"La douzi" literally means spicy stomach. (ooop-sies did I say too much?) Truth be told, thus is the fate of a foreigner in a country of Sichuan cooking and no mango lassi/lasey to wash away the burn. Even our Northern Chinese used-to-spicy driver for the day was buckets of sweat and teary-eyed, sucking in short breaths of air to cool the heat.
I was treated to a dinner of this glorious fish dish by a friend of our boss's who we're helping conduct a study at 43 branches of the China Mingsheng Bank, testing the English proficiency of their staff in preparation for the Olympics and the many foreigners they will likely be serving. Three of us interns went today and were treated to lunch and dinner as a thank you for our native English skills - sweet deal huh? We were required to go into each bank and ask a few scripted questions to the tellers and assistant manager to see if they were able to understand and come up with a comprehensible answer, only using English. There were some awkward encounters and without meaning, we certainly left many a teller flustered and more nervous than any bank teller should be. Interesting how we got involved in this whole study. Vera, the girl in charge of her foreign participants, is friend of our boss, Brent. She got in touch with him and found out he had few english-speaking volunteers on board at China Care and thought to take advantage. It was a relaxing way for us to see many parts of Beijing. We're finding out more about Vera's connections to numerous social circles in the city. Turns out she wrote about Josh's old band last summer for The Beijinger, partly a music review magazine... small world, non?
A lot is changing here at China Care, and we've only been here 2 weeks. It's odd finally getting settled into a place and then having everything switch around so suddenly. The move to the new house that we'd been fixing up happened this weekend so the babies and toddlers are now a 10-minute drive away rather than a 2-minute walk away. Since we were out doing the banking study today, we've yet to figure out how our new schedule is going to work itself out. John Speed and I are thinking of getting bikes to get to the new place on our own rather than waiting for a ride each time. Biking in Beijing is one of the most wonderful things because you get that much closer to being authentically Chinese... haha. Maybe so.
Callie, Ysabelle, our 4th roommate and I must also move 2 floors down to a new apartment. The reason why escapes me now but it's a valid one and I know it's gotta hppen within about 2 days time.
I'm exhausted but need to write more about the weekend. Now's bed time though so a la prochaine.
much love,
lb.
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Hi, Lauren. My name is Donna and I'm a friend of your Uncle Steve's in Louisiana. My husband and I are in the process of adopting an orphan from China and, of course, I find your blog very interesting! Our dossier is at the CCAA and just made it through the review process. So, now we are on a long waiting list. Our dossier was logged in February, 2007. The adoption wait time is up to 30 months, so we still have a long wait. Anyway, just wanted to say "Hi" and to let you know there are those of us out here just waiting for one of those blessed little ones. We already have two biological children, but adoption has been in our hearts for many years. I'm just sorry we waited so long!
Later,
DD
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