On Learning Chinese

I've been asked on occasion how my Chinese is coming. Let me show you instead of tell you. These images are screenshots of my attempts to speak into Google translate to try to get the tones right as well as to have the Romanization to make practice easier on my brain (One of my lessons is only audio and I need visual help too). I have no idea what I was suppose to be saying, but clearly it wasn't any of these things!

The last one is hilarious because Wang Jian is our driver so this makes total sense, but that was NOT what I was practicing to say! I was trying to say something about some street in Beijing. (The lessons are often as confusing as the language!)

But I am trying. I work on it every day on a couple of different apps, with a teacher and with a book. I wish I could report more progress, but I can't..... I'm just slow. And old!

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Bamboo Forest

There is a bamboo forest nearby. A few weeks ago we paid it a visit. It was about an hour drive and after we got off the freeway it was a meandering road through some cute villages. I started getting excited for some hiking and a lovely nature experience. I should have known better. This is China. If people will come, they will find a way to make some money. The bamboo forest was no different---it was a tourist trap. That didn't mean we didn't enjoy it. We did. It was a lot of fun. But our expectations were shot down yet again. (Pro tip, Darcee, drop all expectations, you're in China!) At the bamboo forest, you can see shops, get a hot dog at "Fatty Dogg WestCoast Hot Dog", (perhaps I should try it, my expectations may be happily surprised; but I highly doubt it) get measured 3 times, (in China, children's prices are determined by your height, not your age. When we came to China, both girls were under 150cm so they...

Underarm Odor Census Notice

I just got this text message from Changzhou City. I can't quite imagine what an inspection would entail. (And to "enjoy" an inspection!) In a country where you can't buy deodorant, what would the treatment be? I wish them well on their census efforts!

Food

Food has been one of the hardest aspects of our quarantine. Food is emotionally comforting, so we're missing out on that--especially the girls. We're not used to the smells. It is cafeteria type foods. Much of the time we don't know what it is. Always an adventure...not always a pleasant one! That said, incoming meals are the most exciting time of the day. Originally we were getting 4 meals a day. But the only thing the girls were eating from them was the rice and there is way too much rice in that container for one person. So we had it cut back to two. Breakfast is the hardest meal of the day. I already knew I didn't love Chinese breakfasts. Tom had told me that every breakfast he saw from watching quarantining videos had a boiled egg. I knew I could eat that if I had some salt and pepper. So I brought some. We're doing okay on the salt--supply wise. We're rationing on the pepper. I'm so tha...

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