Reflections on a sunday

Last week seemed to have gone in a haze. I was at the computer looking up all sorts of things or doing French conjugaison and comprehension for my FLE.
My homework seems to demand of me a certain knowledge of phonetics which I don't have. I am not able to grasp French grammar as quickly as I would have liked.
I joined the accessify forum and took some time looking at the good stuff in there. I got slightly depressed thinking I'd never get to the level I want to in building websites but I am learning so much at the same time and so many other things, maybe I am giving myself an unnecessary hard time. Well so here's what I am looking at - Le Conjuguer for the grammar and accessifyforum.com for learning about web accessibility. Its all accompanied by a loud blasting of Cantonese pop mixed with French music from Noir Desir that Matt sends me to educate me about French culture.

Writing that Chinese accessibility paper for STC also meant immersing myself in reading all the China News reports on disability in China. And trying to find out more. Luckily I found Matthew Kohrman has written quite a few scholarly articles on the subject and he was good enough to put the pdfs on his Stamford website. Reading about Deng Pu Fang and how he has almost singlehandedly made a big change on the preceptions and discusion on disability makes a great read. Kohrman has dispassionately written examining the myth, the stories and the political impact of the man himself. It makes a riveting read. It is so evident that the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) owes so much to the disabled embodiment and personality of Deng Pu Fang. I am really looking to Kohrman's book "Bodies of Difference: Experiences of Disability and Institutional Advocacy in the Making of Modern China" to be available in the bookshops.
It also made me remember why I was so reluctant to visit China the first time I went there. I had not wanted to face all the subconcious fears of being disabled in China - where being disabled is being 'fei' useless and trash.

On another note I also spent Friday night saying goodbye to Marisol's mum who is leaving to settle back in Chile. She was not happy because her sciatica was acting up when she had so much to do. Leaving Marisol is a hard decision for her. She has other family in Chile but she has never left Marisol for long periods of time. I had dinner with them and meanwhile Zahir, Marisol's husband, recounted me his happy days as a student in London where he had left his home in Turkey for the first time. He said he enjoyed those days of freedom. He had also met Marisol there.

Today, I had lunch with John at the Hipoppotamus Restaurant in town. It looks like a steak place. The service was a bit slow but we enjoyed our lunch.