Tripfriend: Radio Star - Part 1

We often have a new person or two at our parties. Last week was Little Fish. One of our friends has recently started doing something at a local radio station. She is, I'm assuming, a manger type person, and is involved with an English language radio show there. She got my number and asked if I could come by some time to be on the show. I said sure, not really expecting a call back about it.

Yesterday I got that call. This Saturday (tomorrow), my voice will be broadcast all over Xi'an and quite possibly all of the Shaanxi Province.

Further details will follow tomorrow.

Eight Leg-ed Fear Mongers

There's a spider in my room. I'm not afraid of spiders. In fact, I used to have a pet tarrantula. But there's something you should know about this spider. It's the first one I've seen in Xi'an. I've been here close to half a year now, and this is the first spider I've seen in the entire city. I know I arrived in the fall, but I've barely seen any other bugs for that matter. Where are they all? Are all cities like this? I'm used to the bugs of wild West Virginia, swarms of ladybugs in particular. Here in Xi'an, the biggest bug I've seen wasn't even as big as my thumbnail.

I put the spider in my room to help fight off any other bugs that might wander in and bother my plants. He's been in here a couple days now and I jsut saw him again. I like to think that we've come to an unspoken agreement of, "he doesn't bite me in my sleep, and I don't squish him to a pulp."

Silverwear Scrutiny

Occasionally, when eating with Chinese friends, I will watch how they hold their chopsticks. I've never had problems handling my sticks, but I still like watching to try and immitate how they use them. I've noticed that some people hold theirs a bit differently, but they all work about the same.

I was at one of my Chinese lessons at Roast King (Pretend Mcdonalds and KFC had a baby) when I noticed that two people nearby were watching how I held the spoon for my ice cream. They were too busy looking at my hands to notice that I new they were watching, so I just kept eating. And watching. Sometimes they would try holding it differently, and then switch back to holding it like I was.

All of my Chinese friends have western forks and spoons and whatnot, but I guess there are still some people here who see them the same way most foreigners view chopsticks.