Samsung Anycall runs Android

Today I had my last Chinese class. I learned a lot this week. Hopefully I can keep it going. I do enjoy learning Chinese, and it’s cool to be able to understand some of the writing I’m seeing all around me.

English pronunciation differences are pretty interesting. Ms. Qiu pronounces “measure”, as in “measure words”, exactly the way that I would pronounce “major”. So whenever she says “measure words”, I think she said “major words”.

I’ve also met two different people in Taiwan who pronounce “Vietnam” exactly the way I would pronounce “Vienna”, as in “Vienna, Austria”.

“You’ve been living in Vienna?”

“No, I’ve been living in Vietnam.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Vienna.”

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I resolve to post some photos and videos today. There’s a huge backlog and I’m pretty sure I’ll never get through it.

I’ve been reading MacRumors for the past hour or so. A friendly guy in a red t-shirt is letting me borrow his power strip so that I can use my computer on a desk. I feel pretty tired. I wonder why.

I’ve noticed that Samsung Anycall phones are very popular here in Taiwan. At least some of them run Google Android. I haven’t seen them anywhere else in the world yet.

Betty has 2 Anycall phones. The nice guy in the red t-shirt has one as well. His is white. I don’t know if it runs Android, but it doesn’t have the four standard Android buttons; it just has answer/end call, and a center button.

Last night I stayed with Hsun-Wei, my new friend. His father is Uncle Mei, and his mother I call Mrs. Mei. They’re a wonderful family. He has a sister, but I don’t think I’ve met her. She graduated from Wenzao Ursaline College of Languages. They have Wi-Fi but the password he has written on a small piece of paper didn’t work for me. I’m not sure how it’s supposed to work because there are actually three separate passwords, (1) (2) and (3). It says “WEP-64bit”. I guess there are 3 hexadecimal keys.

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Wow, this is a really good travel gear list.

Tip: When traveling, consider putting pieces of duct tape or even stickers all over the outside of your laptop. This helps make your computer appear less valuable than it really is, which again, keeps potential wrong-doers away from your valuable gear.

I put stickers on my stuff, but only because I thought it looked awesome and added a level of personalization; I didn’t really think of it as a theft deterrent! But now I realize that’s been somewhat true all along. When everyone in the room is using a MacBook, how do you recognize your own? Put stickers on it!

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On Saturday night, I attended church with Hsun-Wei. It’s a Chinese church, and we attended the youth service. After that, we joined the small group. They played a rhythm game involving multiplication. Although I know the numbers in Chinese, I don’t know them well enough to do multiplication… yet.