Alas I am behind again and very very tired, so I will have to give the last few days shorter shrift than they deserve.
On Sunday I was planning to have a good long morning of work and then meet two different acquaintances. I'm not sure why I've been so sociable the past few days; it's unnatural and rather hard on me. Anyway, my plans were not realized because I stepped out of the shower only to hear my phone receiving a text message: "I'm here, where are you?" I sent back in pretty succinct and quick texting Chinese that a time had not been mentioned for our rendez-vous and would 45 minutes from now do? I probably could have made it in less, but I don't like feeling rushed or being considered late.
The person I was meeting was a kid I had met at a restaurant where I was eating alone and he was a waiter. It sounds like the beginning of a bad romance-novel episode, I know, but it's nothing like that. We had bits of conversation in Chinese and English and then he asked if he could have my e-mail address. I gave him a throwaway one, and when he wrote to me later I send back a very very clear message that I was about ten years older than him and spoken for and wasn't interested in anything sketchy, but I'd be happy to chat and help him practice English if he wanted. That seemed fine with him as he sent back a long message telling about himself--an economically disadvantaged kid from Hunan who is taking a year off from college to work in Beijing for a year; I got the sense it was for financial reasons. If he makes it back to college next year, he will be a sophomore.
He had many questions about the States, some a bit horrifying, other interesting. His English is so rudimentary and he is so shy of using it that I get a better deal in the language exchange game. I told him I don't really like to speak Chinese on the phone, so he doesn't call. And in general, it is interesting to know a different sort of person than I usually encounter. I told him what I hope were some inspiring stories about language-learning, which inspired him anyway to buy a dictionary. The dictionary came in handy when we met at my campus for a strong, a chat on a bench, and then lunch in one of the cafeterias. He was stunned that I didn't know the phonological system they use to express the sounds in English. (A variant of IPA? I'm not really sure, because I only know IPA for Chinese-type sounds, not English ones.) How do you know how things are pronounced when you are first learning to read? He wanted to know. How do you? I countered, but they use a romanization system, pinyin. Besides, Chinese characters are tenuously rather than systematically phonetic. I mean, so's English from a certain perspective, but nowhere near as unfathomable as Chinese. So it's not a good analogy. Still I persisted: before they had pinyin, how did kids learn to read? Got him there! He'd never thought about it before. Anyway, the dictionary most fortunately had the phonetic system, so we could consult it as needed. He complained a bit that I pronounced things differently than he had learned, but hey, I'm a speaker of pretty darn near standard English. I am not, however, a very experienced English teacher, and as I mentioned, it was better conversation practice for me than for him.
Well, anyway it was an interesting morning. I made my way home and had a few hours' rest in which I didn't get any work done. Then I got a call from my other friend, CC, whom I had got to see 798 with the day before. She was willing to come all the way out to my neighborhood for dinner and a look around. I went down to the subway at Wudaokou to meet her. While I was waiting, I thought I would snack on some roasted chestnuts. But the vendor (I think) was annoyed that I only wanted 5 RMB worth instead of 10, and gave me a defective bag. Or maybe the back was defective by accident, I'm not sure. Anyway, when I was about ten steps away, chestnuts started dribbling out. I considered going back and asking for a better bag, but instead I found an out of the way place to sit and at enough that I could fold the rest up in the remaining pieces of bag. They were not as good as the other ones I had had, sloppily roasted so they were partly burned and very oily--confirming my fairly low opinion of what Wudaokou has to offer.
Another interesting thing that happened was, as I was standing there looking at the big crowd of street-vendors who were selling all sorts of things from the beds of their tricycle trailors…all of a sudden they all leaped onto their tricycles and disappeared at top speed, with ever appearance of great anxiety and haste. A few moments later, a police car drove by with lights flashing. Ah cell phones. But even before cell-phones I bet there was a network...
I hadn't realized that street-vending was illegal. It is so prevalent and pleasant--well, except for sub-par chestnuts. Huh, go figure.
My friend eventually arrived and we rode the bus back toward my neighborhood. I had already picked out a restaurant, a Korean place I had been to once before, which was quiet and had a pleasant atmosphere. We grilled meat and it was high quality and delicious, much better actually than the all-you-can-eat place I had been before. The meat came with lettuce and mouth-wateringly good sauces, and overall I was most pleased. I managed to pay the bill, too. I'm getting better at that. And why not? I live so economically that there's no reason not to treat my friends.
Amusingly, the waitress remembered me from the one other time I had been there. She remembered where I had been sitting and what I had ordered.
After dinner, CC became the first person I have shown my apartment too. We sat on the window seat and talked for a long time. I found out many things, such as that CC is actually a bit older than me. I would have put her age at 24 or 25 at most, but no, we graduated college in the same year, imagine that! She's doing the long-distance thing too, and to make matters worse is applying for a job for next year too. She's a photographer and artist currently working on a project I might call alternative alternative energy, quirky ideas for energy sources that have never been considered before. She is just visiting Beijing for the weekend, but it was nice to talk to her... although I talked too much... I do that, when I am deprived of human companionship for too long. I wonder if it shows...
CC is also a serious cook, and has made a cake in her rice-cooker. (No ovens here.) I was so impressed!
I would have seen her back to the subway station, but she opted to take a cab there. (It really is a pain to get there from here. Even by bike it takes half an hour! The buses are about the same, with a cab maybe half that.) Anyway, a pleasant evening. I felt as usual more relieved that things had gone well than truly happy, but it's good enough!
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