A couple weeks ago, I was teaching at a local kindergarten, when all of a sudden some random guy just just walked in and asked me if I wanted to read the weather for a local news station. I agreed, so after class we went outside. He hands me this sheet full of Chinese Characters which I had to quickly translate into pinyin so I could read it more fluidly. I was very thankful that I could read almost all of it (thank you, Skritter!).
Another Chinese teacher was going to read the more difficult stuff and then I was going to read the more simple part (which was still around two or three paragraphs of weather information). I watch her read the weather first and she… just… dominates. I mean, she’s doing hand motions and exaggerating her voice and sounding so excited about the upcoming (extremely hot) weather. Dumbfounded, I was just staring at her, jaw dropped, thinking to myself, “Oh… Em… Gee… They want ME to read like HER!”
They turn the camera to me and I read the weather, stumbling through a few parts, and probably seeming incredibly boring. I felt pretty happy with how well I did, but as soon as I finished, the cameraman kinda slowly lowered the camera and said that I had to do more actions. I was thinking to myself, “This is going to be rough.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do all they needed me to do. I had to go home to meet up with the family, and ran out of time. We don’t have cable so I never saw if I actually made it to the big time, but now every time I go down the street, everyone is like, “There’s the weatherman!” (I’m totally lying, they don’t say that.) I don’t think I actually made it on TV but I know that I read a report to a self-satisfactory degree and I was proud of that. I was being recorded by microphone and camera with around 10 Chinese people around me watching me do it. I was happy with myself hanging in there. (I don’t usually put myself out there like that, believe it or not!)
That was super stressful though!
Things in Xi’an are going really well! The weather is currently standing strong at around 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit). The humidity is around 55% and we have a nice breeze coming in from the southwest at around 14km per hour. We have some scattered clouds which I expect to hang around until sometime 3 years from now. Tonight we might see some scattered showers and the wind will die down a bit, bringing us a nice, sunny day tomorrow. ;)
Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam
