I sat with my friend Crystal in the historiography class, and she nudged me awake when I started dozing. Then I nudged her awake. We both drank coffee at the break. That's 8 AM classes for you! :P In research tools class, I don't have any buddies because all my classmates Chinese and Japanese undergraduates who are bored and restless, while I am trying had to learn things. They are cliquish and not interested in me. I mostly talk to the professor at the break, as she is (informally) my advisor here. I don't think that helps much either. Well, they don't appreciate her, and can't see past the fact that she's got a very boring row to hoe, teaching this class, just as they have taking it. It's actually a useful class--you just have to know in advance how you'll want to use it, in order to find it interesting. In history of literature, I sat next to my sort of Japanese friend NT. She is nice to me and seems to like having me sit next to her but doesn't seem interested in doing anything outside of class, though I have suggested it several times. It may be a problem with the language barrier. We'll see, as her Chinese improves!
And that was it for yesterday. (Do you see the chestnuts in this picture?)Today, I spent most of the day in my room. First, I mopped the floor and cleaned my turtle-tank. Poor turtles are in very sorry shape. It's clear that their problem is temperature, and an aquarium heater is on the way, but I'm not sure it will get here in time to help them. I have looked for such a thing around here without success, so the poor creatures will just have to wait. They are really sluggish though. I refilled their tank with bathwater-temperature water, but it's so cold out lately. (Indeed, it looks as if it might actually freeze tonight--well, maybe. For the first time, when I went out this evening, I wore my winter coat.)
I was just thinking about going out to grab some lunch, when I noticed I had received a phone call yesterday that I hadn't answered. There is no voicemail here, so you just have to bravely call back whoever was trying to reach you, often without knowing who it is. In this case, I wish I hadn't. It was--someone from the school? They definitely remembered calling me and knew what it was about, but had no luck explaining it to me. I had some vague ideas but nothing you could call a hypothesis about what the person was trying to tell me. I am bad on the phone in Chinese. Then I hear, "So you will?" "Will what?" Then a Chinese word I understood as "attend" though it can also mean "participate." "Um, you mean just go see?" Another incomprehensible fast-talking flood. "Okay? Do you have time now?" "Now?" I decided that the best policy was to go over there and get things straightened out it person. I had better luck understanding where the person was than what she wanted.
Incidentally, my quads are absolutely killing me from overdoing it on the Wall the other day. So keep in mind that every step is more of a shuffle and I can't descend a staircase without leaning heavily on the rail and whimpering frequently. I haven't even tried to ride my bicycle, because I figure that walking has got to be less strenuous.
So I dragged myself up to campus and found the lady. As usual, communication was much smoother in person, given my heavy reliance on the use of visual aids and gestures. Oh, it's the international student talent-show/exhibition! Oh, and I have unwittingly agreed to be the MC! Not on your life. I explained in graphic detail that I have terrible stage-fright and every time I even think about going on stage I throw up, etc. This was all completely made up, I'll have you know; I'm pretty composed on stage, but that doesn't mean I get any kind of kick out of it. I just have no exhibitionist streak, nor any desire for applause or attention of that sort--it just does nothing for me, but give me a bad case of dread beforehand and a feeling of foolishness and exposure afterwards.
I felt bad for having to disappoint these ladies, especially since they had already thanked me for agreeing (!) to do it. (I also explained to them that I'd had no idea what I was agreeing to.) And then I slithered away feeling very guilty and very relieved. This isn't the first time I've wiggled out of being an MC at a Chinese event; my language skills are decent enough that I'm a fairly natural choice for it. But I have just such an aversion to the MC persona, that putting myself in that role feels like going out in public wearing a badly cut outfit, one that leaves me bare in all the wrong places!
Sorry to disappoint you then, but there will be no blog stories about Zapaper presiding at this year's Beida International Festival. Parents, you will have to hope your daughter attains some other sort of fame. It's not in me to get there by this path! (This is a topless persimmon.)I went back home and worked for most of the afternoon, reasonably productively really. I am starting to get a sense of the research I want to do, and realize that the next order of business is to find someone I can go to with my classical Chinese questions.
For dinner I thought I would try going to that Korean barbecue place again and see if I could say hi to the kid who works there, who I met last time and with whom I have exchanged a few e-mails. But it turns out he doesn't work there anymore. Oh well, had a nice meal, ate way too much meat, got nothing done after dinner, and now here I am. Eleven-thirty on a school night and time to turn in.
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