Muddled

Today we drove out to Zhujiajiao–a two thousand year old water town full of ancient canals, and bridges. They even have gondola-like Chinese boat taxis that navigate the breathtaking waterways. At their temple, I sounded a giant gong that echoed throughout the town for good luck. Soon after, I was convinced by an eager official to double my fortune through an ancient tradition of throwing coins through a small hole to hit a bell in the temple courtyard. I missed it by a hair in the end, I couldn’t quite understand him but I either gained a little fortune for my valiant effort, or lost it all through my failure.

On another note, I finally decided on a Chinese name. Li Hao Ran (李浩然). In China, the surname (our lastname) comes first and the given name (two syllables) comes second. I chose Li because it’s the closest thing to Livingston in one syllable. The character Hao came from my Chinese immigrant student in the U.S. who I was tutoring in English. She told me that she loved the character hao and that it seemed to fit me well. Ran came from Amanda’s cousin in Shanghai. I mentioned to her I was looking for a name, and the next night she came to me before I went to bed with a whole list of research on different characters. This is just one example of how amazing and welcoming the Chinese people I’ve met so far have been. Anyway, she helped me to find rong as a good match for the rest of my name and personality. Together, my name means “Vast”, which I think is pretty cool. I’ll no longer have to spend five minutes trying to explain how to say “Grant” to every person I meet, which is even better.