Toasties!

 This past weekend was really fun. Claire came over for brunch on Saturday morning, and we spent the day hanging out and watching the Incredibles and a couple episodes of Firefly. Somewhere in between we ran to Columbus Square (哥伦布广场), where I did some grocery shopping and we both got milk tea from this awesome boba joint known as CoCo. On Sunday afternoon I headed over to Claire’s part of town for a little exploration of the main expat hangout, the Blue Bar. It was a really neat (but relatively expensive) place with a very foreign atmosphere. I couldn’t place it for a while – not quite American, not quite European. It seemed like an Australian place. I haven’t been to Sydney in something like 6 years, but it had a similar vibe to what I remember. Anyway, they had this delicious dish called, “bacon garlic cheese toasties,” which is delicious sesame bread with garlic butter, bacon, and melted cheese on top.

One very entertaining thing about being a foreigner in China is seeing people’s reactions to you. Downtown, not very many people stare at you or say anything awkward. There are always exceptions. This particular time, one very excited man waved at us and yelled, “Hello!” which in itself is not unusual. He then proceeded to ask us where we were from and exclaim that

American girls were pretty. He was kind of a funny character and very enthusiastic.

On Monday I started work. I’m on the fourth floor of my building with no elevators (a fact that

I’m sure will make my mother happy), and I share my office with five or six other people, all of whom are college counselors in some capacity. All of them are Chinese, so they don’t speak

English much unless they are talking to me. I have a rather unusual problem for me – few people in my office will speak to me in Chinese. I think it’s that I’m no longer getting my own education in Chinese and some people simply don’t have patience for my Chinese in the real world. I’m doing all right with Chinese practice outside the office, but unlike Beijing, the folks in Wuxi very rarely slow their speech enough for me to understand even when I ask them to speak slowly. This, more than anything else, is the biggest barrier to me learning and improving in Chinese. The two people who do sometimes speak Chinese with me are usually very busy with their own work. I’m going to have to work this out in some way – my Chinese definitely needs to improve if I’m going to live here for a year.

I don’t have a lot of work to do right now. We don’t have any students at the moment; most of my work involves student essays and meeting with students. I’ve asked my boss what I should be doing with no solid response, so I’m using my work time for things like clearing out space on my hard drive (it’s 15 GB, I had 200 MB left when I got here), writing blog posts, and catching up on e-mail. Unfortunately, my work computer can’t access things like Facebook, Blogger, and Dropbox, so any really fun internet stuff has to wait until I get home.

This blog post is getting super long, so I should probably end it. Sorry, I don’t have quite as many pictures this time.  I'd really like to get photos of Phoebe, Sarah, and some of the other staff up soon, of course pending their permission.