Clearly I have found the shortest route between my apartment and my tutor's office. I know it because I got a late start yesterday morning and didn't get on the road until 9:15. Last week it took me 45 minutes to get there and so, I thought to myself, I should still be able to make it on time. But ten minutes later I heard an unpromising crunch, and my bike pedals started spinning freely instead of driving the wheels. Whatthe…? And where are those grubby little bike repair stands when you need one? Nowhere in sight.
I pulled my bike over to the side of the road and stripped off my helmet. Yes, I always wear my helmet when I got to my Chinese lesson because it's a really long way and involves riding on the Beijing freeway-equivalent, the eight-lane ring-road. I could see the problem: the chain had slipped off its gears on the back. But how to fix it? I'm telling you right now, I'm not expert at bike repairl One time last winter my coat got caught in the rear brake and I drag/carried my bike all the way home because I didn't realize it was a two-second job to release the brake and pull out the coat.
However, I got a good start on this bike repair job by flipping the bike over so the wheels could spin freely, the pushing and pulling the chain until it gradually moved over onto its gear. I bet there's some way of making the chain all lose, but I don't know it. Anyway, this worked well enough, even though my hands got absolutely coated with black sticky grease. Since toilet paper and hand sanitizer are strictly BYO in Chinese public bathrooms, I had a good supply of both and used them on my blackened hands. Then hopped back on the bike and took off somewhat more gingerly. No idea what caused my one-speed bike to suddenly derail, and no idea when it might happen again.
This whole incident took more than 10 minutes, so I thought for sure I was going to be late. But in fact, I wasn't, which means I made the trip in a record-breaking 35 minutes, pretty close to what my tutor stated as the amount of time it should take.
It was a good lesson. I asked lots of questions as usual, to warm up. Then my tutor quizzed me on the idioms we had studied last time and the time before, and I got them all right. Then we studied some more idioms. I am working hard on idioms because in Chinese they are redolent with history and culture and actually make your speech sound elegant and good rather than cliché or slangy as in English. I never put much effort into studying them before, but this time I am.
Finally, we talked about other objectives for our lessons. I had suggested, via e-mail, that I would like to supplement my university courses by doing a bit of the Chinese high-school curriculum, which is exceedingly rigorous and intensive. In my classes at university, I really feel the gaping holes in my background when a teacher starts reciting a poem and the whole class joins in from memory. So I told my tutor I would like to try and learn some of the things they learn. She thought it quite an intriguing idea and said she would try to get something lined up for next week.
She is expensive, but one of the most worthwhile things I have spent money on here thus far. She prepares well, and is more than generous with the time--I have reserved 90 minutes a week, but she gave me a whole 2 hours this time, to make up for a couple interruptions. She is warm and friendly and very present: it's interesting to her, she says she learns things too. And of course I learn a lot from her. So it's good!
Her office, however, is really cold. I remembered it from last week and so took care to wear a sweater. Still, when I emerged at noon, I was shivering so much I could hardly ride my bicycle. Two more weeks still until the heat goes on… I stopped in at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to see if I could get warmed up. By accident, I ordered about 4 people's worth of food--hot and sour soup that was WAY too sour, and stir-fried something and cabbage. The something was some cross between bread and noodle, almost tortilla like. It was weird but not bad. Certainly warmed me up.
On the way home, I saw a man with a tricycle trailer covered with bananas. For some reason, I really had been wanting bananas. I think it was connected with the lingering soreness in my legs, and remembering how last time I'd overdone it and got all stiff and sore mom suggested that the potassium in bananas might help. Not sure if it did, but it was enough to set up a psychological craving. Anyway, I pulled up and asked casually how much for a jin, the standard measure of weight here. Not sure what it is in units I understand, but I'm slowly getting a sense of it. A small bunch of bananas, for example, is just over two. The banana vendor was very impressed with my Chinese. So many foreigners here can barely speak a word that people are not difficult to impress, if they are in the mood to be impressed at all. I felt that the banana transaction went very smoothly.
On the little road next to my house, I was stuck behind another tricycle trailer, this one with a hard-hatted guy in back. He stared and stared at me. People always stare at me when I wear my helmet. But I was in a good mood, so I rapped on the helmet with my knuckles and said in Chinese, "It's not good-looking, but it's a lot safer." "It's good looking, it's good looking!" the guy said. As I passed them I heard him and his companion marveling over the fact that I spoke Chinese. Like I said, easy to impress.
I spent the afternoon trying to work and finally succeeding. At dinner time, I headed in to campus to print out my work and get a bite to eat. But then I got a call from LGs, whom I had been going to meet early this morning, asking if we could postpone until Thursday? No problem. A little opportunity to sleep in on a Saturday morning was highly welcome. Just hope the postponement doesn't represent a lack of enthusiasm… I think not, though. The amount of stuff he had to prepare was fairly large, and retire professors in China remain busy men because prestige has its own sort of momentum here.
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