My company has decided that there’s too much work here for me to handle on my own, so they’ve asked me to find a second. Another person that can do my job. Only problem is, since I am quite busy, I don’t have a lot of time to look for someone. I just got back from Dezhou. Tomorrow I go to Fuzhou for 3 days. When I get back the next day I’ll go to Wuxi for 5 days. Then …
28
Jun
2004
2004
德州电话
前不久我出差到山东德州去了。因为我是此行同事中唯一的男士，所以我一个人住了一个房间。星期五晚上11点多的时候有电话：
[我:] 喂？ [她:] 您好，打扰一下。您需要小姐为您服务吗？ [我:] 不需要。 [她:] 打扰了。
我听说过中国宾馆有这样的服务，但这是我第一次亲自接这样的电话。
星期六晚上10点多又来了这个电话。对话也是一模一样的。令我惊讶的是星期六晚上11点多她又打电话给我了！难道她以为过了一个小时我会寂寞起来而改变主意吗？…
28
Jun
2004
2004
Impressions of Dezhou
This past weekend I went on a business trip to Dezhou, a city in northern Shandong province. It’s funny — before heading off to Dezhou, any person I told I was heading to Dezhou had one of three reactions:
- Had never heard of it. (Not surprising, really.)
- “Texas??” (The American state of Texas is Dekesasi-zhou in Chinese, and often abbreviated to De-zhou.)
- “Paji!” (That’s the name of Dezhou’s one claim to (relative) fame: a chicken dish called paji …
23
Jun
2004
2004
To Stay
This last time that I went home for a visit was a special one. Not because of who I saw or what I did, but because of the message I bore with me that time. It was a message that was a long time in the making, slowly gaining substance and taking on a concrete form. It was a message that had to be shared with my family, and I wanted it to be done in person.
In the very …
21
Jun
2004
2004
Field Chickens and Bleached Buns
I had lunch with some clients today. One of my co-workers, a teacher for my company, was there with me. She’s a Dongbei-ren recently arrived in Shanghai, so she’s still not used to the south in many ways.
One of the dishes we ate was called tianji, which literally translates as something like “field chicken” (“field” in the sense of “rice paddy” here). I had forgotten what this dish really is, so I was kinda glad when she asked, …
20
Jun
2004
2004
Gui Lian
We say, “make a face.” The Chinese say, “make a ¹íÁ³.” Gui lian is kinda hard to translate literally because ¹í can mean “ghost” or “demon” or a bunch of other things. Á³ means “face.” In this case there’s no trouble understanding, though. Below are some of my students’ gui lian. (click on the image for a gallery of cute kids)
There, now some people might momentarily stop nagging for more pictures (you know who you are). I …
19
Jun
2004
2004
China has had its Share of Hard Times
Normally I’d link instead of copying a whole post, but this comes from a blocked site, and we all know how annoying that is. So, with my apologies to Harry, I’ll rape the entire post from Chase me ladies, I’m in the cavalry 
. Not sure where he got the info.
The worst flood in history: China, 1931; 3.7 million dead. The second worst flood in history: China, 1887; 900,000 dead. The worst earthquake of the 20th century…
19
Jun
2004
2004
我最喜欢的书
我最喜欢的书是日本作家村上春树的《世界末日与冷酷仙境》。我知道很多中国人都看过《挪威的森林》但好像没人听说过《世界末日与冷酷仙境》。你听说过吗？在中国大陆有的卖吗？…
18
Jun
2004
2004
New Host
Sinosplice is now on a new server. I took long-time commenter Pketh‘s suggestion and went with Surpass Hosting. Thanks Pketh, their hosting package is really incredible. I hope the speed will be comparable to my last host’s, but even if it’s a little slower, I’m still getting way more space and other features for less money.
It seems like the DNS entries have just about finished switching over, but I think my e-mails are being delayed. If you …
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