mishkanotes-blog

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Bedside moments 🍵🥜 — they were handing out peanuts outside so I gladly took some. I haven’t had peanuts in so long that when the fresh smell of them hit my nostrils as I began to chew, I was remind of the peanuts back home in Mexico. There’s a lot of things that I love to eat that sometimes I avoid eating almost subconsciously, perhaps because I don’t want a surge of homesick emotions to take over me but sometimes memories take us by surprise especially when they are triggered by our olfatory sense. Like a few days ago, my partner and I were entering the compound when I suddenly caught a whiff of the food that you feed chickens. Grains, maybe. I didn’t know where it was coming from, so I stood there, without moving. Time stood still and for a flicker of a moment, I was a child again playing in the chicken pens in the country side of Mexico. “You okay, habibi?” he asked, and of course I was okay but I needed to take in the memory. After the tears and the flashback subsided, I explained as vividly as I could this story of the chicken pen in Mexico. I would sit in the pen with the baby chicks, talking to them. Yes. I had dolls, but first, I had farm animals. Like bunnies and piglets. I’d pick the fig right from the bush and eat it. Same with apples. Those precious memories now only live in the recesses of my memory, of my past, and those who shared those moments with me. Fast forward twenty odd years later to Shanghai... how did I get here? It’s kind of amazing the wild turns and sudden decisions that bring us half way around the world in a Chinese compound. The evening ended in laughter and a hug, because what you get for dating a comedian is plenty of humour. Lucky for me, often well placed and much needed. Looking back, haha, I got emotional over chicken food? Ah, mi querido y bellísimo México, la más bella version siempre en mi corazón 🐔❤️ (at Shanghai, China)

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Life update: Through all the ups and downs and moments of severe self-doubt I’ve somehow ended up exactly where I wanted to be when I had the first inkling of an idea that I wanted to come and live in Shanghai. It took me a year of culture shock, dependence, loneliness in a sea of people, a few amazing people (you know who you are), my demons, family, and divine grace to get me in this moment where I once imagined I could be but now I actually am. It’s a new chapter for me from here on out. Letting bygones be bygones, forgiving myself, others, and doing the work needed for the next chapter of my life. I’m learning to enjoy the rain as much as the sunshine sotospeak. One last thing: it’s true when they say things get really dark before morning. Learning to enjoy those, too. 🦔 (at Shanghai, China)

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Had a nice time hanging out with fellow Aussies and especially Melbournian Tommy @dassalo. Watched him headline at @kungfukomedy this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Check out his podcast Little Dum Dum Club @littledumdumclub. On a personal note, man do I miss hearing all that amazing Aussie lingo. 🇦🇺😌 (at Kung Fu Komedy)

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Би лага бүтэлгүй наасан. Хүүхдүүд зугаатай шүү. Хүүхдүүдээрээ хааяа хятад хэлээ заалгадаг юм. 🌦

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With my favorite people (at Great Wall of China)

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First of many drafts I suppose! Never thought that looking at a collection of my works could be so exhausting for lack of a better word. Getting somewhere though! 📦

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Sight of the day.

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Paul Ogata was phenomenal. Too funny 😁 (at Kung Fu Komedy)

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"Сүлд" хамтлаг таалагдлаа. Ойрд амьд хөгжим сонсоогүй жинхэнэ "амь орох" шиг боллоо ✊🏼 (at Inferno Shanghai)

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Quiet Friday evenings at home. Been feeling super low energy the last few days so I've been trying to eat/sleep better and even stocked up on tons of vitamins. Got this CS Lewis book from a #Christian bookstore in Hong Kong. I'm ashamed to say this is the first time I have read anything by CS Lewis and I am so mesmerized by the beauty of his thoughts and eloquent words. I have been learning about Islam since 2014 and so I appreciate the bridges I can draw between the two Abrahamic faiths. Can anyone recommend me some beautiful texts on #Islam too? Much appreciated. The flowers habibi gave me for Women's Day are still standing strong by the way. Couldn't fit them in the photo 🌷⭐

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Got really cool stickers for my kids today to give out for really exceptional work. My kids are ages 5-12 so stickers are like crack for them, you see. It made me feel awesome to make this 7 year old girl happy with a super shiny, 3D, piglet sticker for her work. Hey, she deserved it for reworking her sentences WITH beautiful penmanship.💅🏼

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Spent my birthday having Mexican food, sweets, and talks with family and loved ones. My dad sent me a super sweet message with cute emojis (his emoji game is strong) and mom and my siblings sang me happy birthday on the phone. Miss my munchkins, all three of them. Shanghai treated me well with a day off from work, lovely company, and graceful conversations about life, love, and self knowledge. As always, thanks mom for giving birth to me one cold Russian morning now 26 years ago. 🎂🌷

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And the Word was God.

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Late night shisha. Reminiscing about the younger days with a breezer and terrible music. I was thinking about how life has a way of tearing us, rather painfully if we resist, away from things, people and places that we're not meant for to put us where we are meant to be. Some things run their course and like water on a river with a current we're just meant to go. What we stop for, a boulder or a tree perhaps, if worthy will stay of its own will. Walking the streets of this foreign city I must recognise the forces that brought me here like a leaf in the summer winds. Whether love, a new adventure, or a thirst for new sights and illuminating knowledge and wonder... it's all the same. I am wonderfully in love with my present, accepting the turns and dead ends of the past that led me here. It's gotta be what we do as people, right? To embrace the present moment.✨🌙 (at Helen's Shanghai)

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Namaig Mongold usuuguig hvmvvs meddeg baih gehdee jaahan baihdaa halit emeeteigee amidarsan amidarsan. Ter uyiin dursamjuud odoo bvdehhen l dee. Martagddagui heden dursamjuud bol neg iimerhvv: lageriin ter uvus nogoonii vner, neeh goyo beldsen honinii mahnii amt, emeegiin beldsen svvtei tsai, baraanii savangiin vner… alia sonsogdoj baigaa bolovch ene hedhen yumnuud minii setgeld ih oirhon. Emee baannii uruund minii heden oimsiig ter baraanii savangaar ugaadag baisaniig sanah yum. Bi bas aaruuland durtai hvvhed baisan odoo ch bi aaruuland durtai. Hatuu bolhoor ni emee heden aaruuliig haluun uusand hiigeed nadaa zuuluruuldeg baisan. Hvvhdvvd ih sonin yum sanah yumaa te? Uchigdurhun bi orson bairniihaa neg shkaafnaas olon ovoorloson gyalgar uutnuud olson yum. Yaaj zvgeer baih uu, ajild oroogui hiih yumaa olj yadsan ohin nuguu heden uutnuudiig bvgdiin gargaj jijig durvuljineer nugalaad butsaad huraasan hehe. Ter arvan minute-iin turshid emeegee ih bodson l doo. Jaahan baihdaa hajuud ni suuj bas hamt gyalgar uutnuudaa tsegtselj baidag baisan uye. Hamgiin engiin dursamjuud hamgiin nandin ni baidag bolov uu? Bas boloogui, delguurees baraanii savan avch uuriiguu bayarlaluulsan ene ter. Haha, ok, that’s enough for today. 🍓➰ (at Shanghai, China)

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ABRACADABRA

Aramaic for “I create as I speak”.

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Love me some Xinjiang food. Монгол хоолтой хамгийн төстэй нь. #FeedFace