There are other walls in china..

..specifically of the linguistic persuasion. The other day, I tried to tell Jane that i was a bit sick because of the spring and everything. So, i invested a little faith in my trusty pin yin dictionary and said "Wo bing le" turns out this actually means "I have a disease". So basically, i marched right up to poor Woo Tei Ying and told her im an incubus of death. Naturally, i received an appropriate response when she looked at me as if i just told her my foot fell off and backed away ever so subtly and equally as subconsciously. I then realized the severity of my statement, and we had a good laugh, and she told me the right word for just "sick".

and I forgot it. duh.

So the next day we're at natlie's school waiting around for her mandarin teacher so that Jane can ask her question regarding natlie's tutelage. It got to be half past and so I walked to the english speaking teacher and asked her where miss amy was. "oh miss amy is sick today" "oh! okay, bummer, alright well, never mind then buh bye" I then turned back to Jane searching for the Chinese words I needed in my Rolodex of a brain, and could only muster "uhh, she has a disease today, sorry"....in mandarin. She laughed and understood, and we left.

Really, I'm loving these little interactions everyday. Im loving slowly peeling away the identity of Woo Tei Ying, Sung Yuran Di, Ku Ching Yu, and Pan Yu Hua. There really isn't much any other way to describe it except to call it family. It took me off guard, but I will miss them week while im in Honolulu. On the upside there should be Easter candy abundant, which i am prepared to take full advantage of. Of course, Morgan is Jewish and i don't celebrate Easter really, so im sure we'll probably just end up doing something jessy and morgany like eating a ton of chocolate, which is better than mass. Plus its my birthday, and as much as I'm tempted I'm going to leave the mandarin book at home. Communication is amazing, but Reese's peanut butter eggs are better...but only very slightly.

happy early "that guy from that novel died" day...

j