|
|
|
 |
See? my chinese is getting better already. thanks to all of you who wrote; it's the little stories of grace's dog eating kitty litter and such that i just don't hear out here. apologies for the typing; this keyboard isn't as good as the one in the other internet service center--the caps key sticks. can't imagine why; they don't even have capital letters in china. yea, true, they don't have any letters in china.
school has begun with a vengeance. my class is 17 people. i'm the only american, although there are four other people who speak english. in the class. we have two teachers, one from 8-10 and the other from 10-12. i can't say that one is for speaking and one is for reading; they both seem to teach the same thing. teacher 1 taught lesson one and teacher 2 taught lesson 2. teacher 2 knows english, so it's kind of a cheat. she was trying to get us to understand something and one of us cried out, 'ah, homework!' and she said, yes, that's what i've been trying to say. the first teacher doesn't speak english, though, and since most of the class doesn't either [but the book is in english and chinese], it really is immersion. i hope to have a tai ji tutor by monday and i've got an odd collection of chinese people offering to exchange language lessons. i've made a few friends; palled around yesterday with a woman from the philippines and one from toronto.
last night was some sort of expatriates night--a local bar held a party and advertised it heavily in english around the campus. i went with four friends, saw a few others, and made some more. so, it's nice, i now know maybe a dozen or so english-speakers on campus and, of course, my korean roommate. she says hi. i think. maybe. well, i'm sure she would if she knew how.
sorry to have scared you all away with the telephone thing. friends assure me that you can say 2878 in english and don't need to say ar ba chi ba.
i'm eating well. lots of tofu and steamed buns. and lots of hot water. i finally found my diet coke supplier--and it's cheap here too, but i've developed a fondness for hot water. bought myself a canister for hot water and now i walk around with it wherever i go. quaint?
i'd love to stay and chat, but i need to figure out how to take a bus. i am meeting my old friend, gao ge, a man i knew as a visiting scholar in princeton, for lunch. he's promised me it's easy to get from my university to his. we'll see.
good news--they have both dog food and cat food in the grocery store. so they're not all being eaten.
apologies to the folks who wrote me. i had planned to send personal notes back, but it's just impractical, since i'm on the clock here. so, keep asking your questions, forgive the mass mail, and i'll answer what i can.
i miss you all.
love,
jin de feng.
|
|
|
|
