la vida loca

The above picture is from this weekend at the People's Square. Morten and I were quietly enjoying a PBR I'd discovered at a nearby grocery store (honestly, why is that beer here? furthermore- how bad is Chinese beer if we were both really impressed with the smooth taste of a luke warm Pabst Blue Ribbon?) and enjoying the lights from the fountains going off around us. Kids and adults were playing badminton while children scooted around on rollerblades, randomly saying hello. It was very cute and wholesome. Then some of children got a little more ballsy and started saying more - "pleasure to meet you" "what's your name?" "what's your cell phone number?" Suddenly, 25 kids around age 8-12 were hoarding us, asking out shoe size, asking where we from surrounded by a layer of high school students surrounded by gawking parents. The children wanted us to write down our names (literally- we were handing out autographs) and asked Morten to draw different kinds of fruit. An apple and an orange. A watermelon and a banana.

I am now teaching pronunciation. Which, if nothing else, has made me annoyingly aware of what it means to have a yankee accent. Saying rest-rant instead of rest-au-rant. Gla-cier instead of gla-ci-er. We make all our words shorter and cut out syllables. I'm afraid after enough time and limited contact with Americans and Canadians I'll come back to the US referring to men as "chappy" and fully pronouncing all my vowels. What a bloody waste of time!

Now for an apartment update. The soy sauce stain has seemingly absorbed through the first layer of carpet and is no longer quite as visible. The 15 yuan lamp I bought kept smoking whenever I turned it on after I replaced the bulb- so I replaced the lamp for 45 yuan. (if you're curious, 15 yuan = $2.195, 45 yuan = $6.59 on 10.14.08)

Vincent, the boy I helped with his speech, won second place at the English Speaking Competition. My absentee ballot arrived today so I can vote in the presidential election- but the people in the international office seem to have a lot of trouble reading cursive and somehow confused "Galston" with "Morten" - even though it definitely had an American flag on it and Morten is very much Danish. Its chilly in the mornings, hot in the afternoon, and cool in the evening - the end of skirt weather is upon me. I'd like to write detailed character descriptions of everyone I've met - as there really are some characters - but that seems a bit tacky for an online blog eh? I'm sure I have much more to write, but I have already committed to a 5AM phone call back home (aka: 6PM). Oh, I would like to mention a little but more about how friendly people are here- I was sitting by myself reading on a bench by the lake on campus when this boy went by on his bicycle and stopped to ask if I spoke Chinese (in Chinese). I attempted to say I didn't and he either asked where I lived or where I was from- to which I fumbled around and I don't think answered- then he said "thank you" and left. A few minutes later he was back- which was good because after he left I thought of a bunch of Chinese phrases and he'd thought of an English phrase- he sat down- he gave me his card- I told him I couldn't read characters- only pinyin - and that was pretty much our conversation. I was waiting for someone I was having lunch with- he arrived- I akwardly said goodbye and that was that. I NEED TO LEARN MORE CHINESE.

Ok, zai jian for now.