Some midweek observations

I just finished correcting the English in a 165-page Powerpoint presentation here at work, so I thought I'd jot down some of the observations I've made so far this week:

The smog varies hugely from day to day. On Monday, my friend Suzy and I looked out the window by my desk and pointed out the "Dragon" hotel, the one from my pictures that's right next to the Bird's Nest. Right now, I'm looking out the same window and can't even see its outline, despite the blue skies overhead.

Pizza is the safest western food here. Burgers are not.

Yesterday we tried to explain the Super Bowl to some Chinese students, and just when we thought they understood, they all revealed that they thought we were talking about rugby.

This morning, however, Suzy and I saw an ad for the Super Bowl on one of the tv screens in the subway.

We're not proud of it and we certainly don't mean to encourage it, but a very useful development has taken place; we're calling it 'The White Card.' In many places, including the campus gates and the entryway to our building, students are supposed to show ID. Our Asian-American students, when alone, are routinely asked to show ID, and sometimes run into problems if they don't have the bulky, passport-like student cards with them. We white kids, however, have never been asked. Sometimes, the Asian-American kids in our program, even if we don't know them that well, will ask to walk into campus with us so they can be with someone who can "play the white card," because Asian companions of white kids usually aren't asked either.

'The White Card' can go both ways, however. Sometimes, a cab will pull over to pick us up, see who we are, and then zoom off.

The work-day dress code is impossible to figure out. Most of the student interns continue to dress nicely, 'business-casual,' but bosses, on any given day, are varying from sports coats and dress shirts to jeans and plaid button-downs.

My chopsticks skills are slowly improving.

Tomorrow night, as the last hurrah of Michael's birthday celebration, we are going out for Peking Duck at one of the city's most famous restaurants. I'll report back on whether it's worth all the hoopla.