Harry Potter and a Chicken

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for the excessive amount of time that has elapsed since my last post. Applications, Chinese National Holiday, and the world's most fickle internet connection conspired to keep me from doing anything more complicated than reading the home page of the New York Times.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The evening started off normally enough. I was restless (as usual) and tired of shuffling back and forth between the coffee house and my room every day. In trying to figure out what to do cure my restlessness at least for a while, I realized that I had never finished an old goal of reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Chinese. I had intended to bring the book with me to Nanjing to read in my spare time, but somehow it didn't make its way into my suitcase. And suddenly, I really very much needed to have it.

I obviously wasn't going to buy the book again when I had a copy at home, but I couldn't shake the need to read some form of juvenile Western literature in Chinese. The Hunger Games wasn't going to work because it had a bunch of strange words that I didn't want to deal with translating. I know, I know, wingardium leviosa and expecto patronum aren't exactly ordinary either, but to be totally honest I really really want to be able to discuss Harry Potter in Chinese, and what better way to do that than to read the books?

So, at 8:20 on a Thursday night I found myself catching a bus to the Phoenix International Bookstore, where I bought this little gem:

《哈利波特与密室》Hālì Bōtè yú Mìshì
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

So far I've made it to page two. It has already been awesome for my Chinese, if a little tiring.

But that's not the point of this post. The point, actually, is this chicken:

 

Anticlimactic? Maybe for you, but for someone hopping off the bus in one of Nanjing's most developed areas, this chicken was a complete shock. You have to understand, when I say developed, I mean I can see Nanjing's lone skyscraper towering over me just a few hundred yards away. There's a Bentley dealership literally a stone's throw from where this picture was taken. And then suddenly there's this giant, squawking chicken, standing by the bus stop as if he's waiting for the 83.

Anyway, I followed this chicken around for a few minutes snapping pictures on my phone like crazy (which is also what I must have looked like to passersby). The phrase "poultry paparazzi" did pop into my head at one point, but I ignored it, because the chicken was suddenly going for the Jack Daniels poster, which I thought was hilarious.

So that's my story about a chicken. Not my most intellectual moment, but unfortunately all my intellectualism is being channelled towards applications at the moment. Give me a few more days and I'll be a much more interesting blogger.