Communication in China

Yesterday one of my colleagues asked me how I was managing, how was I feeding my family? Given that no society has much patience for those who are both illiterate and mute, I could kind of understand her question and concern. Yet, I communicate a lot in China, as I do in all the places I have been and can barely say hello (I can by the way, say more than hello and Jeff and I have been faithful about listen to our language tape, having a tutor at least three times a week, and practising a lot. If I can use Chinese here, when will I use it?) At the university, my collegues speak decent English but elsewhere and other than "hello, what is your name?) it is a bit challenging finding someone who speaks English, especially in stores or restaurants. Grunting and pointing is always effective but by far the best way to communicate is with a smile. It is amazing how much I actually communicate with a smile. Children and family here provides many opportunities for discussion; yesterday morning on the way to school, I told a grandmother how beautiful the baby was on her back; at the girls' school, I hope all the kids I smiled at realized that I appreciated how cute they were and loved sharing this morning ritual with their parents (I am no longer teary-eyed when I drop them off -- it is starting to seem rather normal. Plus, sometimes I get to see them at noon so it is not such a long stretch).

A fabulous restaurant

I woke up late, at seven, becauswe I still was suffering slightly from lack of rest. WE quickly readied for school, and set out at a fast pace, struggling to keep up with the mass of chinese children. It is needless to say that the first 2 hours of school were not irrelevant, they were jam packed with the normal chinese school day except for one thing there was the american odditiy with brings us to the morning exersizes, usually you do a long string of movements, however today we had to perform a different task. WE were instructed to salute the chinese flag, I used the wrong hand, using it to shield my face from the murderous gaze of the sun. Immediately about five chinese girls abandoned saluting the flag in order to correct me, my fingers were straited once I had switched hands and I had to raise my salute over my eyes, so that still the sun was staring at me, the rest of the stretcfhes continued in a wave of heat, in fact it was not very hot when in the shadows,k however when facing the sun, the heat was like a wave, the rest of the day continued, until at last I was finished with school, and I lumbered behiknd my family as we went to a store to take photos which we needed to make sure we were the correct person or something like that. Then we combed our hair, brushed our teeth, and then we hurried to play badmitten, (JUlia's birthday present) before my moms student arrived. Soon we had to abandon an amusing game of badmitten in which I played horribly with my left hand, for my mothers student. We walked down to a hot pot place that we had walked past almost every day, and wondered if someone would help us order there. WE arrived in the restaurant stepping into a steamy crowded restaurant, we were escorted to a grate where they now placed a large bowl filled with on one side spicy spitting water and on the other side salty seafoody and also spitting hot water. Bother sides bubbled with equal venom. Then me and my father got up and walked to area where there were pans filled with vegtables and meat on sticks. There were around 80 different pans, alll holding siome unique kind of vegtable [or a very very unique kind of meat] all of which you could choose from. My dad and I loaded our pan, with mushrooms, cauliflower, tofu, and whatever we saw that looked good. Then we strutted back towards our table, barely able to see over the piles of vegtables and meat dangling dangerously off the ends of sticks. We set the down, my moms eyes became wide, we had already a pan filled with more lettuce and mushrooms, and now we had all this. My moms student, seeing us not doing anything, grabbed several sticks and shoved them into the boiled liquid. It cackled and steamed, but it could do nothing against the rush of hands that all hurried to place vegtables in the hot pot. After that we sampled the spices, and my sister and I agreed apon a peanutty spice that we them showered apon all of the cooked vegetables, all in all, it was a great dinner, one of our better ones, however we always end up saying that. After finishing, we left full and exausted having spent only 11 dollars and collapsed into our apartment, nmy sister and I weary from another monday in my chinese school.
Hana