Accents, language

Very few people in China ever guessed that my cousins, sister and I were Canadian based on our accents in Chinese and in English. Some of our tour guides, knowing that an English-language guide had been requested, assumed we were American. The concierge at our hotel in Beijing was surprised that my cousins Lisa could not speak Mandarin even though she's Chinese. A change room attendant in Huizhou complimented my sister on her Mandarin. My cousin asked us what the difference was between Canadian and American accents. In Hong Kong, where English is more prevalent, people often guessed or assumed that we were from Singapore or Malaysia because we would mix our Cantonese and English when talking to each other. The only people who knew that we were Canadian based on our accent was an Austrailian couple who shared a cable car with us at the Big Buddha in Hong Kong. When I asked why they didn't guess American, the guy said that he knew right away, that he could tell. I'll admit that while Austrailian was my first guess for their accent, I stopped to wonder whether they were from New Zealand.

There were also times when Chinese accents got the best of my parents, especially in more rural regions where the accents are thicker. We also struggled with Chinese-accented English, which can be difficult to work around. When one of our tour guides talked to us about our itinerary one day, my cousin Lisa kept wondering what was so special about this "iron pot" that we were going to see before leaving. It turns out the guide was trying to say "airport".

morning reports

It used to be that half the conversations amongst our group was about
bathrooms, specifically whether they were squat toilets at a
particular location and if so, what condition they were in (clean or
not, flush or not, hot water, soap, toilet paper). In the last few
days conversation at breakfast has shifted to health reports. Since
arriving in Guangzhou, group members have been felled by various
ailments, mostly stomach related. Every morning there are questions
about how someone is doing and often new reports of how someone else
has fallen ill. Offers of medication are made and taken up (or not).
Apparently the Chinese go to the hospital for anything, so one person
(not Canadian) has already had one IV drip and might have another
today. To be fair, he also seems to be in pretty bad shape. The
health conversations then often shift to why people are getting sick
(the snake dinner we had the other night, travel stress, not getting
enough sleep, the heat here, where the temperature has risen as high
as 36C).

When we first arrived in China, my uncle gave each of the four
younger travellers (me, my sister, my two cousins) a journal to
chronicle the trip—what we saw and did. I don't think this is what he
had in mind.

Once more, with the testing

A question from Anna over MSN resulted in a lengthy, tangential
exploration of how to access social media from a country that
restricts internet access to certain social media websites. All I can
say is, I hope I still have e-mail access when I get there.

Pages written tonight: 1
Total pages: 14.5

This is a test

My sister and I are planning on blogging our upcoming family trip to
China. In case there are issues accessing Blogger, I'm testing to see
whether the Mail-to-Blog feature works, especially with photos.

A timeline

Fri., July 31: I decide to move

Tues., Aug. 4: I find an apartment I like and I take it. One of the advantages is that it is empty and I can move in earlier.

Mon., Aug. 10: Houseguests: My sister and my friend Jeff arrive to prepare for their show in the Fringe Festival, for which Anna is the stage manager and Jeff is the playwright/producer.

Wed., Aug. 12: I move in under 2 1/2 hours thanks to many friends, a rented cube truck, and the short distance between the old and new places. One houseguests leaves in the afternoon.

Thurs., Aug. 13: Fringe fest begins

Fri., Aug. 14: Houseguest returns, with significant other. Houseguest count up to three, then back to one as newest houseguests find another futon to sleep on. They will return the next day. Apartment full of boxes.

Sun., Aug. 16: Two of three houseguests leave. Apartment still full of boxes, but not as many as before.

Fri., Aug. 21: Jeff returns, and yet another houseguest arrives. Houseguest total: three. Fewer boxes in apartment. Much use made of recycling and garbage bins in alley.

Sat. Aug. 22: IKEA! Dining table assembled. Drop leaf! Oooh!

Sun., Aug. 23: One house guest leaves. Wrap party of three.

Mon., Aug. 24: Two remaining houseguests leave. Living room seems much bigger without air mattress on floor. Wash three sets of sheets and a blanket. Resume writing dissertation chapter, realizing that overseas family trip is less than two weeks away. Consider shitting self, but then realize that there is no time for clean up.

Pages written in the last two weeks: 0.5
Pages written tonight: 2.5

Total pages: almost 14. Let's round down to 13.5 and bank the rest for tomorrow.

House Spouse

In a couple of generations, I'm hoping that we'll finally have a gender-neutral term for "housewife".

I know, I know. We already have the term "house husband". But the terms "housewife" and "house husband" carry different connotations and cultural baggage. "Housewife" implies old-fashioned and put-upon, whereas "house husband" connotes something hip, modern, and cool because of its re-orientation of gender stereotypes. Except that it of course reinforces the stereotyes, since what makes a house husband so novel is that men are still usually not the ones who stay at home and raise the kids.

So I propose that we adopt the term "house spouse". It's gender neutral and it rhymes. What else do we need?

Get on that, people.

Lapses

Yes, yes, I know.

My pace remains a steady one page produced for every one hour of work. I can't seem to make it go faster, though the internet certainly makes it go slower.

Pages written tonight: 2
Total pages: 9