Opportunities Find Me

Sometimes a door is opened for you and all you have to do is walk through it. That's how this week has gone for me. The first of such opportunities began actually last week when I decided to take the chinese painting instruction that my art teacher, Cohenko, had offered to me. So, Tuesday my lessons began.

This first lesson introduced the four treasures of the study (文房四寳 wen fang s bao). These are 筆bi (the pen), 墨mo (ink), 紙zhi (paper), and 硯yan (the ink stone). My name, 墨 , is a combination of the characters 黑 hei, meaning black, and 土 tu, meaning mud or soil. This is because the traditional process of making Chinese ink is, well, I'll start at the beginning, the reason will become self-evident, I think.

To begin, pine trees ar cut and burned in a furnace. The resulting soot that gathers on the walls of the furnace is collected and mixed with an oil creating a sort of black mud. This black mud is then pressed into a mold very tightly, thus creating what Cohenko referred to as an "ink stick", 墨 . This ink stick is dipped in water and rubbed on the ink stone in a circular motion for 20 to 80 minutes in order to prepare the ink for use.

Of course, now everyone cuts out the middle-man of the ink stick and goes straight to liquid ink.

Cohenko said that next week there may be four or five more people learning with me, which is great. I'm excited for that.

The second great thing that I learned this week was yesterday in my Home Ec. class. Not only have I made an apron using a sewing machine AND put an awesome little robot man on it using glue on jewels, the teacher randomly started introducing me to some traditional Chinese knot-work, which I have no objection to learning. I've pretty much mastered the Chinese button and now I'm working on the knot they call "lucky".

Later that day, my friend Leo and I went to back to the university where I study Chinese to check out the Traditional Instruments Club. Not so long story made even shorter, I will be studying the 二胡 (Erhu) on Tuesdays at 7:00 P.M.

I am really beginning to enjoy myself here, so I apologize in advance if communication becomes even more infrequent, but this is what I'm here for and I know you all understand that.

Also, while I'm here, I'd like to mention the possibility of another great opportunity that I recently was made aware of. I haven't looked into it very far, but apparently there is a Working-Holiday Visa in Australia available to people under thirty in which you can work and travel in the Land Down Under for a year. Just some forward thinking.

Until next time.