mandarin
Hot pot and language learning
You often learn languages in the most common of places. This evening Diana and I went out to our local hotpot restaurant (火锅饭店). The meal started off as normal except that I can now fully understand when the waiter/waitress (who, I'm pretty sure, are also the owners) ask if we want a spicy sauce or not (I get the spicy). That in itself is pretty cool but today I was also able to ask what another customer ordered. It looked good and I wanted some.
Mandarin Lessons and an upcoming trip
Last night was the first of what will, hopefully, be many (many) lessons in Mandarin Chinese. Yes I am learning chinese. Why?? ........ why not?
Diana was patient with me and showed me several characters and I wrote my first sentence last night (Are you Chinese?) Whoo Hoo! I'll be a rockin' Chinese-character Writing fool in no time (and by no time I mean 30 to 40 years).
Also it is somewhat-official (tickets haven't been purchased yet). I am going to China in late March to Mid April. I will keep you all updated and, as always, pictures will be available in the gallery.
Oh hey, did anyone notice that the pictures in the "My Room" gallery are screwed up. I'll try to get that fixed sometime soon.