STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN CHINESE!

For some unfathomable reason, while I was in the kitchen fixing myself some steamed pork and plum vegetable, my apartment mate turned on the news.
She never watches the news. Like many Americans, she prefers to not immerse herself in complicated stuff.

The news was in Mandarin.

There is only ONE person in this two single persons household who understands a lick of Mandarin, and it isn't her. No offense, but she would have a hard time with proper city Cantonese too.

Maybe she's getting in touch with her ancestral culture.

Which is a good thing.

?


Problem is that as soon as I was finished in the kitchen and had returned to the television room with my beverage, plate of rice and dish of steamed fatty pork -- 蒸梅菜扣肉：五花腩，乾梅菜，花雕酒，薑片，五香粉。-- she went into the kitchen to fix herself some pasta with a fancy Italian sauce, leaving her news program on. All the way through my delicious meal I had to listen to the quacking sound of Mandarin, as, not knowing how committed she was to the program or when she would come out of the kitchen, I decided not to change channels. Though I would have preferred Cantonese.
Maybe the sound of Mandarin is precious to her?
Lord only knows why, but it's possible.
That makes precisely one of us.


Not only did I get to see an intoxicated moped rider get into a fight near an apartment fire, but I also got inundated with advertisements for products I cannot imagine much use for. Finger-nail tonics. Ear cleansers.
Seaweed infused hard liquor.
Fat Koreans.




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