Allez!

Guess what I did today? FENCING! I almost missed it! By chance I called one of the officers an hour before practice began to find out the day of the first practice. Oh, 7:30!

Everyone seemed surprised to find me there. They wondered how I'd learned about the club and how I'd understood their flyers. I guess they'd forgotten I'd signed up at their table during club fair and asked them to translate the flyer.

Practice took place in the Jackie Chan gymnasium in table tennis room #2. There are fewer members than at St. Mary's, maybe 20 people total, so we all fit comfortably. And they have racks to hang up their jackets and lames and never have to worry about finding practice space and they spray their jackets and plastrons with Febreeze-type stuff at the end of practice so it all smells fresh and clean clean. At some point I might miss the familiar cramped and smelly feeling of the St. Mary's fencing equipment closet, but not now.

We began with warm-ups. So many of them were familiar, which surprised me because I hadn't seen any of them since joining fencing. Maybe I was just out of the general warm-up exercises loop. Actually, we went around in a circle choosing the exercise (I was unaware this was happening until it was my turn) and I had trouble thinking of one because we'd done them all! Except the calf stretch I remembered just in time.

The club leaders seemed so concerned I'd feel bored; they couldn't understand how completely fascinating and exciting it all was for me. For one, I finally found myself surrounded my local students. I always think I'm meeting locals, but nearly all turn out to be Mainland exchange students. This happened twice today! I couldn't believe it! First in the lift, and later in International Trade.
The locals seem to be in hiding.

Anyway, I also couldn't be bored when surrounded by such welcoming people. Helpful, friendly, smiling, curious good people. I love them already. They remind me of St. Mary's fencers. And that's a high compliment.

Of course, there is a language barrier. Some of the leaders claim to not speak very good English at all. Actually, I can understand their English pronounciation without a problem--it's their more limited vocabularies that make communication more difficult. Plus fencing is filled with words not learned in most classrooms, like "lunge," "disengage," "feint," "parry," "plastron." I enjoyed figuring out the concepts they were expressing and then teaching them the English. I just hope they don't secretly find me a horrible nuisance. I don't think so, though, unless they're all superb actors who belong in the drama society.

Also, I learned more Cantonese. Namely, that the automated voice that speaks every time we swipe our I.D. cards to enter the hostel says, "Please enter."

And! They use the same French words we do! En garde! Allez!

Today was also wonderful because:

• I found group members for the group paper (ick) in International Trade class. They appear reliable and hard-working, etc. so I'm not going to worry as much about this paper as I was before
• I managed to cook microwavable dumplings with only minor amounts of over-flowed water and minimal pain from hot steam
• I failed completely at ordering a plain bowl of rice from the canteen. The cashier thought I wanted a tuna fish sandwich.
• I learned lots in Mandarin class
  

I love Mandarin class. Here, I'll tell you the story about the Mid-Autumn Festival (this weekend!) I hope I haven't already told you this story, because one of my friends did already tell it to me, but not as clearly as my professor.

Once, long ago, there were ten suns in the sky. And one day all of the suns came out at once and started burning the Earth. But a very good archer came along and shot down nine of the suns and everyone was so thankful and he became the ruler of the land. But he turned out to be a very cruel ruler. Worse, he wanted to be immortal so he had someone (I forget exactly who) make him a potion. His wife feared for the people, so she drank the potion instead and flew to the moon. And there she remained, and remains still.

I also learned how to say "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival" and "mooncake." I've been seeing mooncakes everywhere, but our professor said after the festival you won't see them anywhere. She also said she would bring some to class next week, since she forgot today.

And we began learning characters! I suppose I'm glad we're learning the simplified Chinese (it's taken me forever just to remember "hello"), but the elaborate traditional characters are a thousand times more beautiful.