To Covet the Gift of Tongues

Ahhhh... to covet the Gift of Tongues!

I started Cantonese lessons this past week with a new friend in Sha Tin named Cheryl. She is very patient with me, especially because we do not make the nasally "ng" sound at the beginning of words, and it is crucial for being able to say "me" (gnoi). I think it is the number four (and am probably wrong) that is pronounced (say) with a softer tone. However, I pronounced it a bit too loud, and it meant "Die!". So now I know how to tell someone to go die.

Cheryl is also refreshing me in Putonghua (Mandarin), which, though it only has five fewer tones than Cantonese, it's a bit more difficult for me because the sounds are harsher. (I won't make the same mistake I made in college when I told my Chinese tutor in practice that I wanted to take out the garbage, and accidentally told him that I wanted to make out!! Tones.are.significant!)

As I got off at the Sha Tin MTR (MTR is the train system) station to meet Cheryl, it lets out into the New Town Plaza mall, which is GORGEOUS! However, I was quickly overwhelmed with people. For any of you who have been to the Galleria in Houston, you take the amount of people in that mall on Black Friday, shrink it down to a mall about a third that size (which is actually much, much nicer, and cleaner and efficient with excellent stores), and you have a good idea of the number of people I was dealing with. And the interesting thing is that it is not loud. Though there are incredible crowds, people aren't talking loud like Americans, they are doing their own thing, quietly, and crowds move fluidly and efficiently, like a clean river with no idle blocks.
   I finally made it out and decided to spend an hour sitting on a giant set of stairs outside the library instead of shopping around after my head had started to spin with the people and after 10 hours at the school, I was kind of wiped out. But it was nice to sit and watch people, which is one of my favorite things to do.

Two Sundays ago, we had a fun gathering the apartment of a friend from church. After eating (and I made the san choi, which is like bok choi... basically boiled lettuce/cabbage with some salt and oil and it is delicious!), they brought out a couple guitars and a couple ukuleles and we sang some songs. My friend's mom and dad sat down just like the parents Von Trapp and we sang Edelweiss!! (probably one of my favorite songs). The spirit really is in the homes of good people, and I felt that I was with family.