Hide the children, Gigantor is on the loose
After a number of days my system is adjusting to its new life. In fact I am finally able to do the one thing I love to do when traveling in a new culture – I go out and stroll through the neighbourhood. As I walk I quickly realize that as much as I am scared of Chengdu drivers, they may be equally scared of me. Simply put, I am the largest things on Chengdu's road that doesn't have a motor or harness strapped to it.

At first I felt like a salmon swimming upstream through a river of bikes, mopeds and taxis. (Taxis seem to float between the major roads and pedestrian ways like they are the vehicular equivalent of amphibians.) I now realize that I need to enter the stream and not hesitate – show no fear. With a sense of entitlement I cross even the most congested major intersections. As a side note my prayer life has never been so vibrant.

I find the night is a better time to wander. I have a fairly simple set of "Rules of Engagement" for conversation: (1) if eye contact is made and held…we will converse (2) if you say "Hi," "Hello" or "I Love You" in ear shot of me…we will converse and (3) if your job requires you to talk to customers and I can therefore have a free Chinese conversation partner…we will converse. (Rule 3 is the one I always tell ESL students – make use of store clerks they're the easiest, cheapest tutors a language learner could ever hope for).

My favourite conversations are started by moms and dads that drag their child by the arm down the aisle of the Chain Store to say "Hello." On occasion they are dragged back to show the advanced standing their child has in the English class – with much consternation on the child's face (or that may just be pain from a now dislocated shoulder) and an equal measure of pride on the parent's face – I hear, "Happy Birthday!" When the parents let go of junior to pat each other on the back I attack. I begin by complementing the child's English and then drag out my own set of well-worn Putonghua phrases. To show my own advanced standing, I lay down a few words in Sichuan dialect - mostly I compliment them on their child, haitzi, which is the word for shoes in the rest of China. If I am feeling they are a particularly good crowd I repeat my sentence and point at their child and then at their shoes. We share a laugh and move on all parties feeling quite multilingual.