Knobcottage in China

As time progresses, I am getting to know the locals a bit better.  When I first came here I met many of the local on the way to school, but there is a anther street too.  I don't often use this street, however since I met Jie, she has introduced me to the locals and to the old folks who sell simple vegetables on the street.  However, the biggest problem is that they all speak dialect.  Not only do they speak dialect, but they don't understand my Chinese.  I think also they are unfamiliar with foreigners, after all I am about the first one here!, but when they at first don't understand me, most of them are convinced that we will never understand each other and make no further attempts to communicate, except by WeCaht!  It really annoys me when a new person comes to talk to me and one of those who has decided that they can never understand says "Ting budong" meaning he, me, doesn't understand.  From my perspective, if they speak slowly and use mainstrea...

A few weeks ago I met this woman on the street near my home.  She is only as tall as my shoulder but has a personality the size of a small city.  She has kind of adopted me and has asked me to call her jiejie (big sister) I believe her real name is Mei, but as that also means little sister I cannot know for sure.  I now call her Jie, she seems happy with that!  She was an absolute star when I was in hospital and check on me regularly, ensuring that I knew what was happening and hat I had food.  She also, with the aid of a teacher from my school, helped me back to my apartment and texted me regularly to check that I was ok!  I don't know much about her, other that she was once a doctor specialising in bowels, and that everyone seems to know her.  She is a real 'salt of the earth' person, and often hangs out with the poor fruit sellers on the street near her house, I love these people too!  The only downside is that she is a dialect speaker and I s...