myretroperspective

This guy guards our grocery store. Not soon after getting to Shenyang we heard about the 9 nines of the Chinese agriculture calendar that describe the progression of the Chinese* winter. Basically starting with the winter solstice (December 22, 2012 this winter) you count 9 days out and winter melts into spring. There's even a clever nursery rhyme about it that goes something like this: 一九二九不出手 yi jiu, er jiu, bu chu shou;  First 9 days, second 9 days, don't take your hands out of your pockets; 三九四九冰上走 san jiu, si jiu, bing shang zou  Third 9 days, fourth 9 days, walk out on the ice; 数五九笑井口 shu wu jiu, xiao jing kou Count the fifth 9 days, start to smile; 春打六九头 沿河看重枊 chun da liu jiu tou, yan he kan zhong ang Spring starts in the sixth 9 days, pay close attention to the willow trees along the river;   七九冻河开 qi jiu dong he kai Seventh 9 days, the frozen river melts; 八九雁儿来 ba jiu yan er lai Eighth 9 days, the wild geese come home; 九九又一九 耕牛遍地走  jiu jiu you yi jiu, geng n...

Ok, that might be a bit of a stretch, but let me explain. I started Chinese tutoring this week. The consulate (is awesome and) sponsors a program for both it's employees AND THEIR SPOUSES to study mandarin for free! (note- not all consulates/embassies do this) So Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have this cute (in a cartoon-type of way) 25-year old (? guessing other ethnicities' ages is so much more difficult, isn't it?) ring my doorbell and take me through Chinese lessons for an hour and a half. Before our first tutoring sesh I was asked to complete a brief questionnaire about my language ability. I didn't want to overstate my skill level, but I may have inadvertently understated it quite a bit. I explained that I studied for 3 years while living in Asia, but I guess that can mean a lot of different things for different people. I was pretty up front about my biggest challenges being my self-confidence and just straight up remembering what I learned 2.5-5.5 years ago....

photo complements of a friend from my frist year in Asia Many friends have asked with kind concern over the stresses on our marriage during this time of transition.  Heck, I've wondered myself about how we will weather moving our life literally around the world every few years as a part of this lifestyle.  R and I make a pretty good team and while tensions have risen at points in recent months, with so much of our life being in flux, we remain committed to understanding one another. We also always seem to balance each other out- when one is discouraged the other can find something to cheer them up. While this whole foreign service thing is quite the test, my (re)learning mandarin might be the ultimate test of constancy.  You see, I am painfully insecure about my mandarin. This insecurity slowly developed as I was dating R the second half of my time in Asia. I was competent and able to relate on the heart level with friends in chinese, but whenever I was with R I let him o...