In which I inadvertantly attempt to charge some deaf children to be friends

I was on the bus Saturday, and noticed two deaf kids speaking excitedly about me. After about ten minutes, one of them, a boy about 10 years old, finally approached me with a piece of paper on which he'd written, asking for my QQ id.  

QQ is a facebook/im/internet-y program popular in China, and famous out of China for being spamy and invasive. The only foreigners with QQ accounts (in Yancheng) are single guys interested in sleeping with local girls.


So I'm standing there awkwardly, trying hard to remember a character to communicate "don't have," when the other kid, a teenage girl, comes over all flustered and takes the paper away from me, signing very agitatedly at the boy before dragging him back to their seats. She was clearly mortified, and I felt really bad: I remember being a teenage girl and getting embarrassed over dumb things that aren't actually a big deal.

At that point I thought I remembered the appropriate character, 无, and wanting to ease the situation, I went up to the boy and motioned for him to give me the paper back. But then, instead of 无, I ended up writing this: 元. 元 is the equivalent of $, meaning money! I was like, 'oh my god, no! not that!' and scribbled it out, but I'm pretty sure the damage had been done. At that exact moment it was my stop, so I just up and abandoned the entire situation...

"Chinese Reopen Debate Over Chairman Mao's Legacy"

NPR put up this excellent piece about the state of Mao's symbolism in modern China: Chinese Reopen Debate Over Chairman Mao's Legacy. You can listen to or read the article.

Nanjing Sign Roundup & Adventures in Chinglish

It's mine! All mine!! Mwahahahahahahaha!

You'll have to enlarge this one. [Gram, click the photo, then when it opens, click it again.] 

My fav: "No frolicking." 

lonely coffee

"No rubber solutions allowed." Say what?

There's one more, but it's a little risqué and my gram sometimes reads this, so it's after the jump. I think the photo is SFW, but the commentary might not be?

Miscellaneous in Nanjing

 Two weeks ago, I went to Nanjing with Scott and Tiffany. It was a business trip, so I didn't come back with a profusion of photos, but there were a few good ones. Today, stuff; tomorrow, signs.

rolling in purple lamé

 fugly Santa-thing in a taxi

Toast!!!

Scott hates having his photo taken, even though I have some really good photos of him. He says he feels like an exploited third-world country when I take photos, and I'm the developed country, bringing my modern technology and philosophies and all, telling him to take it and like it :)

Just Say No to durians!

Nancy Reagan hosts the First Ladies Conference on Durian Awareness at the White House, 1985. The conference was concluded prematurely as the smell of the subject matter became too overwhelming for the attendees.

I kid, I kid. You should definitely try durian if you have the chance, and experience the yuckiness for yourself.

The price dropped significantly, so I finally bought a piece of durian.

Here it is, ready to have the seed removed, and looking sooo delectable:

The thing about the durian is, people say its flavor is hard to describe. But the minute I took a bite, I knew exactly what it tastes like. Papaya soaked in onions, with a hint of garlic. Exactly like that. It was pretty darned gross, although I can kind of see it being worked into some sort of a savory dish. Maybe.
I even froze it, because I heard that made the flavor milder or better or not repugnant or something, but it was still just as gross.