1. I went to China - Yunnan Province - to visit the mining and metals operations of a Chinese client of ours - lead/zinc mines, smelters & refineries, as well as an aluminium refinery. So good they are scary.

2. I do not speak Mandarin, or putonghua as they call it. I have nice people who do holding my hand.

3. They are about 1.65-1.75 metres tall. I am 1.85 metres tall, so I normally beat them by four to eight inches

But the height thinggy is not good when they design for people under 1.70 metres tall. It is not good walking along a mine tunnel with a live bare electric cable at 1.80 metres next to your ear - they run trolley locomotives that have a thinggy sticking up to the wire to get the power.

Please translate. I do not speak metric.

Stunning place. Where I was it was about 8,500' up with scenery very similar to the northern hilly bits of the Austrian Alps between Vienna and Salzburg.

We have big hills here, too. Foothills of Harz mountains, in fact. Which was why I was very embarrassed on one Ego-deflating question

Food is another matter. I had stir-fried grass root. My Chinese hosts ate 99.99% of that dish

Also, as I get older, I get less tolerant of not being with people for whom English is not the language they think in. It was fine when I was your age, but now......a week is all I can handle. I imagine you have the same issue in Jena

Well, not really. At least they think in some Germanic tongue. They even have a few of the same sayings (modified for German, of course). Besides, I am trying to learn German. You are not trying to learn Mandarin Chinese.

As far as getting around in Jena, I must say, I don't really care what people think anymore. In fact, I've been tempted to do things like stand in the town sqare with a poster saying "Bush is my Hero" just to get a reaction

This semester is really so much better, though. I think because I don't have the inhibitions of last semester. I'm not worried about what people think. I also have classes with real germans, so I'm getting to know the natives as well as other Europeans.

I even went home with a French girl one last Wed night after, uhh...losing my ability to speak German and/or find my way home




Aviendha
Excalibur's Mississippian
Druid's cute, dutiful, if pert, niece