Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Minutes

I saw Iron Man 2 today!  It was wonderful.  Jelle and I have an idea for a new movie – 90 minutes of Robert Downey Jr. reading the phonebook; you would go see it, right?  But seriously, I especially love his character.  He’s good-looking, funny, intelligent – and he can WELD.  I want you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby.  I either want to marry him, or be him. 

Interesting story: I first saw Iron Man in China.  We bought the DVD at Mob Boss’ store and watched it on my laptop.  That summer I was even more out of touch than I am this year, and had never heard of it before someone picked it out.  We watched it in English, of course, but our copy was so sketchy that random words were dubbed in Chinese.  It was barely noticeable until the very last scene.  Tony Stark was at a press conference addressed a crowd of reporters, when he finally admitted: “The truth is . . . 我是钢铁侠.”  It was hysterical. 

After the movie, I took Jelle to the secret DVD shop where I bought Iron Man 1 & 2.  I also happened upon 杀人漫画2 – the second part of the horrible movie we watched on Friday – and you know I bought that.  Can’t wait to see if we get any resolution after this one!  For dinner, I took him to the Dongbei restaurant where I introduced him to the delicious mushu pork :) 

 

While we were over on Zhongshan Lu, I bought sweet potato wedges and the lady complimented my Chinese.  She asked how long I’ve been in China (they always ask this instead of how long you’ve been studying, which is interesting, no?) and, after a second’s pause, I answered: one year. 

In fact, it is one year as of today.  I came to Xiamen on August 26th, but overall this is the 365th day that I have spent in China.  (Yes I counted; don’t even go there.)  Today is also, incidentally, exactly four years after my high school graduation.  (Yes, we graduated on 6/6/06, but things have been going pretty well for me so far.) 

So, putting these two things together, it means that I have spent a quarter of my life since high school in China!  This is kind of crazy because if, on graduation day, you had asked me to make a list of 20 countries I might go to in college, I’m fairly certain China would not have been on there. 

It also means that, since high school, I have spent more time in China than I have at home in Coon Rapids.  Another reason why the concept of ‘home’ is so fluid for me . . .

My time in China is still nowhere near as long as my time at TU, but it has been more constant.  I’ve changed housing every year of college, and even once during winter break.  I think on average, I basically moved every four months or so.  Here, on the other hand, I’ve lived in the same room with the same roommate, spent 80% of my time here, and have not been gone longer than two consecutive weeks.