So the other day in Chinese class, I ended up sitting with all the native speakers who are taking Elementary Chinese for an easy A. That sucked!
From now on, I am only going to sit with kids who look like they wish they’d signed up for Spanish instead.
I can’t believe that last Chinese new year I was just starting my trip to China, and crying over leaving Stick, and this new year we’re unpacking time-capsule boxes and setting up our new place!
I’m trying to convince Stick that we can’t clean or sweep today because it’s the Lunar New Year and we don’t want to sweep our good luck away. Especially not right now when I have so much good luck!
He’s not buying it.
Look what Stick got me for Valentine’s Day!
That’s right! We’re moving next week!
(It does make me feel a little guilty for making fun of his cookies now.)
You know what this is?
It’s a break-and-bake sugar cookie with a square of pink sugar on the top. I’m not going to say who sugared cubes of raw dough and put them in the oven, but they were delicious!
The Sinocidal crew rants about cross-cultural, uh, romance but with Chinabounder posting again, can they even compete?
Yesterday I started taking a beginning Chinese class. I’d forgotten how much better I liked my life without anyone saying “no, no, is zh not zh“. At least the prof doesn’t giggle when she says it.
She has the same frustrations as I do when trying to teach basics in a native language. I am completely baffled when my English students, here or in China, can’t identify a verb. It’s the word that’s doing something, how could I possibly make this more clear? I think my Chinese teacher feels the same way. There are four tones, except when there are five, how could I possibly make this more clear?
Our text seems to be well-organized, and I’m excited about having classmates on my level. But I still have such basic questions about Mandarin. For example, some Chinese nouns need zi on the end but it doesn’t have a meaning but you can’t leave it off. Or certain word order seems to change the tones (or I’m just saying ti wrong, which is probably just as likely) and I don’t know how that works. I think I really want to learn Chinese in a Westernly logical way.
(Please try to keep the ???? emails and comments to a minimum this time, ok?)
This morning, Stick and I got up really early to pick up his car from the mechanic. We drove down in our borrowed car, ransomed his Cougar, then I took his newly-fixed car and he took the loaner. I followed him back to the highway, and then we headed in different directions. I was just pulling into his mom’s driveway when I heard my phone ring.
“Slow down! You missed the exit!”
I said something witty and affectionate along the lines of huh?
“You’re doing at least eighty and that’s not safe and also you flew past the exit and now you’re heading to Holyoke!”
“Stick? I’m at your mom’s house.”
“You’re what?”
“Unlocking the door.”
“Oh. Then, I’m chasing a different blue Cougar down 91. &#%!#, I’m late for class again!”
Chinese New Year is this month, and next year is 4705, the Year Of The Pig. The CCTV censorship crew has recently banned pigs from TV advertisements for fear of offending Muslims, who are prohibited from eating pork. If you’re not familiar with James Chou, Da Shan, Eve Bower and the rest, CCTV is the Chinese national television network.
At the same time, the Chinese post office is also producing Year Of The Pig commemorative scratch&sniff postage stamps. The picture smells like sweet-and-sour pork and the glue tastes like it. One Man BandWidth points out that they taste just like Year Of The Chicken.
Apparently, Chinese Muslims don’t lick stamps.
(Thanks to Humanaught and One Man BandWidth, respectively, for tipping me off to these two stories.)
The ones with the correct spelling cost extra.
I just heard a web rumor that even Paris Hilton is in WarCraft. Personally, I thought she’d be more of a Second Life porno avatar than a WarCrafter. She’s an NPC Blood Elf, of course. Typical. The forums say she’s in Shattrath City, hanging out by the bar, refusing to talk to anyone. No word yet on whether “Haris Pilton” will leak a sex tape to lucky gamers, or send players on a quest to find her missing panties.
I vaguely dislike Paris in the way that nerdy girls don’t like pretty, popular girls. My real English Teacher ire is reserved for the stylist who allowed her to make, wear and market Thats hot, your not t-shirts. My students wouldn’t let her get away with that.
