So while I am excited at the new grad course I'm taking for its rigor and sociological breadth, I have still spent the better part of this afternoon and evening translating into Chinese a letter to parents. This is odd, as I'm sure my locutions are terrible, and sometimes the Chineseness seems an outre thing, but it works, and while there are the peepings of frustration at work at stubborn traditional colleagues, I suppose you can't blame folks for being as white as their hair.

Still, I have again verified the inescapable schema of my chosen career:

"And then I realized I was the only person in the room not a ___________ woman."