hello again

Hello from the internet bar again.

I'm at another one, which is near my house. I tried to pretend I was a local by walking to cashier nonchalantly and saying "How much?" in Mandarin.

She just stared at me all confused and said, "What?"

Haha. I guess I need to practice more. This is a poem I recently wrote about language.

"Speaking Putonghua"

One who knows the language
shoots to the point
straight and clean

For me
I'll do anything to get there
haphazard
spit out words
in any order
try a phrase in all four tones
slap out delicate r's and twists
with my American tongue
heavy as a slab of salmon

I apologize the ancient Chinese poets
I make turn in the grave
with Putonghua/English/Cantonese
mutant sentences.



Also, I realized I got jipped at the other internet bar I went to! So they charged me 6 kuai/hour but this one charges 2 kuai. You actually first give them 3 kuai, and then they give you back 1 kuai after you return to the cashier when finished. Interesting.

Oh and guess what??? My name is going to be in the byline of an article published in the new issue that came out to today! YAYYYY. But my name will be in Chinese (huang2 ming2 yi2). And the article is in Chinese. I expanded the English version and then they translated it into Chinese. How it happened is actually a very exciting story.

On Tuesday I was planning to go to work in the afternoon just to meet everyone, because that was when everyone would come back from the New Year's day trip. But my boss (who is a very cool and chill guy who studied journalism grad school at Cal) calls me at noon and says, "We have some work for you, Katina." Cooool, I think. He asks if I can expand this article about the new Harvard president, Caroline "Drew" Faust, who is the first woman to be appointed to that position. The article is about 2.5 pages single spaced, but I needed to make it about twice as long (2500-2600 words). I ask when he needs it done by, and he says, "As soon as you can ... maybe 5 or 6 tonight?"

I had promised Aiyi that I would go to her company dinner with her co-workers, so I was supposed to leave at 4:30pm. I told my boss that I had to go to a dinner, and he said that was fine, just finish as much as I can. I decided to work at home, since that would save travel time, and I had a really strong wireless signal so I'd be able to research.

Except (horror of horrors!) after 10 minutes the signal went away completely. So I called Aiyi and told her maybe I could go to dinner, or I'd come late. And also, was there an internet bar nearby?

She told me just to come to her office and work, since they have internet. I thought that was a good idea because then I could go with her to dinner directly and save time. It's really good to have connections, because she is this bank executive, and she set me up in her office on the 20th floor. She ordered this girl to give me anything I needed. Wow.

But yeah, I tried to finish as fast as I could, but I could only get up to a little over 2000 words. Also, we were already half an hour late to dinner and Aiyi couldn't leave the bank without me so I had to email what I had. So yeah, I wasn't very satisfied with the result, but I guess all you can do is do your best.

People are so kind to me here. Aiyi, especially, because she shows me how to do everything. Her niece took me grocery shopping. Aiyi's co-workers came to speak to me during dinner and at the karaoke bar, even though I only have kindergarten level Chinese. My co-worker also helped me open a bank account. (By the way, I LOVE my co-workers!! They are pretty young, in 20s or early 30s, and all speak English well. I got to eat lunch with some of them yesterday.)

I think it's good that I experience being in this helpless state and learn to ask and receive help. It's a lesson in humility. For me, I'd much much rather give help than receive it. It feels good to be a C in Berkeley as an ISM leader, giving help to international students who don't know how the school system work, giving essay editing tips, taking people to good restuarants.

But how do I be a C, in a "lower" position? It took me a bit of effort to ask my co-worker, "Can you help me open a bank account?" First of all, I want to be self-sufficient. Secondly, I don't want to cause trouble for him. And it's hard for this prideful girl to become a baby, almost.

But it makes me think about J, who did not consider himself equal with the Father - and he did become a baby. It's amazing, if you put yourself in that position - choosing to become helpless when you have all the power in the universe.

Please continue to lift me up in your thoughts, that I will learn to have that heart of humility and compassion.

Also, I am going to HK tomorrow. I will get to meet new friends and see old ones, Janette and Matt and Andyy!! YAY =)