三溫暖 = 很舒服的感覺
付三百塊你可以泡湯, 喝茶, 下棋, 看電影, 睡一個晚上. 太棒了!

昨晚沒有回家, 跟新朋友去三溫暖. 這位朋友在星空傳媒(STAR TV)工作, 亞洲最大的衛星電視台. 他說要幫我找翻譯的或是演的case可以打工. 我對這種機會很有興趣.

三溫暖 (sān wēn nuǎn) is a men’s spa. In the States we don’t have affordable spas like this. For $10 you can take a bath in the spas, sit in the steam room or sauna, dry off and chill out in the lounge and drink tea or have a meal, play chess or watch a movie and you can stay the night there! If you stay over 12 hours they add 50nt but that doesn’t bother me. It’s cheaper than a hotel and great way to relax and keep healthy.

I met a new friend at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall yesterday. He was waiting for his day to start. They were filming a TV show on the grounds there. I was eating my breakfast. Lately, I’ve been going to there every morning to practice. For a week and a half I practiced with Shaolin monks (less than 2 hours a day) and learned a short external form (五步拳 or Five Stance Fist) and an internal form (八段錦 or Eight Section Brocade) for practicing qi (氣). The monks were in Taiwan for a month but I found out only after they’d been here for two weeks.

Like I was saying, we met and chatted. It was Thursday, my half day at work. It turned out he was going to the spa that night and my waist had been bothering me so I decided to go along. Going to a spa is a much better way than playing golf to have business meetings. It’s good to be open minded and make new friends.

More about Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. I love that place. Every morning the older generation is there dancing salsa or tango in big and small groups, some are cheerleading, many are practicing taichi or other kinds of wushu. the atmosphere is one of people enjoying themselves and learning new things. in the evening you’ll find the younger generation dancing to hip hop or 80’s music (i even heard some 60’s music before). Inside the Memorial Hall there are so many art galleries. I’ve never bought an original painting before until last week.

Life is good…

I can’t whistle but now I don’t have to. I just have to learn how to play my ocarina /ˌɒkəˈrinə/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ok-uh-ree-nuh] or 陶笛 [táodí] in Chinese. I love listening to music but have never been musically inclined. I signed up for a harmonica class once at the RECenter where I used to work but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up. An ocarina is a simple wind instrument, a small flute made of clay, I figure I could learn a few songs and that would be cool. Even cooler if I could learn songs from the Legend of Zelda.

My grandpa bought me a harmonica when I was younger. My dad bought me some kind of instrument from the Eastern Shore (Peninsula next to the Chesapeake Bay), I’m not sure what to call it. My sister bought me these small drums from Africa. This will add to the collection. It came with a nice pouch and a book of songs. My chess improved from practicing from a book. I should be able to learn this.

這是吳馬發明的五行菜, 吃這個健康, 又懶得人能做. 切炒菜加鹽巴就行了. 一天吃一碗, 也可以減肥.

This is Wuma’s specialty, 5 Elements Vegtables. The five elements (五行) are wood, fire, earth, metal and water (木火土金水). This dish has every color of the elements in it. There are actually over 15 kinds of fruit and vegetables. You can eat a bowl a day to keep healthy and it’s a good if you’re on a diet. It’s easy to make, just cut the vegetables, fry them and add some salt as you do. According to Wuma, some vegetables don’t mix well and can cancel each other out. Maybe one day she’ll get all that info she has stored on her word processor translated and printed. She could make a book with all of it. She’s already working on a dictionary.

顏回 (Yán Huí)

For my friends that went to USWA (US Wushu Academy), this picture will remind you of Ji when he got angry. Hehehee…