It's the Little Things, Part 四

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I've decided to treat these little blogs like I do my photography: the best stuff is usually the unexamined. So I'm going to take lots of little things, look at them closely, and try to paint a picture for you. It's the little things that define us: from helping our neighbors shovel cars out of snowbanks to walking for MS to thoughtful, personal gifts.
I suddenly have a desire to watch The Wedding Singer again. If you've seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you should. It may be a silly movie, but it does make a valid point.

1. Two people racing to grab a elderly woman on the bus and give her their seat. It really was like watching a contest.

2. My bus driver this weekend had the radio on. Usually they don't. The radio station (or maybe it was a cassette tape or CD?) was an eclectic mix of old traditonal (stereotypical Chinese music) and new pop. He loved every bit of it. He sang along with it. All of it. Loudly. While smiling. During the songs he didn't know by heart he talked with the bus conductor. Usually the driver and conductor aren't too chatty with each other; these two got along like they were great friends. It was almost like being on a surreal family vacation.

3. I started teaching 4 new classes of 8th graders. I always start class by greeting them with "Hello!!!" followed by "How are you?" On the first day, before I could get to the second part, one boy, whom I didn't recognize but seemed really excited to see me, yelled out, "Hello! I love you!"
Jim Morrisson eat your heart out.

4. The postal carrier rides a bike. The mail bag is green and slung across his chest, from his right shoulder to his left hip. The bike is too big for him. A cigarette waits patiently over his right ear.

5. A man walks to work on a weekend morning. It's cool and overcast. No one is awake yet, just vertical and barely moving, except him. He's singing along with his MP3 player at top volume, belting out Chinese off-key, oblivious to the rest of us as we watch him continue down the street.

6. In a country where people seldom form lines unless required to, and children are faily normal in that they would rather talk to their friends or play computer games, it brings me great pleasure to see many of my students line up and wait for the library to open on their lunch break so they can read for fun.

7. Babies wrapped up in so many padded clothes they resemble mini-Michelin Men.

8. My Tai Chi teacher's daughter sometimes joins our class. She's about 10 years old, I think. We'll all be very serious and trying to follow our teacher, and she'll be doing the moves, too, better than some and not as exact as others. Then he'll have us freeze so he can check our form and she'll start dancing. Or when he's talking to us, she'll stand behind him and give him bunny ears.
Last week she really wanted to leave early, and he told her she had to wait until the end of class. As soon as he announced class was over, she let out a whoop and ran faster than I imagined she could go; most of us hadn't even left our spots yet!

9. I now meet with 2 Korean families twice a week for an exchange of English practice for their children (and one of the mothers) and pretty, red Mao bills. The mother I help (she's fluent but wants to work on her pronunciation and harder words, like Venezuelan) constantly tells our mutual friend (how I got the job) "Thank you, she is so wonderful!" She makes me dinner once a week while I wait for my free Jusco shuttle back home. So far I've had hotcakes with blackberry jam (hurray for Ikea!), kimchi, spicy Korean ramen. Next week she said she'll make me the Korean version of sushi. Since I have never forayed into Korean cuisine, this extra half-hour of my time is well spent.
The other mother is already asking when I'll be returning in the fall. She makes me green tea from Taiwan (she lived there for 5 years) and makes me fancy snacks and serves it all on a little tray. Her son likes to tell me characters in his books are crazy and have toy dinosaurs eat my fingers. Last week we played with Legos and there was a shark and crocodile infested swamp at the foot of the sofa. We told mom to be careful where she walked. He's always sad to see me go.

10. The ducks at my school are yellow balls of fuzz. I discovered them for the first time when my parents were visiting. No one knows where they came from or how they got into our school, just that they live by the koi pond.
Our gardener feeds them daily. Many of the students are fascinated, some brought cameras from home to take pictures. And then there are those who decided that chasing the ducks was the proper thing to do.
The ducks have grown quite a bit in less than a month and are starting to resemble ducks more and ducklings less. But they're still a bit yellow, fuzzy, and snuggle up with each other when they sleep.

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Comments

[Sarah W]

intriguing
thank you for sharing that...it really shows that you need to stop and look around you every once in awhile...and that doing little things for people really makes their day and yours :)