The Sky Is Falling

You know, maybe that Chicken Little was on to something.

I swear I can see indentations of the ceiling sinking in. And the window moved. And the horizon has completely disappeared, swallowed in whole by the gluttonous galaxy.

Well, with regards to article comprehension, I’m getting there, albeit ridiculously slowly. I have to look up every other word or reagent, and then in turn look up words in the definiton I don’t know. Then I have to figure out the chemistry behind it if it doesn’t blatantly state why or how the reaction happens. And after 20 minutes, if I’m lucky, I might have made progress on one stinking word.

This afternoon, a couple of girls came to visit the doctorate student who sits next to me, Bin-Kuan. I don't know if they were friends, classmates, lab workers, or some other relation, but they were rambling on for quite awhile. I tuned out most of it (ha, that implies I had control over comprehension), until I knew for sure the girls were talking about me. I was wearing a bright red World Cup track jacket I had purchased at Taipei 101 a few weeks back that had 'England' on the back in white block letters.

'Ta shi Yingguoren ma? Ta weishenme zai zher?' they asked. (Is she English??? Why is she here???)

'Bu shi, ta shi Meiguoren,' Bin-Kuan replied. (No, she's American.)

'Dui a, wo shi Meiguoren,' turning around just enough for a quick grin and to see their completely stunned faces.

Heh heh heh. Didn’t know the white girl could do that, now did ya?

Bin-Kuan explained that I spoke a little Chinese and that I was here doing lab work.

Still no expression.

Just the way I like it.