Friday Bustle

Friday was the usual dashing about, even moreso than usual this time. My landlady had insisted she wanted to collect the rent on this particular day and no other. I contemplated my schedule and suggested before 9. She said she could make it at 9 sharp.

So I slept in a little (at least compared to usual) and lounged around a little. Naturally, I was startled when she showed up at 8:20. I had to go to the door while putting my pants on! Of course, I was wearing long underwear already, so it wouldn't have been a total embarrassment if she'd just walked in--she of course has her own key. Glad she decided to knock first though. I handed over the wad of cash, feeling regretful. The place is a good deal for any American city, but I've learned that according all my friends it's practically highway robbery. Still, there are advantages to living in a brand new building with speedy internet and highly functional heat. I keep telling myself this for consolation. Besides, it would be rotten to have to move right now. My books! My goldfish!

After the landlady left, I got dressed and hopped on my bicycle to go to my Chinese lesson. As usual, I asked a number of questions. The most productive one turned out to be about vegetables. See, there are slight but important differences in vegetable naming conventions between here and Taiwan. You wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but if you want bok choy and you get cabbage, it's not so pleasant. Or if you want dark leafy greens and end up with celery? Want chives and get leeks? So I thought it best to get these things straight. Besides, it was clearly fun for AL to talk about something slightly less academic.

I told her two stories of how the things she had taught me came up in real life, which pleased her so much.

Then we studied another poem, this one about a child preparing to leave home for a long time. How sad it was. Appropriate for a homesick kind of Thanksgiving weekend.

Finally, we studied three proverbs involving roosters crowing. It seems that one technique for memorizing these things is to study thematically related ones all together. Then the contrasts in meaning and the different stories are so fun to think about. How the memory can stretch if you give it time and encouragement.

For no reason that I can fathom, I declined to have lunch with AL, pleading a one o'clock appointment. It's true that I did have a one o'clock appointment, but I had lunch on the way home and it took so long that I had to push back the one o'clock appointment anyway. I guess I wanted a little alone-time between engagements. But still, I somewhat regretted it because talking with AL is always very interesting and I was foolish to pass up the chance.

While I was at lunch, I got a text message from YHz. She was picking up my advisor from the airport tomorrow and would I join them for dinner? I would.

I spent the afternoon with HJ, working some more on her graduate school application: her CV, which was hard for me to help with, and also her personal statement. The latter was interesting. She had so little idea of how to write one. She asked what the rules of the genre were. Actually not an easy question to answer, right? I mean, if there were clear rules they wouldn't be so hard to write!

I emphasized the need for creativity. I looked through what she had, stood it on its head, shuffled it around, crossed out whole blocks, picked up a sentence here or there and praised it, suggested different ways to spin things. This is one lucky girl, I'm thinking. Wish I'd had someone to hold my hand like this when I was working on mine! Still, it is really not onerous. And I had to get her help for yet another thing relating to my internet account. Furthermore, she is actually a very interesting person to talk to, very knowledgeable, with broad interests and great language skills. I am hoping that the interactions we are having now will cement a good relationship between us over the long-term. That's worth a few hours of English-language editorial stuff.

As we walked back from the computing center, she told me about her experience of army training. They have to do army training for two weeks out of every year, boys and girls. It sounded like boot-camp all right! Hiking long distances with heavy loads, having to throw themselves down for mock air-attack drills, sleeping soaking wet, not getting to wash… nightmare. Surely this type of thing as a compulsory activity would never fly in the U.S. Some kid would get seriously ill and then the parents would kick up a huge fuss.

I was really tired when I got home, so I did very little for the next few hours, just messing around online. It wasn't easy, but I dragged myself out again to have dinner with LK the sociologist and a couple other Americans. We went to an Indian restaurant. It was interesting, somewhat, but also a bit depressing as always. Notable was the fact that not one of them had any experience with the blogosphere. "I just don't know what people see in them," they agreed. It was left to me, then, to defend the concept and the kind of stuff that's out here. But it was kind of a wake-up call for me, realizing how into it I have gotten lately! I maintain that it's a really neat phenomenon--a lot of creativity goes into it and a lot of interesting stuff is here to be had.

Have I said it before? Reality TV is real people in unreal situations. Blogging is real people in real situations, infinitely more interesting.

The embarrassing question that people always ask me is, "Oh, so do YOU have a blog?" I say yes but don't volunteer the address. After all, I want to write about them with impunity don't I?!