L. went to teach classes for her first day of work. I stayed home to clean hangers and wash dishes, while watching NBA game highlights. There don't seem to get a lot of live NBA games, instead just broadcasting possession-by-possession clips.
M. the computer guy, came by with a colleague to install DSL broadband - which didn't take. M. and I talked a bit about his work and school. He graduated from a university in Guilin, which is his hometown, and he's been in GZ only 3 months to do his job. When we initially met M, he seemed standoffish, but he's turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He watched NBA basketball with us, while his colleague was trying to install the broadband connection. L. was yelling enthusiastically at the game as usual....she’s more of a fan than anyone I've ever known (so cool :-). M's favorite team is the Minnesota Timberwolves and his fave player is Kevin Garnett. He taught us how to say some of the players' names in Chinese (Michael Jordan's last name sounds like "fried egg" --- "chao dan". He seems impressed that I once worked for Microsoft. He thinks I could get a job easily here and pointed me to some local websites. If only I could read Chinese. He'd like to get better at his English, he says, if he had more money.
L.'s classes (she had three today) are made up mostly of women. One class has only 2 men out of 30-40 students. If the one-child policy and families' desire to have boys over girls has indeed created a shortage of women that the news reports, it sure ain't obvious here at XM (the name of our campus)!
Still cold, still dreary, still overcast. No end in sight, it seems. :-P
