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Happy birthday, Bradley!
Welcome to the list, Mama S. and Eddy.
To those of you who asked, not only is St. Patrick's Day not acknowledged in China, it's also ignored in England, Scotland, Australia, the Philippines, Switzerland, and France. I asked. Canadians do celebrate it, but not to the extent that Americans do.
I have wheels!! Well, borrowed wheels. You've seen those pictures of the hundreds of Chinese biking down the long avenues? Stick me in the picture--I've borrowed my Australian friend, Robert's, bike today and he's going to Xi'an over the weekend so I may borrow it then as well. Today is the first day we've had of rain, and biking in the rain in a city that has no traffic rules is more of a challenge than I'm really ready to face.
Apparently, "writer" translates as "zuo jia" or "works at home." Interesting. Jane or Mark, through Lisa, or Grace L., through your teacher, can you confirm and possibly explain this?
I met my second Pekinese doggie yesterday. This one had her fur up in a little bow on top of her head. These are the only two animals I've seen since I've arrived. I guess that's why they're called Pekinese.
I love strolling by the flower sellers, especially at night. The combination of the flood lights and a half-mile of colorful flowers is a bright spot in an otherwise grey and black walk home. The sellers cheerfully call out "buy flowers, Miss?" In China, cheerful is hard to come by among government workers.
Used a Chinese word processor in a shopping mall last week. I wrote, "Jin De Feng (me) ai (loves) Xie Ma Ke (guess who?) in Chinese characters. It's a complicated, but serviceable system. I brought home the accompanying literature, so demonstrations are available when I return.
The university posts the local newspaper on message boards around campus. Another 6 or 7 years here and I'll be able to join the Chinese students in reading them.
My internet seller gave me a handful of dried crabapples today. Yummy. Crabapples are all over the place--they sell candied crabapples and candied tangerine bits on a stick. Also yummy.
The Oscars will be shown here on 3/24 at 1 pm, which translates to nearly the same time as in Northern California. They're on the Chinese version of Star TV, but I can't imagine they'll have time to dub or even subtitle them.
Hyun Zhong seems interested in the American sex scandal. On more than one occasion, she's asked me, "Clinton sexy?" to which I reply, "No, Clinton not sexy," which is followed by "Clinton sexual?" I think the answer to that is "yes." At least, according to the news reports I get from Diane.
Diane, thanks for the updates on the SF school board. Anyone have any opinions on this new "40% of the books must be minority-written" controversy? Say hi to the book group for me.
Grace L., thanks for the news about the Revolutionary Cuisine restaurants. I'll look for them.
Yes, Elnora, I surprised myself by enjoying shopping so much. Maybe when you know that none of the clothes will fit and you can only shop for silly things, shopping isn't so bad.
So far as I know, women and men have pay equity here. I'll ask around, though. But for getting newspaper clipping about Aetna and managed care, you'll have to keep in mind that the newspapers here are, well, in Chinese. <grin> There's one English paper, China Daily, but it's party-run and I don't think it will cover much on that subject. Sorry.
Re: Golden Child: John's friend didn't call me until Thursday night for tickets on Friday. By that time, it was too late to make plans. I couldn't call her and didn't want to bother Dr. John for her number. Ah well. Oh, and Elnora, be sure to write to me at this address, dgoldentyer@hotmail.com, at least until I return to the states. Mark is monitoring my other account, but this is quicker.
Hi, Mom. I love you too. I'll try to call, but I can't always get through. The time I called--7:30 am my time--is best for me. I'll try next week, probably during the week, since that's easiest.
One last note/request: please don't send attachments to this account or put this account on any of your mass mail/joke/funny story lists. Thanks! Much obliged.
Any questions so far?
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