Crooner Blog

Sports for me are not about the competition. When I started running cross country, I just needed the discipline to help myself persevere through the intense workouts and extremely long distance runs. Usually, I dread the actual race itself, as it is an intense, stressful competition. A practice, on the the other hand, is a chance to shoot the breeze with your friends and teammates. It’s really a good stress release, and when you’re tired and your workout ends, it’s the most releasing feeling in the world, which is why I absolutely love running. The other part of running that I love is exploration. I know almost every trail, road, street, and alleyway withing a five mile radius of my high school, including abandoned junkyards, exposed rock faces, a farm, and many, many other areas of interest. Running is a shared experience, and even very different people can talk about the global experience of running.

I don’t know why I wasn’t a born competitive swimmer. Both of my parents were swimmers when they were in high school, and even my mother was a life guard and swimming instruction when she was younger. Of course, I had to learn to swim at an early age, just like all my younger brothers. Even my youngest brother, Thomas, who is seven years old, can swim in very deep water. My family put a gigantic swimming pool in our backyard, and before we had the underground pool put I in, we would make daily summer pilgrimages to the beach in hot cars that we parked at the high school football field. However, not me nor any of my brothers have become competitive swimmers. However, my younger two brothers, Eric and Thomas, have not entered school yet, and still may have hope to become those competitive swimmers our family seems to be set up for.

I don’t know why I wasn’t a born competitive swimmer. Both of my parents were swimmers when they were in high school, and even my mother was a life guard and swimming instruction when she was younger. Of course, I had to learn to swim at an early age, just like all my younger brothers. Even my youngest brother, Thomas, who is seven years old, can swim in very deep water. My family put a gigantic swimming pool in our backyard, and before we had the underground pool put I in, we would make daily summer pilgrimages to the beach in hot cars that we parked at the high school football field. However, not me nor any of my brothers have become competitive swimmers. However, my younger two brothers, Eric and Thomas, have not entered school yet, and still may have hope to become those competitive swimmers our family seems to be set up for.

When I get up very early and go outside, I am always filled with the feelings I had when I went to Camp Hi-Rock on Mount Washington. I loved it there. The air was so clean, and every day was filled with a good balance of fun and work, friends and counselors, who were sometimes your best friends. We had all kinds of fun swimming, running, playing games,and putting on shows, and cheering. I think the camp changed me for the better. Most kids would think cheering is stupid, but not at Hi-Rock, where you put everything you had into cheering as loud as you could. It had a strange effect, where anything could and should be fun. It was brilliant, and I miss the camp very much. Even in China, where I’ve had so many positive experiences and met so many great people, I long for the innocent, worry-free fun of camp.

I was finally able to enjoy one of the creature comforts, or at least comfort food, of my native land, The United States of America! I went to a mid-range supermarket with her and bought all the ingredients I needed to make one of my favorite dishes: Grilled Cheese. To make the grilled cheese, I had to buy butter, sliced cheese, and bread. The former two were hard to find and a tad bit expensive for my tastes, but I wanted to taste it so badly that I spend the money. I had to use a small wok to melt the butter in since I lacked a skillet, and buttered the bread, melted the cheese, and even burned my left thumb pretty badly, but I succeeded in making a few sandwiches, which tasted delicious! Even she liked my sandwiches, which was most important to me. I am glad I can make this American dish, and especially glad I could share it with her.

I should probably be eating foods that are healthier for me. I don’t think this because I’ve gained weight recently. In fact, quite the opposite is true, I have actually begun to loose weight. Maybe it is unsafe, because I have been trying to save money by skipping meals. I can’t really remember the last time I’ve had breakfast. Instant noodles and bread have become staples of my diet, and I really wish I knew how to cook more dishes. Usually I only eat one meal a day and try to save my energy by not moving around too much. I think my lifestyle will change once I return to the U.S. And enjoy my mother’s home cooking, or at least a decent box of macaroni and cheese! I think American food is a lot heartier than Chinese food, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into a delicious, juicy hamburger! Even China’s McDonald’s restaurants serve a less “satisfying” hamburger.

The university I will be attending is called “Binghamton University”. It’s in New York, the state, not the overly famous city, although the university is just a four hour drive to New York City, and I have family in the city too. Anyways, I remember the first time I went on campus, I felt it was a really good university. I am the first one from my high school in recent history to even apply to Binghamton University, let alone be accepted and enroll in the school. It’s in the Catskill Mountains, and I visited on two separate occasions with my father and then with my mother. Both of my parents liked the school, and after I decided to enroll, they both told me that Binghamton the was the school they had hoped I would choose to enroll in. I am really proud to be a student at Binghamton University!

I’m excited to start university this year, but I have some concerns already. First of all, I’m still not sure who my roommate is/will be. I can’t seem to check my University e-mail address because I left it written down in America and my parents can’t seem to find it. I know there is important information just sitting in that e-mail account, but I can’t reach it. Another concern is that I have to get a special kind of illness test before I enter. The reason being, I have spent a extended period of time here in China, and so I might have contracted (God Forbid) some kind of disease that the school is especially afraid of. My mother works in a medical laboratory and told me all about the test, and that it has something to do with getting a shot and making raised bumps on my skin! Yikes!

American Chinese food and the actual dishes of China, I have found, are completely different from one another. American Chinese food, although it differs from place to place, is similar in the respect that everything is a lot bigger and greasier. I do love American-Chinese food though, it is really delicious. I especially like the over sized pork Jiaozi, which are called Peking Ravioli by the restaurant. Many of these places also offer Japanese dishes, which I usually don’t like as much. There is a Japanese restaurant chain called Sarku Japan at the department store I work in when I was in America. It had really delicious teriyaki chicken, but I feel like that is not real Japanese cuisine. Japanese food in China is actually very good! I like a lot of the dishes, and one of my trips to a Japanese restaurant in Beijing was very pleasant and filling, although I may have been impressed by the soft serve ice cream machine that they made available to us.

A bad habit I have developed is eating my food too fast. This is probably because I am in a big family. Whenever my mother has put down a plate of food, or whenever a new box of snacks is discovered in my house, there is a rush. If you don’t eat the food fast, you don’t eat at all. Some may think that it is easy for the oldest since the younger ones don’t eat as much, but they’d be wrong. Three people will always eat more than one, regardless of ages. Even if it was one on on between me and my oldest younger brother, he would beat me by a mile. He weighs fifty five more pounds than me and is even taller than me by an inch or two. My father calls him “The Bear” because he lies in his room all day, “hibernating”, and only comes downstairs to “forage” for food, quite similar to a bear.