葛先生

I got called 葛先生 for the first time today. 葛 (Ge The e is pronounced like you got punched in the stomach. Like in father.) is my last name, and the other two characters just mean mister. So I got called mister Ge for the first time today. Needless to say, I was excited about it. I had called the Taiwanese Wilderness Society to try to get in touch with Mr. Xie on Monday, but he was out of the office. I called on Tuesday but he was in a meeting, so I called back after 5:00, but he was still in the meeting, so I left my Chinese name, and number. Today they still hadn't called me back, so I called again today. After I asked again to speak with Mr. Xie, the woman I had been talking to asked if I was 葛先生, and I said I was. She said something which I didn't understand completely, but I think meant that he was out of the office a lot. Dr. Wu (the professor I met in Taichung) had given them my English name when he recommended me, so I wasn't sure if they knew that 葛先生 and Jasper were the same person, so I told the secretary my English name, told her I wanted to do some volunteering, and asked if there was any other way I could get in touch with Mr. Xie. She asked me to leave my number and she would get back to me, then we hung up. A few minutes later, she called back and asked if I could come by on Saturday afternoon, at 1:00. So now I've got an appointment, and I'll just have to wait and see what happens then.

I went to pay the rent today. I had gone to the bank yesterday to transfer money, but they close at 3:00, which I didn't expect so I came later, and didn't get in. Anyway, I went today, right after class got out, and got helped pretty quickly. I only brought the piece of paper the landlady had given me. It had the account number and bank, but not the branch number of that bank, and so the teller had to call in the teller next to her for backup. The were talking in Chinese and the backup teller asked the other one what information I had brought. The backup teller recognized me from previous visits, and the next thing I knew my Chinese ability was (briefly) the subject of their conversation. The main teller helping me said that I didn't understand very much. Which was ironic because I understood what she said? I think the other teller knew I could at least understand that because she didn't agree to heartily. I sat quietly while they continued talking, knowing that this only further contributed to her belief that I didn't understand a whole lot. It was an interesting situation to be in, but I'm sure calling her out wouldn't have been the right solution. The two tellers did get everything sorted out, and I payed my second months rent.


In Moscow, I had to ride the bus to get to my Chinese class. It was usually the same driver, and after a while I started to say hey to him when I got on and off the bus. After a while I looked at his name tag, and found out his name was Patrick, so I began to attach a whole personality to him, based on the fact that he drove a bus and his name was Patrick. Once I saw him at the Co-op buying food, and that opened up whole new realms of his personality. All of this is important because now I have a new person who I start becoming friends with on the most vague sort of level. I see him almost every morning. He stands in an alley, next to a car elevator, and if a car needs to get out, he stops traffic for it. When I bike past there are usually no cars coming out, or traffic to stop if there were, so he just stands there waiting, holding his baton with both hands behind his back, and keeping a vigilant eye on the alley. I started to say hey to him a few mornings ago. The first time I caught him off guard but he managed a small smile and a nod. I got a little worried cause he was gone for couple of days, but he was back this morning, and he was ready. I said good morning, and he went for the full smile and nod and say good morning combo. It made me absurdly happy, and I laughed to myself all the rest of the way to school. Now I can start to attach a mostly meaningless personality of trivialities, which are, almost certainly, all wrong. I'm pretty stoked off the opportunity.



My bike had picked up a creak, and I lived with it for a while, but it was getting out of hand, so I took it back to the same place I bought it, to see if they would fix it. The guy recognized me right away, which I was impressed about, because it had been a few weeks since I'd been here, and I'd gotten a haircut in the interim, but nonetheless he seemed glad to see me. I don't know the word for creak, but I managed to get my point across and the fixed it without a problem. He also straightend the basket and handlebars. It is probably a good thing that he got the handlebars straightened out, but it felt really weird after riding with them crooked for so long. Hopefully my left knee won't hit the handlebars so easily anymore.