out of hibernation

So, after nearly a week of near constant sleeping and nonstop rain the sun has come out and like a furry, growling bear I have emerged from my concrete cave to greet the good people of China. I may be full of grumbles and my students may continue to pet my luxiourious arm hair (true story) but things seem to be on the up and up. I even went for a run up to the new campus, ran a mile around the track, and ran back. I even asked a man what the time was and he asked if it was time to stop running or something like that and I think I said yes. Its nice to generally have a little idea of what people are saying. I keep finding myself very surprised when I say something to a Chinese person and they understand what I say- like when I was eating at the cafeteria with Elisabeth and after she got her food I said "yi yang de ta" (the same as her) and they actually just started loading up my tray! Its amazing! And this term I will be able to take the Chinese classes offered by the university- ooohhh maybe I can be conversational by July! Julia seemed upset that she had spent so many years studying English and I'd been here 5 months and could read and communicate basic things.

One of the foreign teachers isn't returning. She is Phillipino and married an American down in Shenzhen (pretty close to Hong Kong) and I don't know where she is now. By being one of the only foreigners in town I feel a lot of- I guess you could call it racism. But most of it is pretty positive. Like the random guy video taping me walking down the street on his cell phone. There are definitely people who don't like foreigners, but generally people are friendly. But I'm white. I think this teacher received a lot of negative racism for being Phillipino- maybe from being from a poorer country than China? She would mention that her students would be talking about her in class in Chinese- that they didn't like her. I don't know. But it was surprising not to see her when I came back.

Also, I just realized that Morten has lost his British accent. He talks like I do. I have changed his accent. Apparently the same thing happened the last time he was in China when he lived with a bunch of Canadians. I find that so odd to think about. The way he speaks has changed in the past 5 months. So what does Morten actually sound like? This is just an issue of his accent on his English changing- I mean the real accent in the way he speaks is in his Danish which - obviously- I can't understand. I just find it weird to think about.

Morten is going to lecture for some of my history classes again because- he really likes history (nerd). Otherwise it is just Oral English. I was expecting to have my normal class of 17 students I had for the minor class last term- but instead I was greeted to a room of 70 students. They are minors and have a lot of other classes, so that number will be much smaller the rest of the semester.

So late! Time for bed!

But first- one more thing. So I was complaining about the cat in heat outside my window. When I was up at Morten's apartment the meowing was so loud I had to raise my voice so he could hear me. Where I have one cat on my side of the building, Morten must have twenty. The howling keeps him up and gives him nightmares when he falls asleep. This spurred me too look up more information on the reproductive cycle of cats to try to find out what all the hooha was about. Lemme tell you... its a virtual 'gang bang' situation out there. Did you know that in a litter of 5 kittens, each kitten could have a different father? According to the website this also seems to be an extremely painful process. Perhaps.... no one else is interested in this. But spring is definitely in the air...