Coming back
Just as we got through immigration and customs in Chicago, Myles remarked with a bit of a sigh of relief, "For the next two months we don't need to speak a word of Chinese."
For him that lasted less than two hours.
We were finally at our gate, waiting to board our plane for Pittsburgh. He noticed a group of four Mandarin speakers near us. I asked him if he could guess where they were from based on their accent. Both of us guessed "South China" rather vaguely, if only because we could only discern every other word.
Not satisfied with just guesses, he walked over to them and asked them in Chinese where they called home. They told him China. He wanted to narrow it down further and asked, "Zhongguo shenme difang." It turned out they were from Jiangsu province.
The next day in a Squirrel Hill Starbucks he noted two Chinese women talking in Mandarin at one table. "Looks like we aren't the only immigrants from China here today," he said.
So we're back, even with our feeling of one foot in each place.
For him that lasted less than two hours.
We were finally at our gate, waiting to board our plane for Pittsburgh. He noticed a group of four Mandarin speakers near us. I asked him if he could guess where they were from based on their accent. Both of us guessed "South China" rather vaguely, if only because we could only discern every other word.
Not satisfied with just guesses, he walked over to them and asked them in Chinese where they called home. They told him China. He wanted to narrow it down further and asked, "Zhongguo shenme difang." It turned out they were from Jiangsu province.
The next day in a Squirrel Hill Starbucks he noted two Chinese women talking in Mandarin at one table. "Looks like we aren't the only immigrants from China here today," he said.
So we're back, even with our feeling of one foot in each place.
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