A week ago, I received a message inviting my daughter to recite Chinese Poetry for the City’s Literacy Month Kick off. She would be given the weekend to read and practice this poem, have a dress rehearsal the following Monday after school and then the performance the next morning (Tuesday Morning)

My daughter can’t read many characters yet, but has learned Pinyin. You many people don’t realize that there are effectively 3 different ways to write Chinese. There is “Traditional Chinese” which is used in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. these are complicated and has a list of characters (nearly 5,000). There is “Simplified Chinese” which is a similar set of characters, or slightly modified characters (nearly 9,000). “Simplified” is used in Mainland China. But then there is Pinyin. Pinyin is phonetic. It takes the Latin Characters (No, there is no such thing as an “English” character) basically using ther same sounds (Q makes a Ch sound, and X makes a Sh sound)

My Daughter can read Pinyin, and a hanful of characters. So we went to the internet and converted the poem to Pinyin for her.

Monday night we headed off to the rehearsal, she met with 3 other girls from another class. The girls did a great job. The event was t o kickstart a Municipal Reading Month and an “AI Reading Research Institute”

It started with a Russian professor from a local university reading the poem and doing “BaDuanJin” with a group of public school children. BaDuaJin looks like Tai-Chi for children. then halfway through the poem they collectively invite my daughter and the other foreign girls on stage symbolizing the city’s open invitation of all nationalities to join them.

the poor girls rehearsed 7 times that night.

Around the 2nd time, I noticed my daughter getting a bit hoarse. So I ran some water down to her. going down the stairs from our seat with no problem.

On the way back up however, I tripped. I fell down, smashed my wrist and then my elbow onto the stairs. The pain immediately made me feel nauseous, but I got up and moved back to my wife.

I had to hold my arm up with my other arm all night because I was not going to ruin my daughter’s rehearsal. We ordered an arm sling on the way home.

The next two days I wore the sling and was content. I had convinced myself that it was just a muscle injury. But when Thursday came around and things didn’t seem to be getting better, I made an appointment.

I could not move my arm from the elbow down. My finders were fine, painful, but they moved on command.

Today I went to the doctor. I have never seen an orthopedic doctor squirm before. when taking X-rays and CT scans, I had to place my arm in some painful poses. Each time he apologized, called me his hero and at one point helped me hold it in a manageable position so the x-ray machine could take pictures.

I have fractured my elbow and am now in a cast. He recommends Surgery, but this clinic doesn’t do that. So now I have to locate a hospital that may.

On a positive Note Hannah did really well Tuesday morning I am told. and from Wednesday ~ Friday this week was “Wellness Week” at school. (many events, less classes)