What I've Learned: October

It's crazy that another month has gone by.  As long as those first few days felt, when I was running around from apartment to apartment, trying to get settled -- the subsequent eight weeks seem to have flown by.  The weather is finally starting to cool down here, after over a month of pleasant temperatures and sun.  I'm told I should be dreading the winter, but I think I can take it.

WIL in October:

• The same diaspora rule that applies to sports, applies to natural disasters.  Spent the past three days following the news, tweets, status updates, and really breathtaking images that Hurricane Sandy left behind.  I hope everyone is doing well back home.
• I think that Chinese fluency may be a pipe dream -- or something I'd need about a decade living somewhere other than Shanghai to achieve.
• Taiji (tai-chee) isn't restricted to big groups, a la the old folks on the Bund.  People do it on their own all over the place, including in my apartment courtyard.
• Some Chinese people are surreptitiously interested in the American election.  My colleague snuck peeks at the debate videos, even though his English probably isn't good enough to understand most of it.
• Chinese food at its best (my friend Huck's, for example), may be the best tasting homemade food in the world.
• Chinese food at its worst, or even approaching its worst, is inedible (though this may be true of everything).
• My Chinese handwriting is better than most Chinese peoples'.
• Chinese clementines are greenish, and much more sour than American ones.  But they're still good.

• Taiwan is a sensitive subject here.  I suppose I knew this already, but I didn't think it'd be a real problem for "regular" Chinese people.  Here's the story: a Chinese colleague asked me whether my Chinese teacher from college was Chinese.  I replied that he was Taiwanese.  Nonplussed, he told me that "Taiwan is part of China."  I just nodded, realizing my mistake, and took the next opportunity to drop the subject.  A few days later, on my way to lunch with the same colleague, he asked, cautiously, "you know that Taiwan is part of China, right?"  I said yes, and then added "it's complicated."  As soon as I said it, I realized I should've just stuck with yes.  "No it isn't," he responded.  "It's simple.  Taiwan is in China."
• Chinese elevators are the slowest elevators in the world.  It's not just speed.  There must be something wrong with their programming, because they take forever to come.
• People still use Polaroid cameras.  Exhibit A:

That's a Polaroid shot of me, volunteering at the Xinzhuang Elderly Care Center, where we built paper flowers with the patients.  By "we" I mean everyone other than me.  I was incapable of doing it.  My flower looked like a crumpled up paper airplane.

• I am very good at hitting "doubles" in darts.  I'm very bad at hitting everything else.  It should be pointed out that the doubles are the farthest away from the bull's eye without being off the board, so I don't think it's necessarily a good thing that I'm good at hitting them.
• Badminton is a funky sport.  It's ridiculous to watch.  And it requires surprisingly few of the skills associated with tennis.