Catching up

The Share the Computer Plan means I missed a day - but not an adventure!

Crossing streets in China - I have finally figured out that none of the cars, buses, pull carts, motobikes, or bicycles really WANT to run over pedesterians. I actually have seen no accidents of any kind and the cars are not dented. However, they only want to miss you by the closest possible margin. And "close" for them is way inside the personal space I normally reserve for Bob. I find a pack of Chinese at a crossing - preferably with a male baby or a large load of soft materials - and shadow them.

Language - I conducted 8 transactions today with no Chinese/English problem. Universal language: money. All retailers - and I was in stores made out of storage units, tables set up in alleys and then upper scale malls - have pocket calculators and are happy to show you the price in the kind of money I have in my pocket. I bet this is how Bill Gates deals with them, too, but with bigger calculators.

Today the teaching topic was literature. They were each to tell me a Chinese children's story in English. Some were almost familiar: Little Red Cap, Snow White and the 7 Pygmies. Some I attributed to others: Dog and Reflection, Fox and Crow, Crow and Jar of Water. (Did Aesop get them from China or visa versa?) Some were new:

1 - A rat and her baby were out one night when suddenly a cat appeared in the distance. The rat mama knew she could not out run the cat so she began to growl and bark like a dog. The cat ran away. "See," said the mama rat to the baby rat, "That is why you should always learn a foreign language."

2 - A man brags to his friend that he has the smartest dog in the world. When he gives the dog, money, the dog goes to the store and brings home the newspaper. The friend wants to try so he give the dog money. Hours later there is no dog and no money. When he asks what went wrong the man asks, "How much did you give him?" The friend answers, "$5." That's the problem, " says the man. "If you give him that much the dog will go to the movies."

3 - Up on the mountain there was a temple and in the temple lived an old monk and a young monk. One day the old monk told a story: Up on the mountain there was a temple and in the temple lived and old monk and a young monk. One day the old monk told a story: Up on the mountain there was a temple and in the temple... (continue until the baby is so bored it falls asleep).