Posts Tagged ‘Cooking’
Beyond the Land
July 25th, 2009 | 
Author: In this extremely trying and hot time, all I can think about is Australia. Beaches, Water, BBQ, oh my! As much as I spend my time thinking about my trip, I know it’s not for another 5 months, which makes it all the more exciting and depressing. I already bought my visa to Australia. It cost $20 and will not show up on my passport as a piece of paper, but rather, the Australian computers will show I’m allowed to enter. We’ve also begun working on Lily’s passport and visa! Her passport will be available for pick-up on the 5th of August. In other news, her rich uncle took $15,000 (A LOT of money in China) to Macau and won $8,000 more in half a day! As a result, he’s either giving her or lending her (She didn’t tell me the specifics) all the money she needs for the trip to Australia, and hopefully she’ll earn a lot on her own from our own businesses to pay for the trip after Australia to India and Malaysia!
For now, all I can do is work my ass off and earn as much money as possible from as many different sources. What I mean by this is, I currently still have the part time job at Rise, and they gave me an extra 24 hours for August! In addition, Lily and I are still doing our private teaching business and are looking to run 2 10-day intensive summer camps. One class would be for primary school students, and the other for middle school students.
Some of my other ventures include writing an eBook about increasing your confidence, becoming a better speaker, and from that, becoming a better leader! The idea came up when a stranger on twitter wrote he was looking for tips on how to increase his speaking ability.
Another venture, which is astronomical in size and will take quite some time to completely organize, but which I’ve already begun a massive operation to get it started, will be a distance eLearning school for people wishing to learn new languages. That’s all I’ll say for now, so my idea isn’t stolen, hehe!
—-
On the more personal front, Lily has begun putting herself in the position to be a wife. She took up cooking, which I must profess is really damn good. She’s also taken an interest in salsa dancing, so I’ve been teaching her. We’ve been bike riding together too. Her family is very sweet and caring to me too, which means they’re trying to show me what married life will be like, hah. I mean, we’ve ONLY been together for a little over 4 months. I told her that I do really care for her, and I really enjoy everything we’re doing together and what she’s doing for me, but we need to slow downnnnnn because I’m not getting married yet or having a kid. It’s something I do want, but not now.
Posted in Daily Life | 
Tags: Business, China, Cooking, eLearning, Food, Teaching, Work | 
No Comments »
Back from Yunnan
It’s been awhile since I wrote because there really wasn’t anything to talk about. Since I returned I was forced to buy a new comforter and sheets because Matt and Nick’s cats destroyed them. I also decided to make a conscious effort to save money for my trip to Australia in December. I know you think I’m crazy for planning out so far, but AirAsia was having a promotion for their flights in order to prop up tourism around Asia, so I got a few of the free tickets they were giving out. My flights for Australia are already purchased and I’m saving 9000rmb (this is also 2000aud or $1400).
Now for the next bit of news. I’m going to start salsa dancing again with the help of a local dance company, as well as do yoga to stretch and the gym, try my hand at ping pong (because it’s very big in China), and learn to cook.
On the cooking front, I’ve learned how to prepare a few Chinese dishes such as tomatoes and eggs, shou si bao cai (fried cabbage), chao fan (fried rice with eggs and other veggies), and fried peanuts. 
On the job front, I’m still working at Rise (been almost 4 months), as well as I have 2 private students and a job that starts in March recording books to audio for a local book company. From all these steady jobs I’ll earn more than enough money for my trips to Xinjiang Province, America, Australia, India, and Sichuan Province! I want to do all of these trips before next January. Call me crazy but if I have enough time it’s going to happen!
On the drug front, I still don’t have a desire to smoke cigarettes.. so not everyone gets addicted to them!