My workload has been pretty heavy - 40 to 50 new characters to memorize every day. Every character takes me a little closer to Mandarin fluency though, so I can't complain.
Last weekend my program organized an outing to ge gong, the "Forbidden City." We walked through Tian...men Square on the way there. Just as I imagined it - dreary, dull, and closed circuit televised. Security guards with dark sunglasses slouch at regular intervals, and every few minutes a small bevy of slender soldiers march through the square for no apparent reason.
There is hardly any decoration on the ground, just a rectangle pattern repeated forever in two dimensions, like a lonely checkerboard with only one team. Still, it's a square filled with history, and China takes care of it. Here, women are painstakingly scraping gum and dirt off of the cement with chisels.
As we approached ge gong, my mood lightened as I mingled with countless, color-coded Chinese tour groups, mostly kids, all laughing and posing in front of Mao's picture, which is said to be untarnished be the elements since it's creation.
2 comments:
I would feel pretty unimportant if I were in China. So many people!
I did not see a single white person in that picture lol. Anyway it must have been fun now around the Olympics eh? I think Mao's picture is a replicate since the old one got burned down or something. There's the White House equivalent for ya! Go Peter!
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