my most recent discovery is that Chinese friends are awesome. Somehow, after living in Beijing for significant amounts of time twice before, I never really spent much time socializing with Chinese people. but lately, mostly through work-related activity, i've come to know some, and they can really be a lot of fun. my first new friend is named Dan-Dan, and she's my coworker at BOB. her english is really good because she spent a year living in Amsterdam, an experience that also I think opened her horizons and made her someone that I could actually be on the same level with. That isn't meant to sound insulting, but most Chinese people are really sheltered, and they always end up seeming younger than they are, so that generally talking to someone around 22 would feel like talking to a high school student. so Dan-Dan's english is good, but that doesn't mean that i won't be able to improve my chinese by being friends with her. i think its really important that a Chinese person speaks english in order to become actual friends with them, and then as you feel more comfortable with them you can speak more and more chinese. and its nice to be able to be like "what??" when i don't understand something, rather than just nod and feel confused the way i do with people who don't speak english. anyway, dan-dan works in my office so we go to lunch together and take the bus home in the evening. also, since my boss will be away for a week after I get back from India, we'll probably do a bunch of chilling in the office.
my second friend is the girl i tutor, Jenni. It's funny because i always call jenni a girl, but actually i think she's 37. but she is just the cutest person i've ever met. she's like five feet tall, and her english has reached the point where she can communicate anything, but it always comes out a little off. for instance she sent me a text recently after a ski trip she went on, all in caps because she's not used to texting english, that said "TEACHER- DUE TO TOO TIRED I WOULD LIKE TO CANCEL THIS WEEK CLASS" and basically she's just really sweet and scatterbrained. so after class yesterday she invited me to play badminton with her friends. She actually invites me every week, but this was the first time i didn't have a deathly hangover. so i went, and it was sooo much fun. i haven't played badminton since sophomore year in college (when i played on the varsity team despite lacking any talent at the sport), and its just a really fun game. i got to meet a lot of really nice taiwanese people who, again, are maybe more worldly than the mainland chinese. they also speak english pretty well, which is nice, and one guy even grew up in Queens and went to SUNY Buffalo. and after the game we all went out to eat, which was fun because i got to eat what chinese people order (though the taiwanese go a little heavy on the fish) and hang out with a cool group. they have a really great rapport with each other, and are also really friendly and willing to work english into the conversation or explain a joke. and after the meal, they did secret santa. some people had brought extra gifts, so i even got one. the first person would pick a name out of a hat and then take that person's gift, then they would have to do a performance or song for everyone, and then whoever's gift had just been given would come up and do the same. for my turn, i sang the "dreidl" song, spreading the joy of jewishness throughout the world. i got two cute coffee mugs with spoons. anyway it was a really nice time, and i'm glad that i'm starting to get to know people from this crazy country (debatable whether taiwanese are from this country).