Greetings from Beer Town, China!

From an email sent to friends and family, dated October 11, 2006, less than two months after my arrival in China.

I just got back from an exhilarating trip to Qingdao (which was spelled Tsingtao in an older transliteration system, and that spelling stuck for the beer.) I had a week off for the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Holidays. I think that traveling alone is the absolute best way to pick up a language. With few English speakers around, I had to strike up conversations in Chinese, at a level that surprised and impressed the locals (and myself.)

Now, when people ask me, "Do you like Bush?" I understand the question, and can respond, "No, I don't like Bush." I don't quite have the vocabulary to give a good reason, but it is a start. It is somewhat of a relief to be in a country where people are not accustomed to asking "why." More commonly I get asked, "Do you like China?" and "Do you like basketball?" And those are much easier to answer with gestures and a limited vocabulary.

One of my most often-repeated sentences was "Ni shi wo de zhongwen laoshi" (You are my Chinese teacher) even to small children. Everyone laughed when I said this, but I truly believe it. I had half of Shandong province teaching me vocabulary and applauding my Chinese.

With one of my many Chinese teachers, on a trip I took to a coastal landmark called Chengshantou with a Chinese tour group. I couldn't understand the guide's endless descriptions, which she said through a megaphone, but I did understand her when she spoke directly to me, since she asked very simple questions.

Qingdao is a charming and prosperous city, with some German architecture from when Germany colonized the area. The beaches were misty, and sometimes crowded, sometimes pristine. I strolled with a French friend I met in the hostel and we saw seriously 200 couples on the beach, in ill-fitting, rented white dresses and suits, taking cheezy wedding pictures with half-smiles and unnatural poses.

"You may kiss the bride!" Never mind that these photos are often taken several months before the real wedding, and printed as life-sized posters for the entrance to the wedding venue.

Couples waiting for their moment in the spotlight. The Mid-Autumn Festival is supposedly the luckiest time of year to get married, and everyone has the week off.