For those of you that I doubt I actually have a job here, I now present photographic evidence of me teaching. Or at least talking with some of my students before class. Notice the way they soak up knowledge like sponges! But the reason I can provide you with such delights is that my friend Dina visited me from Beijing. She goes to school at the U of M, and we met at China Place, but she is back for the summer. She is masochistic (she road the train for over 50 hours round trip), her Chinese has a vampire accent (also known as standard Mandarin), and she thinks Hotpot is not spicy enough (Chongqing got to her anyway!), but it was an excellent visit. The added bonus is that my students now have new gossip to pass amongst themselves, so everyone is happy.
It was somewhat disconcerting to have a hard time understanding her (standard) Mandarin, but we got through that. By establishing that China is a democratic country (check the constitution), and that Chongqing is more populous than Beijing we agreed to vote to change Chongqing dialect to the international standard! Easy as pie.
