Today I finally met the girls I had been emailing from the Geoexpat Website. There was 6 of us, mainly British. We sat at the Fringe Club in Soho for four hours and then browsed the shops in Central, which I guess is a luxury that people have that have maids and money but no jobs or kids. It still seems sort of strange to me. I think it is going to take me a long time to get used to not working or being in school. Hopefully I will eventually find a job or start a graduate program, but I don't plan on doing that for at least another year because Matt and I are having visitors, and I have to make trips back to the US to finish up stuff with my Dad's probate. The girls I had lunch with assured me that I would get used to it very fast, and that it would give me time to do all the things I never had time to do back home, like taking classes and travelling and stuff like that. It is true that it is nice to be able to do that, but I guess I still feel a tiny bit worthless not working on something. I have this thought in the back of my mind that if I stop working now, I will never be able to work again. Matt tells me that is ridiculous, and I guess it is. The other expats were very nice and I really had a good time with them.
Matt and I had our first Cantonese class today. It was fun being in a class with Matt, we have never been in a class together before. Our teacher, Linda, was pretty funny, almost like a stand up comic. Cantonese is a very interesting language, and it is one of the oldest. She described how some of the words came about, and why some words mean two different things when you say them with different tones. She was a very good teacher and everything seemed to make sense, but I think the tones are still going to be very difficult to master. My favorite part was that in Cantonese, they never create new words. To make new words they just string old words together to get a new meaning. For instance, instead of creating a new word for "computer" or saying the english word, they string together the words "electronic" and "brain" to mean computer. Or, instead of making a new word for "air conditioner" they say "cold air machine". The maids were just in here and when they left I said, "M goi!" and they just sort of laughed nervously...I think they had no idea I was trying say thank you! (I just realized they are probably Filipino and might only speak Tagolog. Oh well, can't blame me for trying.)
1 comment:
they still ought to know chinese too though.
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