again, mixing and matching is great. The problem is that they aren't making music when they make those songs. They are making what I perceive to be mainly (and perhaps, solely) a product. I love hip hop music, and I usually don't mind, appreciate, or enjoy songs that get popular on the internet, but when the best of both worlds are taken and forced to co-exist because their money-making potential is sought out by the man... it sucks. I feel like the life-giving nature of the pieces as separate entities is lost.

I know this could become a bigger discussion about how the art only reflects the culture, or perhaps about how it's always been like this, or that, if I don't like it I should just not listen to it. Those are all valid reflections.

The reason I feel strongly can be summed up in this: think about what songs have been displaced by these remixes. The potential that has been lost breaks the heart.

Examples? I know a lot of people like this song, but... I can't handle it...

I released an R-rated tirade when I heard "Somebody That I Used to Know" (Gotye ft. Kimbra) in a hip hop song a few days ago. I don't have the guts to try to find it. Plus, it broke my heart the first time I heard it (even if it was only for a few seconds); I can't go through that again.

Someone with knowledge of the industry and/or an opinion that differs from mine, you are welcome to come and put me in my place!

(Removes monocle, nods at C. Kidd)

::End Rant::

_

So, what's my next step? My sister and brother-in-law invited me to go visit and stay with them in La Ceiba, Honduras for a couple of months, so I'll be leaving Phoenix some time at the beginning of April to go chill with them. My parents and brother move to Philadelphia in a few weeks. We have a family reunion in North Carolina in June, so I'll be there. After that... I don't know.

_

Mt. Eden-Beautiful Lies

Gotye- Hearts a Mess

- Hearts a Mess Live

- Easy Way Out

- Easy Way Out (Live Animation)

Kimbra- Two Weeks/Head Over Heels

And here's the kicker...

Kimbra- The Build Up

"It Is Nothing To Die; It Is Dreadful Not To Live"

I haven't written since September. To an extent and in some regards, I feel completely unrelated to September 2011 Chris Kyle.

I'm looking over things that I planned to write in my blog back then and I don't really feel like writing about those things.

_

Chinese friends ask what instant messaging service we use in America, and I don't really know. I know that I grew up using AIM, and I know that Facebook and Gmail have their chatting things, but I don't know what people actually use... What do you use?

_

I despise Chinese cellphone etiquette. It's common to see people answer phones at meals, in meetings, and during class (both teachers and students).

One of my former students was having a tough day. 4-year-old "Peter" had been misbehaving during class, and his mom knew about it. After class, Peter came up crying, his mother trying to force him to apologize to his teachers. Right in the middle of this ordeal, the mom's cellphone rang, she answered it and walked off, leaving Peter with tears in his eyes and me awkwardly trying to calm him down.

Of course, it would be foolish to propose that people in the United States don't foster some unappealing social habits.

_

My parents and little brother are moving away from Phoenix, Arizona to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My dad took a new job with World Harvest Mission, and they move in June of this year.

I was born in the Philippines, grew up in Atlanta, Seattle, and Phoenix, and currently live in Chengdu. If my parents move to a city to which I have never been while I remain in Chengdu, how do I answer when someone asks me "Where are you from?"

I'm sure I have a couple of friends and cousins who can provide me with some advice with regard to answering this question.

_

This is essentially my job, just in China with Chinese students and no microphone.

_

My American friends who are living in China and I will be asked if we are from Xinjiang or Tibet at least once a month.

_

Remember my stories about saying students' names in funny orders? (Jim! Kerry!) (Jerry! Louis!)

I had a "Fish" and a "Tank" in one of my classes a few months ago...

_

I can never wear the correct amount of clothing for Chinese people during the changing of seasons.

"Aren't you cold?" "Aren't you hot?"

_

I've studied Chinese for more than 3 years, and I only realized a few months ago what "差不多"means. It means 差-不-多!!!

_

In the past few months, I've eaten snails, some kind of larvae, bugs, and kangaroo.

_

It's ironic that Sichuan women try to tell me how to eat given the stature of Sichuan men.

_

Kaskade- Fire & Ice

Skrillex- Bangarang EP

Lily Allen- It's Not Me, It's You

Chris Brown- F.A.M.E

And I can't stop listening to

Eisley- The Valley

Kimbra- Vows

Gotye- Making Mirrors

Gotye- Like Drawing Blood

Haters gon' hate, y'all...