sep 12 - so here's an argument for language study: Today, as usual, I got lost. Unfortunately, as I was trying to meet Tiffany at 6pm (it was 5:57pm), I was in kind of a hurry. Lesson 1: ALWAYS bring a map. I, of course, had left mine at home, confident in my heretofore 7 day crash course on Shanghai navigation. So a very nice Chinese lady gave me the "look", as in "you poor chinese boy who can't speak chinese what is wrong with you boy are you pitiful" look and was trying to help me. It was going nowhere, so I grabbed a random white person walking by and asked if he could help me. The only English he knew was, "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." Lesson 2: All language study is GOOD. He then asked if I spoke French, or how about Spanish? "Yo hablo espanol!" I replied excitedly. Anyhoo, he gave me perfect directions in a jumbled combination of Chinese, Spanish and broken English, and it turns out I was only about 3 blocks away from Tiffany's work. Chalk one up for Piedmont High's Spanish Department!