Beijing Student Life
January 5th, 2006
As my time as an exchange student comes to an end, I continue to spend most of my time on campus in Wu Dao Kou. Nan nan has just returned from Shanghai. We are both moving out on Friday 13th, what a lucky day. I’m moving into the dorms. Because I still have a valid student visa and student card, Tsinghua has no problem taking my money even though my MBA classes are done.
In my Chinese classes are a lot of Koreans, several young boys, an elderly couple from Wisconsin. It is too easy, I’m way back at the beginning, I might take a harder class or I might take a second class. I’m also doing language exchanges.
While on campus today I met the very very pretty assistant of the TA. I’m not saying she is unattractive. However it is possible to meet just as or if not more attractive Chinese girls/women randomly say working behind the counter at the desk of foreign students dorm.
On my way to the foreign students dorm I saw a police SWAT motor home. This was the first time I’ve seen one since National Day at Tienanmen Square. I took a picture, I have no idea what it was doing on campus over by the foreign student dorms.
I’m off to Nanjing this weekend. I’m traveling by myself via night train. Something Chi-Wei would advise against doing. However it is a well known fact I have no one. I’m not even sure why I’m going to Nanjing. I don’t know why I do anything anymore. I am reading 1421 right now and that probably had a lot do to with it. Apparently Cynthia Yu, one of my female Chinese classmates, is from Nanjing. Danna insisted I email her. It was the first time I’d ever emailed Cynthia. She is running out of time to email me back. Apparently not emailing people back is popular among Sauder MBA students.
Danna had a big meeting with a client of her new consulting company. I hope this isn’t the same ‘company’ I’ve been working for free. I mean I still haven’t been introduced to the professor whose paper I did a lot of rewriting of, and that was part of the deal. Of course lots of people, Chinese people, are all too happy to accept favours but not all of them grasp the concept of reciprocity. Something I’ve written about many times before. There is further irony in that the Chinese have at least one special saying for this: 不识抬举.
I showed Danna some more SMS messages I got in Chinese. This time I was sure who they were from. They were sent to be by a reporter for the Economic Information Daily whom I briefly met at the MMEC conference. As part of my standing operating procedure I always follow up the exchange of business cards with an email. I made extra sure to email her, though it took me a week to get around to it, due to how busy I was that week.
Danna of course asked if she was “pretty”. I replied “She was pretty enough for me”. I also mentioned that she was perhaps even busty, something I also promise not to complain about. I hope she secretly speaks a lot more English, we met when I noticed her listening in on a conversation I was having with others at the table we were sitting at for lunch.
My mom also asked about the free dinners I won. They have not expired, but my time in China may well be. So maybe I should just go for broke and ask the pretty busty Chinese reporter to dinner at the St. Regis hotel. That really isn’t my style. My style is to over-analysis, do nothing or not enough, fail miserably, and then mope. My style isn’t very effective.
Update: My style hasn’t gotten much more effective but nowadays there are apps and websites for everything in China and the one app to rule them all is WeChat. Of course I haven’t forgotten the role electronic communication played in my life. Now I’m still struggling and am still single and once again looking for a job online.
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Mclusk! Get off your ass and ask her out… Please!
After all the effort it too to arrange, the coffee was anti-climactic. I’ve had coffee with the odd single Chinese woman before, and the language barrier was indeed vast, but I have no regrets. Nothing will likely come of it and there probably wouldn’t have even been a coffee if it wasn’t for all the ribbing I received from Danna and Blair and this damn blog.
Well it is finally happening. I don’t know why, but after several unsuccessful attempts to ask the pretty Chinese journalist to coffee or dinner at St. Regis, I finally called her after Danna stressed that. Of course it didn’t go well, but Danna was suppose to give me some advice but eventually I had to pass the phone to Danna as I ?明白’d too much. Danna talked to her on the phone and magically we are too meet at Sculpting in Time that very evening. It is so much easier to arrange complicated plans in a language you actually can speak, but my Chinese is improving.
I went and got my hair cut and changed. I also SMS’ed her thanking her for finally agreeing to see me. I’m not sure what we’ll talk about. She said she could meet even earlier so I rushed back to S.I.T. and now I am sitting beside Emlyn waiting for her.
Of course she finally agrees to see me after Danna books me a ticket home. I think when I leave is an issue for her, ?妨. That is her nickname apparently, Danna took a liking to her on the phone, so maybe things might be alright, but the language issue could be huge.
I actually have to learn up to chapter 10 over the weekend while in Nanjing. My life is never easy.
After a week in the absolute beginners class where we failed to cover all of lesson one and two, I’m skipping to lesson eight starting on Monday. That means I have to learn lessons 3-7 over the weekend while in Nanjing. This shouldn’t be that hard for a normal person who has studied Chinese for over five months, but I have problems.
That as always remains an understatement.
I did learn that James was born in 1927 and his wife in 1932 as part of inclass exercies today. I also learned that the youngest Korean kid was born in 1998.
No more postings for a while…
There is a lot that is not public knowledge yet.
This along with my perenial failure and all around ineptitude may prevent me from ever asking anyone out again.
Mclusk! Get off your ass and ask her out… Please!