Sanya and Miscellany

I got back from Sanya at about 3am Saturday night. In true Chinese fashion, my plane was delayed both ways. Sanya was pretty fun. It definitely had the most picturesque beaches and I really enjoyed lazily swimming and lying around. By Saturday I was pretty exhausted - essentially every part of the trip was done in Chinese (tour guides, my bosses, activity leaders, and friends all spoke in Chinese). While it was certainly good for me (and while there was some English), I was done with wanting to hear/speak Chinese until Monday.

On Friday night, there was an office-wide banquet with a prize-drawing. Awkwardly, I - the unpaid, newly arrived intern - won the top prize of RMB 2000, about 200-300 dollars. When I went upstage to collect my prize, one of the firm's principal partners said in Chinese, "He has been studying Chinese, so I won't give him the prize unless he gives a speech in Chinese first." The thought of speaking in front of 100 colleagues I had just met in a language in which I am hardly literate was a little daunting. I ended up jokingly saying in Chinese, "Hi my name is 周洪恩 (my Chinese name) and I'm an unpaid intern here." Luckily people laughed, and the rest of whatever I said went by quickly.

I celebrated the mid-autumn festival with my neighbors and their family. We went to a nearby restaurant and had moon cakes. That went pretty well, except that my neighbor has taken up the habit of telling people (or just telling me) that I use chopsticks terribly and then insisting on putting food on my plate herself. Now, while I may not have the skills of a native Chinese person, I'm pretty sure I can at least feed myself. Oh well, I guess I need to practice more.

At work, I'm getting more and more things handed my way. I feel like I'm slowly getting a sense of some of the basic players in Chinese corporate law (the important agencies and regulations). That's probably pretty silly to say, but - at the very least - I don't feel as clueless as I used to when I'm handed an assignment. I had to buy some more clothes for work; as usual - and as my neighbor was happy to point out - I paid too much for them. That'll happen.

I bought a Chinese movie to try to improve my listening comprehension. I just asked a street vendor to pick me out their favorite movie. It was corny and girly, but fun to watch. I asked my neighbor's brother for a movie recommendation, and he gave me the name of an action movie. I'll try to find it the next time I walk by a DVD stall.