Language Exchange Partners

So I spent the last few days meeting up with my language partners, which somehow eats away more time than you would think.

Monday:
Met with my first language partner in the evening at Jiaotong University, which is near where I live. We talked while walking around the running track along with lots of other people, which was a bit odd because there were no lights and soon we just became part of a bunch of people wandering in circles in the dark. Language partner was cool, but won't have time to meet up again until towards the end of the month, which suited me and my travel plans just fine.

Yesterday:
In the afternoon, I met up with Language Partner #2 at Nanjing East Rd. I was running quite late and was rather embarrassed. He actually looked rather annoyed, though we ended up having some pretty good conversation. He asked me about my travel plans, and soon he began telling me a bunch of traditional Chinese folktales, none of which I've heard of, but all of which are rather famous (I felt like an idiot throughout this session, but this is exactly why this is helpful). Afterwards, we went through a session where he helped fine tune my pronunciation (Again, I was slightly annoyed and felt/{was made to feel} like an idiot - perhaps getting back at me for being late - but it's really good for me, as I really need to learn more humility).

In the evening, I met up with my 3rd language partner, who also has a passion for Chinese history. Once again, we talked about potential places for travel, but delved more into their historical significance. I brought up some questions (mostly still unanswered) that I've had for some time, and we discussed. For example, why did the Great Wall end where it did? Obviously one side is the ocean, but the other ends somewhere in the middle of Asia. Was it impossible for the Mongols or other nomadic invaders to go around it? Why was that so if they managed to make it all the way to Europe? And why did the major battles around the Yangtze River take place where they did? For example, during the 3 Kingdoms, couldn't Ts'ao Ts'ao (曹操 - I refuse to write his name in pinyin like "Cao Cao") find a way to secretly cross the river somewhere else instead of fighting on the waters at the Red Cliffs (赤壁)? Or how was it that Xiangyang was so strategically placed that the Mongols needed to first overcome it in order to conquer Southern Song? From there, we moved into discussing the lives of famous Chinese historical figures, and I quickly realized this was another department I was lacking. My language partner suggested reading some biographies, especially of some important court officials. He then made an interesting comment with regards to how many people see historical figures, "History is a stage, and for each actor, the most important part is not in how you enter, or how you act, but how you finish. That is how you leave your legacy." So apparently legacy is more influenced by how you died (or what circumstances surrounded your death) than how you lived. Very interesting opinion.

Today:
Met with my 4th Language Partner in the evening, who I invited out to dinner, and we discussed how life in Shanghai is tough, especially if you're an English major and work at a English-speaking company and you absolutely hate English. Not surprisingly, we didn't speak in English the whole time.