China232.com Blog

Add and I got back last week from an amazing vacation in Thailand. We stayed on the Island of Koh Chang, the second largest island in Thailand. We stayed near “White Sands beach” and each rented bungalows for about 15 US dollars per night. These bungalows are small houses with a bedroom, a bathroom, fridge, hot water, and air conditioning. They also have cheaper bungalows, but those have cold water showers and no air conditioning. I’m a baby when it comes to cold water so I had no choice.

The weather was great and we pretty much just swam, hung out on the beach, read books, ate great food, exercised, and partied. I hadn’t been out of the city for an entire year which made this trip so great. I loved the warm weather, fresh air, and relaxed attitude of the people. I realized that I can quite easily enjoy a simple life. I love being outside on a sunny day with some good friends and then watching the sunset go down over the ocean. I don’t really need or want many material things. Good weather, good friends, good books, and a place to exercise is enough for me.

I also realized that I’ve never regretted taking a vacation. I always come back feeling better than when I left. It puts me in a great mood and gives me a new perspective on life. I think when you take a vacation like that, you not only take a vacation from your work, but you take a vacation from all your worries and stresses. Being in a new place and around new people make you forget about your old life and any problems or worries you have. That’s a great feeling. The new environment also causes you to think about new things or think about things in a different way. I read that 90% of someone’s thoughts on one day are the same as they were the previous day. I’m not sure how accurate that number is but if it is even close to true it seems ridiculous. I think that was my favorite aspect of the trip; thinking about new things. I feel a bit different now, a bit better.

I met an interesting guy from England when I was there. He had just sold his house in London in the past six months and moved to Thailand. All his friends in England thought he was crazy for doing it but he says it was the best decision he’s ever made. He’s now out of the stresses of city life and he’s enjoying every breath of fresh air. He said he realized that he’d always liked the beach, so he just made the obvious decision to move to there. He knows what he likes and he’s doing it. I don’t think that’s true of most people. I think that most people are too caught up in what society tells them they should do. Most people wouldn’t have the courage to make that kind of decision, even if they knew it was what they wanted to do. Of course it takes money to make that decision, but courage and confidence in your own ideas are probably even more important.

Andy

These last few days I could feel a cold coming on. You know the feeling. Right before you get sick you start to feel a little tired and your body just doesn’t feel right. Add has been sick this past week and I was afraid I might catch it. I decided to try something that I’d never tried before to keep me from getting sick. A hot toddy. A hot toddy is a hot drink that you are supposed to have before you go to sleep if you feel like you might catch a cold soon, or you already have a cold. I really liked it and I recommend that you try it the next time you are in this situation. Here is how to make the drink.

How to make a Hot Toddy

1. You squeeze some lemon juice into a glass.

2. Add a tablespoon of honey.

3. Add some boiling water and stir. Wait a minute or two for it to cool down a little.

4. Add a shot of whiskey into the glass.

5. Drink it.

Its easy and I personally think it tastes pretty good, although some people disagree. It should warm you up inside and help you to sleep. Hopefully in the morning you will feel better. This is a drink that has a long history. I’m not sure how common it is today but its the kind of thing I’m sure my grandma would still have. I think a lot of people today would just take medicine.

I’d like to know what kind of traditional things people in your country do when they have a cold. Here is a link on the discussion forum where we can talk about this:

Hot Toddy Discussion

I’ll try your recommendation the next time I get sick.

Andy

East West Cultural Differences

I think that university life is quite similar in many different western countries, but I went to school in Canada so I’ll be talking about that. I think in Western countries, many people view university as the first chance for a person to become independent. It’s the first time a student lives away from home, the first time they have to do their own laundry, the first time they have to solve problems on their own. Of course we understand that the student must study hard as well, but we view studying as just one of the many parts of going away to university. Becoming intelligent, mature, independent, and responsible is a very important part of going away to school. Most parents try not to interfere too much with their child’s personal lives. The society sees these young students as young adults and gives them the chance to make their own decisions. Many people I’ve met in China find it surprising when I tell them that the dormitories are co-ed, which means that boys and girls live together. Some people tell me that it is the west being much more “open” to this sort of idea. I personally think that since we view the students as adults, we need to allow them to make their own adult decisions. Many parents don’t really like the idea of their son or daughter staying at their boyfriend or girlfriend’s house over night, but they see it as all a big part of growing up. They realize that it is not a good idea to control them. Western thinking is that it is ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. We value independence a lot.

Socializing, meeting new people, going to parties, participating in different clubs or activities, and playing sports, are all important parts of university life. Students learn to balance work, rest, and play. With that said, there are many different types of students who have all kinds of different lifestyles. Some people study really hard, go to all their classes, and keep to themselves. Some people go drinking all the time, stay up late every night, and then sleep in and miss most of their classes. Some people are seen at the gym playing basketball and exercising a lot. Some people seem to hang out all day in their dorms, socializing and playing video games with their friends. Most people do a variety of these things.

We have no such thing as a “headmaster”. If you miss all your classes, no one will say anything. No one will call your parents if you are out late drinking at the bars everyday. You are free to make your own good or bad decisions. You are encouraged to try new things, meet new people, and learn as much as you can about life. It is not seen as a good thing to stay in your room studying all day. Most people value a balanced life with studying, friends, maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend, hobbies and activities. If you apply to graduate school after your four-year degree, they will even ask you about your hobbies and interests. They also want a complete and “well-rounded” person, and not just a book-worm.

Please share your thoughts on our discussion forum.

Andrew

East West Cultural Differences

Hey guys.

We have the discussion forum up now. You can access it through the home page and make comments. We are still learning how to make one and I hope that you can help us to test it. One feature is that you can load your picture on it and also chat with other members of the forum. We really hope that people do this. It’s nice to see who we are talking to. It would be a great help for us if you signed up for the discussion forum and left us some kind of post. We want to see how it works and if people have any problems using it. If you have any problems or ideas, please let us know. If you aren’t too shy, it would be nice for everyone to see your picture too. Ask anything you want and I’ll do my best to answer all your questions.

Andrew

Hey guys.

Sorry for not writing a blog for so long. Until today we didn’t know anyone was reading it because we couldn’t see the comments until today. My little brother, Add, solved the problem, so now I feel confident that people are actually reading it. I can be quite a baby sometimes. It’s ironic that my not writing lately was directly related to my last post on being lazy. I had no motivation to write because I thought if no one would read it than I am just wasting my time writing. So I would procrastinate writing and watch TV instead. (Notice I’m using some of the new words from the podcasts to give you a clearer idea of how to use them). If I knew more people were reading the blog already, I would have certainly been writing. Anyway, now you know a little more about me. Ha ha. I get motivated by more comments and more users. So don’t be shy and I’ll start working harder.

Ok. Enough about that. I just want to give everyone an idea of our future plans for www.china232.com. Please understand that we are new at web design so new things sometimes take us some time to figure out how to do them. We’ve never learned anything at all about web design in school so we are trying to teach ourselves from books. Actually, Add does almost all the work on the website. I’m the older brother so I guess I can be a little bossy and get him to do too much work. (sorry Add).

Anyway, we are going to have a forum coming out soon so that we can all communicate with each other about many different topics. We’re going to be blogging more as well and share some funny stories about our personal lives. We’ll put some pictures up too. The users of this website are from all over the world and we’ve all had incredibly different lives. I hope that we can share our different experiences and ideas. One of the best ways to improve at a language is to practice debating. Explaining your opinion to someone else who at first disagrees with you is frustrating in another language. If you can do it well and get them to understand you clearly, then you know you are at a high level. We are thinking of starting to make some videos as well soon. We don’t have a video camera yet but we will hopefully be getting one soon. Let us know if you are interested in seeing videos of us.

Oh ya, and please tell us where you are from when you write in. I just want to thank everyone for using this website and writing to us. On our homepage there is a link to tell a friend about our website. It’s really easy to do and would help us so much. If you have a chance to comment about this website on any blogs, forums, or websites in your country, that would really help so much. We really love making this free website for you and we hope to continue to improve it. Please help us to get more people here and you will soon see it getting better faster. Thanks again everyone! I hope to hear from you.

Andrew

Hello everyone! We just wanted to welcome everyone to our blog. We hope to share some stories with you and hopefully learn a little about you as well. This should be a fun and interesting way to communicate with all of you.

Talk to you soon,

Andrew and Addison