Thursday, September 25, 2008

Cooling down in Wuxi.

The weather has definitely turned fallish or autumnish in Wuxi, China, as of today. Or at least, I hope it is as of today because I am not interested in enduring 35 degree weather anymore. Today was the first day I wore a jacket in four months.

Wearing a jacket is a good thing because tomorrow night, some of the other trainers and I are going to this important Wuxi government function, celebrating the approaching National Day holiday, where lounge jackets are required. When I first heard of the dress code, I worried about the heat, but it seems that that problem is gone.


Why did I feel embarrassed to say I was an English teacher to the Jordanian gentleman who was a dentist? In my life, I had held many a modest job like line cook, driver, and librarian, and I never made it past corporal when I was in the army. Try as I might, what I was in the past, says a lot about what I am. I feel sensitive about it. I became an English teacher because it was easy for me to do. Sometimes, I think it was too easy to become one, and I can never escape that feeling.


The debate about whether the U.S. government should intervene in the financial markets has me conflicted. I have heard arguments on the right from people, whose opinions I heed supporting a bailout and not supporting that I find equally persuasive. My initial reaction was to let the markets sort themselves out. But as someone said the crisis was of government making. But as another person said governments should not meddle in markets. So as a song made famous by Frank Sinatra goes: "What to do? What to do? What to do?".

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