I'm standing in the Tianjin Natural History Museum, looking at a display about whales. Just like in the US, they have some nice illustrations along with placards (in Chinese, of course) describing the animals, where they live etc. As I stand and read as much as I can on one of these placards, a man who I think must have worked at the museum runs up to me.
*Him, in Chinese* "Whoa, you know how to read characters?"
*Me, in Chinese* "Well, yeah I can read but not too well."
*Him* "Whoa! You know how to speak Chinese?!"
Second, I've gotten to see Ben Homnick and his girlfriend Jia Shan twice here which has been really great. We've eaten Indian food, gone bowling and ice skating, and played cards a couple time. We taught she and her friend Yalin how to play euchre, which to their credit went more smoothly even with our translation issues than it usually does with freshmen at summer orientation. I also rapidly learned the names for each of the suits and the verbs "to play (a card)," "to pick up (a card)" and "to deal," which is about as much as I remember from any given week's lesson of Chinese class. Awesome. I also described "super" something-or-other as "supermarket" something-or-other, ensuring that I will never mistake "chaoshi" for "chaoji" again.
Finally, in the political realm, I thought Thomas Friedman's article this week was really worth reading. What he says is, in my limited experience (210 mph train ticket for $8) true. You can draw your own domestic political conclusions - and I'd be interested to hear them! I happen to agree with his.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/opinion/27friedman.html?em
