Yesterday, I had a PhD student from last term stop by my office. He wanted to thank me for helping him with his writing last term. He asked me to edit his article because it had been rejected by some publication, but his writing wasn't good enough to find and correct the mistakes. It turns out, he just got published. I congratulated him and asked him to bring by a copy of the journal for me to read. He also gave me some really nice iron Buddha tea--apparently it's from a well-known brand around here.
On my way home, I got on the bus with one of the Pakistani students. I had met him briefly in December, but didn't remember much about him. We spent the next half hour on the bus having some very pleasant conversation. At least now I can remember his name for the next time I run into him.
And today, on the school bus home, I shocked a couple people by asking the driver if he could stop further up the street (a more complicated sentence than you'd think) because I didn't want to walk through the construction site. After agreeing, the driver said a few kind words about my Chinese. I also had a short conversation with one of the Chinese professors before stepping off the bus. I really should find more excuses to talk with these people--they're not comfortable speaking English, and they're always excited when I speak a little Chinese.
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