Chicago - ChInEsE sTyLe

I went to Chicago last Thursday morning to attend a Chinese Education Conference with my co-horts in crime from the middle and high school - we studied Chinese in China 2 summers ago and have been teaching it in our schools ever since. There were 800+ attendees and more than half of them were Chinese. So on the elevators, in the lines, in the halls - I heard more authentic Chinese than I have in almost 2 years and it was COOL! It made me feel good that I understood SOMEWHAT of the conversations or that I could pick out words I thought I knew. I was interviewed for a Chinese newspaper in Virginia about our K-12 program - the only one in Nevada, mind you. I thought we were pretty cool until I learned of hundreds of programs (stronger than ours) throughout America. I was fascinated with the research on China and Chinese and am even more sure that we have got to educate thousands more of our youth to speak the language. One in four people in the world speak Chinese! We Americans have got to get over our narsisistic notion that everyone should speak English. We are one of the only countries who don't value multilingualism and it's a shame. Anyway, I met Governor John Huntsman (Utah) and Mayor Daley (of Chicago)...Ok, OK, I didn't actually shake their hands, but I got to see them speak in person! We did, however, meet the director of a movie, My Beijing Birthday and got to preview the movie. It was very moving and made me miss living in China.

The last night we were there, Denise treated me to a carriage ride around downtown Chicago - it was a chilly but beautiful night. Me, with my bad hearing, couldn't hardly understand the driver as he conversed with us about this building or that statue, but I pretended well and kept cracking Denise up. The streets were fairly empty for being as early as it was.

On Saturday, we had lots of time to kill since the conference ended at noon and we didn't have to be at the airport until 5. The other two hung out at the hotel and I took off down Michigan Avenue, enjoyed my time in Crate and Barrel (my favorite 4 story store there!). I walked all around the downtown area (wishing I had brought my tennis shoes) enjoying the crowds, the fresh air, and the awesome feel of a city like Chicago. We decided it wouldn't be right to go to a Chinese conference without eating any Chinese food, so we enjoyed a late lunch at PF Changs (my type of chinese food!) before joining the throngs of people at the airport. After a bumpy ride home, I enjoyed a nice, quiet, restful Sunday. I love Chicago!!!!!!!!