PJ

Hi Everyone, Okay, I am almost too embarrassed to ask, but are the two Chinese characters at the top accurate in terms of use and meaning? I spent a long time trying to learn how to read/write Chinese, but eventually settled on learning to speak/understand only (by watching a lot of Hong Kong movies). I found I much preferred watching movies over sitting at my desk with a bunch of flashcards. I do find the language absolutely fascinating, and figure that maybe my fiancee can teach me when she comes here. But in the meantime ... when I need a few characters translated I go to babelfish and mandarintools.com if it's just a small bit of text. Please let me know if the characters are accurate. If not, please let me know what the best translation for "Candle for love" would be. Thanks, P.J.

Daniel, Wow, thanks for sharing your story. So, what is it like in China? How do you like teaching in Changsha? Were you able to speak Chinese before moving there? I've often wanted to move across seas myself, you know, live in an exotic land and learn a foreign language and different culture. Except I have food allergies and would never survive I was wondering, could you please post your story in the "Our Stories" section? I think it would be great there! Thanks, P.J.

LaoMao, Hi! I saw your post about being willing to help. I was wondering, could you please register with the site so I could contact you via email? Unfortunately, I had to disable anonymous postings (please see Statement of Candle for Love policy and guidelines). I would really be grateful for help you could provide. One thing I was looking to do is internationalization, i.e. I wanted to add an extra forum that people who read/write Chinese might be able to use. Maybe you could help me understand how it works. For the longest time I couldn't even display Chinese text on my computer, (in the beginning my fiancee sent me a few Chinese emails and I almost tossed them, thinking that the email file had somehow been corrupted). I had to download something from Microsoft to view it. I am sure you are very busy, but if you have any extra time, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, P.J.

enight, Thanks for posting the link to this site in 001. Congratulations on passing your interview! My fiancee passed her interview about the same time (November 14th). Hope you are able to get your visa quickly! The reason I wasn't sure if you were from China or the U.S. is because your English is perfect. By the way, I just had an idea. Since you are able to read both English and Chinese, if you do receive any information from 001 in Chinese, could you please keep us informed here? I wish I could read Chinese and tried to learn for a while, but it really is a very challenging language to learn. Thanks, P.J.

Mike, I tried calling the U.S. Dept. of State three separate times today. I called 202-663-1225 and pressed 6,6. It gave some message, sat silent, and after a few minutes started ringing like it was dialing someone. However, I received the message "if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again ..." Is this the same number that you called? Has anyone else encountered similar difficulties calling the DOS? Thanks, P.J.