Tiny Shrimp

01/13/08

Yesterday Will and I decided to rearrange our room so as to counterbalance the hotel-roominess of it all. We plundered Junta's room, which we referred to as his "single room penalty" and created a large open space in ours, where we were able to place a coffee table surrounded by eight or so chairs, a tea table, and a mini-fridge. After dinner, we had a tea-party. This was a great idea, except that all we had were loose, dry tea-pellet-things and no strainer. We thought of purchasing some stockings, but then decided that might be weird for two guys to do at 9PM.

For dinner we went back to the dumpling place because they were serving soup, and our friend Tram said she knew how to order so we wouldn't have to. That was all we needed to hear.

At first glance, the soup consisted of wontons and greens- like spinach- with tiny little spices and things floating around. I would have gone on happily believing this until someone said "this is good seaweed" and I thought "well... OK" and then someone else said "no, it's moss" and I thought "fine..." and then someone ELSE said "and aren't these tiny shrimp and crab cute?" and I thought "...." Then I looked down and saw that, indeed, there were itty bitty shrimp and crabs floating in the soup. I picked up a shrimp and looked it in its tiny little beady eyes. I'm sure it would have been happy to know that it was delicious, if a little salty. Next to me, Will found a baby squid.

01/14/08

This morning was our first day of classes. I'm in a small class of seven with a younger instructor, Li Laoshi (Laoshi isn't a name, but the word for teacher. At least something like that. I haven't done my homework yet). She is very nice and patient, and gives lots of positive feedback when we get things right. Today we learned "hello," "goodbye," "sorry," "how are you?" "I'm doing well," "cool," and "I don't speak Chinese." We were also introduced to 12 of the 38 Chinese "finals," which are better known as "weird noises that we as Americans have never had to make before," and the four tones that can be used on any syllable. We spent a good hour on the difference between one that goes up, and one that goes down a little and then up, but lower. I think the guy from "Jaws" said it best: "we're gonna need a bigger boat."

I have my first day of internship at CNN tomorrow. I have to make my way across half the city and find a random building I've never seen before. I'm placing my hopes and dreams on the assumption that there will be a large "CNN" in neon lights over the front.