I am Now Fashionable in China

I have this great friend in school named Jun Gu. I refer to her as "Girl Jun" to differentiate her from Jun Lu ("Boy Jun"). No one remembers which is "Gu" and which is "Lu," but everyone can handle "Girl" and "Boy." This was especially key when I worked in a group with both.

Anyways, Girl Jun is from Shanghai. According to another Chinese student, she graduated at the top of her class from the Chinese equivalent of Harvard. She was a chess master at the age of 12 or something crazy like that. She was a business journalist and has this hilarious story (although she doesn't think it's funny...just getting the job done) of chasing Jack Welch into an elevator to get an interview when she was interning at a newspaper. And we're friends.

You see, what I have to offer Girl Jun is mastery of the English language. For the past year and a half, she has sent me every email that she plans to send to a recruiter or someone of the like to check for grammar. I check her papers. Before she gives a presentation, she writes it out word for word, and I check that, too. We like working together and have worked in several groups together.

Girl Jun went home to Shanghai over the Christmas break, and she brought me this:

According to Jun, these coats/shirts are very popular in China right now. She also sent me a picture of how they are worn, so I tried to mimic the outfit to do the top justice. Here's a close-up so that you can fully appreciate the Chinese-ness of it:

Girl Jun was really nervous about the size. Besides Yao Ming, I suppose Chinese people aren't accostumed to people of my stature. But as far as I can tell, it seems to fit. I'm totally showing up to school wearing this next week.