Musings

So here are a few things rattling around in my head:

0. Click here for a good story

1. Last week we had a bit of a 'warm spell' wherein temperatures were regularly above freezing at midday. I wore my pea coat and only one pair of socks every day and occasionally I was hot! Well, apparently that was an Indian Summer... Currently it is -8F with a high of 15F tomorrow afternoon (and that is sounding pleasant).

2. Steve and I have a third roomie for this first month. FYI, you should never live, work AND go to school with someone (unless you're married to them). And even then some people would have trouble, but Steve and I actually work together quite well!

3. When the most powerful police man within a hundred miles of your town owns the language school at which you are employed, things happen. Yesterday Steve and I got our one year work visa without saying more than 2 words to the guy with the stamp.

4. Flexibility is a trait that I believe I possess. However, every time I come to China my capacity for adapting and flexing increases tenfold.

5. If you would like to learn another language consider becoming a cab driver. Steve and I took a taxi this weekend and the driver spoke English amazingly well. Impeccable pronunciation, advanced listening skills and a large vocabulary. He did not study at a school. In fact, he just has a set of cards with phrasal translations. He can say things like, "I need a new job. I'm sick of waiting in lines. I'm sick of people asking me for money. My daughter is 16 years old. I like beer. I drank 5 bottles." I'm not sure when he had drunk the five bottles of beer though. Perhaps that could be considered as another job perk...

6. Chinese people pick great English names. I might write a baby naming book called So You Want an Asian English Name. It would include such classics as Thank, Monkey, Candy, Icy, Azure and Hero. And who could forget those ear catching originals, Mechanic and Toenail?

7. The driver that our school employs to drag us around to the various branches of Sunshine Language School (there are 4 branches) thinks my Chinese is great. It's not and he's just being polite, but it's still nice to hear occasionally. Actually, I think he was just shocked that I could speak Chinese since I had ridden around in his van for about a week and a half before I began conversing with him. He gave Steve some sage advice: While you live in Harbin you should not drink [alcohol]. Otherwise, you will begin looking at Chinese women and get a Chinese girlfriend. I think Steve wrote it down somewhere so he wouldn't forget.

8. Some people have asked for our address. I tried to post it here on our blog, but it was unsuccessful. So if you need our address just shoot one of us an e-mail and we'll send it to you.

9. We just got a phone call to let us know that classes aren't starting until noon tomorrow! So Steve and I are NOT going to miss yet another Clemson basketball game! We get to watch it online. Let's hope it's not another Virginia...

10. We love you all. We'll try and take some pictures soon so that we can post them.