Even though this phase of our lives is about joining the Peace Corps, as is the blog mostly, I'm going to put something personal in here, an obituary. I must confess, I have never been to a funeral or memorial service. I think that anyone who would have invited me did not want to trouble my life in that way. I don't know right now whether this is good or bad, but I do know that death continues to become more tangible to me as I get older.
That aside, a co-graduate student that I had worked with on various projects took his own life recently. I have included the coverage of his death from the (unofficial) school paper at the end of this post. I thought that the best way to honor him would be to simply write about what I know of him. So, here's to you, James Wu:
The first time we met, you were late. You were driving me to the slaughterhouse so that I could train you (or so you could stand it) to harvest eyes for nano-indentation on the corneas. I called you when I thought you were already supposed to be here, and you said you were just leaving your lab, but that was okay. We got there, and I think you were a little intimidated by the cow carcasses hanging from the ceiling and the smell of meat; the other engineering students there getting eyes didn't seem to mind anymore. But you were interested, enthusiastic, ready. I explained to you all about the process of using the disposable scalpels to get around the soft tissues on the sides of the eyeballs. When we got our turn to walk up to the rack of the skinned cow heads, you watched. After I did one, you took a deep breath and went for it. You did fine, and if you gagged I didn't even see it. You got a few more eyes - enough for initial experiments, and we were off.
The next time we met, you were on time. I trained you about how to use the micro-indenter, so that we could get some mechanical properties of brain tissue. Needless to say, this was a little easier than our first project. You were very adept at remembering how to use equipment, very quick to take ownership of the project. You did the background work, you put in the hours. I had fun talking when we were waiting for the long hold-time tests to finish. You asked me about my wedding, about my traditions and what mattered to me. I asked you where you were from, a little about your family. You explained the intricacies of taking the class Anatomy & Physiology, about how as a newbie they kept you from anything controversial. You were truly interested in the body parts and how they functioned - you chuckled about it. And I am sorry you are gone.
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Nick is reading a book by Peter Hessler entitled Oracle Bones. I think it's a memoir about his time after Peace Corps service in China, either travelling there again or living there. Anyway, it's pretty funny. What it has introduced me to so far is the way that English words and names are 'translated' into Mandarin. It should probably be called something else like 'transphoned' because the meaning is the same -- you just change the sounds slightly so that they can be tackled by the Mandarin tongue. Here is a common example: the last name "Brown."
English: Mr. Brown
Mandarin: Pulang xiansheng
English: McDonalds
Mandarin: maidanglao
Just sit on that for a little while. I think I'm a little fearful that even if someone is trying to speak to me in English, I still won't understand because of the "sound barrier." Look for more on this when I have some personal anecdotes.
Anyway, have a good weekend-
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