Listening to the 7th again. One of the kids went out a window. Damn! Her class was the one I'd talked to about dealing with life, too. Guess it didn't get thru., or her demons followed too close. Figlia perduta.

I'm thinking of getting away from Beijing for a bit. Day trip to Tianjin, maybe a few days to see Xi An. Beijing is too familiar now. Getting away would give me new things to think about.

The language lessons are coming along. I actually got the news yesterday in Putonghua. I really hope I can reach some kind of fluency pretty soon. At least I can practice with nearly anyone! Funny thing is though, I can hear accents now. Southerners with their 'l' and 'n' interchange, the 's' and 'sh' merge, etc. My teachers keep trying to correct my Beijing accent, too. I guess living in Guang Zhuang (Guang Zhuar) imprinted it on me.

Enough gloom. Time to start another day.


More free time, I'm in a cafe waiting for a tutor.  At least this place has wireless internet. I was pretty happy that the Cisco card from the Psion works just fine in this Acer.
Looks like I'll be really free for the summer, so I might as well make the best of it. Maybe a few daytrips or overnighters, mixed in with the daily language lessons. I may have doubled up today but I'm not sure, since the second tutor hasn't shown yet. No response to an earlier message either, which is a bad sign.

Eh, I'll just wait a bit then blow off to the restaurant. I'm meeting an ex-collegue who's headed back to the US in a few days. He wanted Uighur food so I recommended the 'dancing place'.  They have a good dance troupe and last week had a Russian dance troupe that really knew their stuff. Good food there, too. 

Oh, well, no tutor. Maybe just time to head out. 

Listening to the song, Yo no se, que voy hacer.....     The thing is, I like the music.  If I listen to the lyrics they're pretty sad. Guess I better not translate. :)  

Woke up really early, put exam grades in, by Friday evening I should be ready to turn over everything. Cool!. 

Got a pretty reliable tutor lined up, so I can start on the putonghua.
Rockin'  


Waiting to give finals.  Listening to Brightman sing "Figlio Perduto" from Ludwig Van's  7th.  Pity she sings in Italian. It's very pretty but hard to understand ( especially since I don't speak Italian)

Really love the seventh though. What a beautiful symphony.

Finals again. Waiting for the students to start showing up. Yesterday was nice, got phone call from old friend which straightened me out. Things look pretty nice now. 

Nice to have some peace, after the spring.

Pretty good father's day.  Went to 5 gold star and bought a monopod, now no excuse for not using the camera. Juana came over and we went to the Uighur place. They had a Russian dance group who could really dance!  Can-can, Tango, belly dances....  The Uighur girls were going all out to match them, so it was pretty good. Juana was cool, worried about Dad's health.  Don't worry girl, it will take more than the recent events to keep me down for long.

Writing this in a cafe, using the wireless card. Makes for a comfortable setting. The windows were open, but the wind came up so they're closed now. Of course the view is the ususal construction site.

Finished the first round of finals today, heading for the home stretch now. Can hardly wait.
Yesterday saw Ice Age 2, really enjoyed it. The ground squirrel with his insane search for acorns changes the world. Somehow I suspect the real world works like that too. Little changes influence the larger world until we don't know whats happening. Chaos theory probably explains it, pity I never read up on it. The dance scene with the vultures was hilarious - Food, glorious food..... Somehow I never pictured that scene with the song.

Wow, my Thai 'daughter' just came up online. Haven't talked to her for months. This is getting to be cool. Relatives all over. :)
Already got relatives in Cambodia and the US.  Now the adopted kind in Thailand and China. The adopted kind have the advantage that you get to choose them, whereas the 'natural' one's you're just stuck with.  Anyway, it's really great to see Nook online again. Gotta get down to see her sometime. 

The battery is down to about 20 min remaining.  I was gonna get annoyed at the short life 'til I remembered teh wireless. Even the Psion only lasted a couple of hours on wireless.




Was trying to remember some other songs from Oliver. "Food", "Where is love" "I'd do anything for you". A pretty cheery repertoire for such a subject. Maybe the Vultures are better.

Saw a poster for a movie named Chevaliers du Ciel. Might be worth going to. It would probably be in French with Mandarin subtitles though, leaving me with the worst of both worlds. I can understand spoken Mandarin, but read way too slowly for subtitles. I can read French fairly well, but pretty much can't understand the spoken language. Good exercise, maybe.

Gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day. Silly song but it fits the mood. "Born of the dark cloud that passed me by..."
Thanks, Brenda.
The good thing about summer is that friends are surfacing. Looks like I'll have time to spend with people I like. Gentle, laughing Marilla, pragmatic Sandy and mischevious Brenda the teachers. Juana and Carmen the daughters, passionate Jill the dancing girl, the quick brilliant Leslie and many more!

Seems odd that my friends are women? Not really. Women seem to be more open to strangers with foreign ways. I know a lot of men but they're more reserved. Note too the lack of romantic partners. I've withdrawn from the game for R&R.

Yesterday was great. Met Carmen and Bonnie for lunch, they'd found a cool Hawaiian style shirt for me. They thought it too big but it fits the way a Hawaiian shirt should - loose and floppy. Then the finals for the E-comm class, which went fast. Then off to Wang Jing. I think I'm learning more from my client than he is from me.

Beijing is nice in June. It's not too hot yet and rains often. A good time for bike rides and trying out my rundimentary putonghua on strangers.

Heard a good story last night. An American employee of a chinese company decided to buy a goldfish. He asked someone where to get one. They told him Nv ren jie (woman's street). So he went to a cab driver and said (sorry, can't write hanzi on this pc yet) "Wo yao qu nv ren jie, yao mai jin yu." - I want to go to women's street to buy a goldfish. Unfortunately what the cabbie heard was "yao mai jin nv." oops. buy a hooker. Cabbie suggests Lido hotel instead. Arguement ensues.... Guy tells cabbie he wants to go to womens street because the jin nu are cheaper and plentiful there....

Remember that pronounciation is important guys! you might get a pretty girl rather than a goldfish.

Enough for this morning. Time to go. Adieu, mes amis.

Sitting here waitin for a class that didn't come. Guess we'll have a make-up.

I'm itching for the break. I've already been using my time to study chinese and talking to people more. It's an interesting language to me. It's hard to get used to the tones and I really say some strange things. I can't say I mind getting laughed at, I got used to that when I was an interpreter. And the time I asked the Croat waiter for an order of breasts instead of sliced ham....  ,

China's an interesting place, things are happening and people are hustling. The language is colorful and has a lot of beauty.  It's fun being part of it.

Well, lunch time.  Out for some noodles. It's kinda funny, some of the other foreigners here give all kinds of reasons for not learning chinese. But how often is it "Hey Dave, want to eat". It's kinda helpful ordering food to able to say something useful.

Last weekend was graduation. Got to see the first students finish up. It was great.Pictures in the photos page.

This spring was emotional turmoil. I'm gonna spend the summer recovering. Looking forward to some fun with friends, lots of practice with Chinese and not much else.