She-ah She-ah

Xiexie: the first Chinese word I "learned". I pronounced it she-ah she-ah and said it to someone after they provided me with something. But, on the airplane ride from Seattle to Beijing on 6/13/2008, the flight attendants pronounced it hsyeh-hsyeh. Not only that, they said it at the beginning of their announcements as well as the end. It turns out I didn't learn it at all. Would this be a metaphor for my trip? Would everything I learned about China from my brief study and the natural osmosis of the popular press be wrong? Would my assumptions about Chinese teachers, Chinese students, Chinese schools, and, yes, Chinese food, be wrong. Only time will tell. So far, I was wrong about my assumptions of the Chinese customs process. It was very fast easy. Probably my honest face did the trick. The people in the Beijing airport terminal were helpful. The Chinese ban all liquids from carry-on baggage on domestic flights so I was forced to check my carry-on bag, buy all new toiletries or smell bad the whole trip. My worries about having very minimal language skills were unfounded as all announcements on the flight from Beijing to Xi'an were in English and Chinese. (This despite the fact that Chinese outnumbered non-Chinese about 100 to 5 on my flight.) So far, some of my initial assumptions were shown to be false and some true. Just like my knowledge of xiexie. It is still appropriate for me to say "xiexie" to you for reading this post. As long as I pronounce it "hsyeh-hsyeh". And, as long as I tell you it means "thank you".