Week II: Echo: The Return: He's Back, and We Didn't Think He'd Post Again

Hey there, friends, family, acquaintances, Italian citizens! Week two update here. Kunming is warm, the air is clear (for China), and… the first week of classes are over! The bridge has been crossed, the wall breached, the fiver forded with minimal loss of oxen and laudanum. The classes have been for the most part interesting – if the content is somewhat lacking given our limited vocabulary, at least constantly reading and speaking in Chinese is challenging enough that there is never a slack moment.

I mean, really, no slack moments. If that’s even a real phrase – my grasp on English weakens by the day, and I fear I shall come out of this experience with my English sounding like a mix between bad modern poetry, old British idioms, and Chinese middle school essays.

But to get back to the point – the point, that is, of the utter unslackness of moments – I shall say that while at Brown, in class, my mind doth often wander. We’ve all been there. You go in, sit down, listen with (the wrong?) half of your brain, take some notes, and then straight-up bounce – all while thinking of a veritable smorgasbord of topics related only subconsciously to the lecture you attended. But here in Kunming I’ve had to change my ways. Ten seconds of wandering and you’re going to find yourself on the awkward end of a grammatically and lexically expectant question. After the first two-hour orientation meeting held entirely in Chinese, my brain hurt – I wasn’t used to paying attention to something for that long. Something that isn’t, say, Lord of the Rings.

The day-to-day speaking grows easier, though. I think. I mean, it’ll seem like it’s far too easy speaking with my 同学们, (I must be getting better) but then I try going up to a magazine stand and asking where to buy second-hand bikes – yikes! After a minute of Chinese translations for “Say wha-?” I hope that they’ll mention something with a number in it – I can do that! Even if this number’s context is “you’ll need to drive for fifteen minutes to get there!” As you may have guessed, I have yet to find that bike – the secondhand market eludes me.

Butanywayguys: I gotta run – I’m off to Fuxian Hu in fifteen minutes – it’s one of the deepest freshwater lakes in China, and, to quote my roommate in translation, “totally bomb awesome” and “legit baller,” so this should be fun. Hopefully pictures are forthcoming – I forget my connector cord, so right now it’s a no-go.

Until next time, have a good weekend everyone!