Progress?

I’m making progress on my trying-to-match-Chinese-life issues, and I think I’ve put forth a grand effort. I actually get online now (as you can tell): spending time on Facebook, Twitter, and even watching episodes of The Office and the Colbert Report on Hulu. Pretty good, huh?

But I feel so unproductive! Guilty, almost.

That is, except for the ability to listen to Chinese music all day on Baidu.com (the major search engine in China), to look up characters on my favorite online Chinese dictionary, and to read about what’s going on in China during the New Year and Spring Festival.

Moderation? Balance? My Chinese friend Li Li came to visit in January, and we talked a lot about balance. She is studying economics at the graduate level and is, understandably, seeking more balance in her life. As for me, I think I am balanced, and the rest of the world is out-of-whack.

For example, one of The Office episodes I watched is the one where Michael goes crazy on everyone about their New Year’s resolutions. And I totally agree with him. Buck up and get your crap done, everyone. It’s not hard. Stop reading this blog. Go clean your kitchen, and then read a book. Seriously, you do have the time. Because I did. Before I started watching The Office and refreshing my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Maybe this attitude I have comes from seeing how hard everyone in China works every day. In America, we have these ideas about what it means to work hard, earn money, achieve career goals. But the concepts are totally different in Asia. I realize that nothing is stopping me (or should be stopping me) from getting things done, so I try to do them.

I guess this goes back to that whole missing China idea. I had been trying to match that lifestyle, and then when I recently stopped, I simply made everything about China again in a different way. Just confirmation that I’m not crazy. Well, at least that I’m deciding to be crazy instead of it happening by accident. There’s a difference.