Let's talk English

English is a very useful language to know.  In fact, I may even go so far as to say that it is the most useful language to speak fluently in this day and age. It may seem strange that I'm writing a blog about our experiences in China and talking about the English language, but living in China has made me truely grateful to have grown up in an English speaking country.  Everyone here wants to learn English and in many countries around the world they already speak English as a second language.  This means that if you like to travel English is the common denominator language in many lands.  It also means that many people learn English here from someone who also is speaking it as a second language.  I overheard a Chinese girl yesterday speaking English with a Russian accent.  Weird.  The downside for me in this situation is that if I want to talk about people without them understanding what I'm saying the safest way is to use pig latin.  Ixnay ethay englishway.  A couple of days ago however, I experienced the otherside.....finally!  Sam and I were eating at a restaurant when a couple sat down at the table right next to us and began talking to each other about foreigners.  (They were speaking Chinese.)  I find that more and more people see us as an opportunity to start a conversation about foreigners.  They aren't necessarily talking about us, they just start talking about foreigners in general.   This particular couple started talking about teaching english.  I gathered that maybe one of them was an english teacher.  Sam and I just continued our own english conversation.  As I was speaking about something not too important I overheard the man ask the woman if she could understand our conversation and she said "Ting bu dong" (Hear but don't understand).  That felt most satisfying to me. 

We must like it here

We must like it here because we just signed another year lease on our apartment.  Can you believe that come March we will have lived in China for a year,  AND that we want to stay for another one!?  It was really a no-brainer.  Sam and I both agreed that we need another year here at the very least.  Beyond that, who knows?  As far as the language is concerned we've made huge strides but we still have lots more room for improvement.  We've had plenty of time to study lately because we've had winter vacation from the schools we teach at. We go back to work next week and I think we are ready to get busy again.  The days are still really cold. Today I thought my face was going to turn into ice while I was riding my bike, but at least we have a warm and cozy apartment to come home to.  I'm also comforted by seeing all the spring clothing in the stores.  Even if no one can wear it now, its nice to know the day is coming when I will wear short sleeves again.  Hey, even just a sweater would be nice! 

What kind of a new year party is this?

I got a manicure last Friday, my haircut today, outside fireworks are booming and I still feel depressed.  I hate winter in places where it actually gets cold. It doesn't matter what I treat myself to, I still feel cold and irritable.  Now that I think about it, the fireworks make me feel worse.  When they started on January 23rd (Chinese New Year) it was kind of cool but after about an hour of it we stopped looking out the window and started to feel like we were living in a war zone.  For the past two weeks we have endured what sounds like firearms and bombs going off at any time of the day but especially at night.  I found out that the first, fifth, and fifteenth day are special so it's safest not to be outside walking or biking at night if you don't need to.  Tonight is the fifteenth night and I tried to take some pictures from our window to post but none of them came out very good.  I should have taken pictures the first night because they had huge fireworks going on right outside our building.  These are the fireworks you might see over a bridge or by a pier on Fourth of July back home but here its right outside your building and you're hoping that nothing catches on fire.  After that first night most of the fireworks just make really loud noises and are not so spectacular looking.  A few people have told me that last year there was much more fireworks.  People must be short on cash these days.  I've always equated lighting dangerous firecrackers with teenage boys, but on this side of the world its not the teenage boys standing on the street with matches lighting stuff as fast as they can.  It's the older ones!  I think a lot of the younger generation are used to seeing this every year and if you're lighting firecrackers just to see the show, it can get old after awhile.  But if you're superstitious and believe that you need to scare off the bad spirits at the beginning of the new year, you'll keep lighting those babies up 'til you've deafened all your neighbors and then some.  I just wish it was warmer so I could stop wearing big coats and boots.