The Wandering Monkey

I stopped doing this blog some time ago, but today merits a return. My original dance partner, Kellian, is going back to the United States the day after tomorrow. Tonight I and several of the swing dancers and others had a dinner with her. That's likely the last time I'll see her while she's a resident of Shanghai.
She plans to go back to the US to help her folks and take care of affairs in preparation for her marriage. She's getting married to her Chinese boyfriend who she's had all the time I've been out here. He, for the moment, is staying in China while paperwork gets processed for the fiance visa. In America, she has an idea to start a tea business.
She's told me about her plan to go to the US some time ago. I didn't take it too seriously at the time, because things with her change very frequently. Plus, You Never Know, especially when it comes to moving cities, fiances, and so forth. But now its official. Off she goes.
There's of course mixed emotions on my side. I'm very glad that she and I were able to spend a pleasant Saturday together. She wanted some pictures of her looking at tea houses for her upcoming tea business in the US. And I wasn't doing anything, so I volunteered to come along and take them. From the get-go, Kel and I got along like oil and water. But we kept it together for quite a while; long enough to get the swing dance movement started. She's probably the most frequently mentioned person in the whole blog.
So Saturday, I met up with her and had lunch. As a funny coincidence, NEW GIRL (who is now an ex-girlfriend) happened to be in the same cafe, so I said Hello briefly. Then, on to old tea houses, tea merchants, and so forth. We ended up at a Chinese tea place near the Old Town Shanghai. Normally, the Old Town is a major tourist trap and I never go there. But this teahouse was very quaint, not so well-known, and filled with actual Chinese people (as opposed to all tourists).
We sat and listened to the house band -- two old guys playing some stringed Chinese instruments. And we drank tea together, while she explained the properties and drinking methods of the tea in question. She also told me her story about how she began down this path of the tea business:
"At work, there were many Chinese men and women, most of which never really paid too much attention to me. I'd be in teacher's office or lounge, and for the most part they just went about their business. Then, when one of them noticed I was looking up tea on the Internet, he suddenly opened up and started talking all the time. Other people found out, and everyone wanted to tell me what they knew about tea. One day, a Chinese woman brought in tea which was very special, and everyone got excited and when she served it."
She added:
"So I began looking around, findout out more about tea. One day I ran into a Chinese man who was sitting at a tea stand. He was young, but very serious. He said, 'Are you interested in learning about tea?' I said back, 'Yeah!'. He said, standing straight and firm: 'OK. I am here every day, 6pm' "
And so she returned back to this guy, every day (or most days, I suppose) and learned all about tea from him. That's a bit of an interesting story.
So Kellian returns back to the US. In her time here, she began the swing club with me, plus also a college swing dance group and started a new class at another dance school. She's appeared in multiple print and television shows with us together, and she's one of the most important personalities and voices within the group.
Now, that she's finally leaving, it's just a little strange. First of all, I can't believe it's been two years. Second, it's a reminder; nothing stands still. Everything changes. You have to keep moving, keep focused on the present and future. It's a waste to think too much about the past.

I just checked. My last post was in February. That's six months ago. I remember the reasons why I stopped. First of all, it was being read by the wrong people. One of my best frieneds out here in Shanghai was a Brit who enjoyed his ale and didn't really ever have a job. I told him about it, and he was very interested to read it. However, he told what I'd said in the blog to my then-current roommate. I can't tell you how pissed I was. For well over a year I'd been doing this thing, having it a main conduit in which to explain my life and activites to people outside (my mom and other notables). And this one guy just can't keep his mouth shut about it.

I found after that, I was self-censoring too much. Since from the beginning my mom was reading it, I had to keep it clean. Probably for the best, anyhow. Then, I figured I better not say too too much about my dance partner. Then, better not say too much about the stars I'd run into. And THEN, after this, better not talk about my roommate. It just got to be too much! What's the point of writing down your thoughts if you can't write about so many things!

There was another thing. My sister had just had a baby, Samantha. She's growing up now, still in Germany. The other thing was, my father had had a mild stroke. I'm not in communication with him, but I'd received the news from others in the family. It got me to thinking, and in combination with the other things, I felt it was a good time to stop.

I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this further. I have a feeling I will. But anyhow, that's the update today.
Peace,
J