as you might expect, the neuroimaging group is full of people from china and taiwan, and they plot and scheme all day long, in chinese, about their grand plans to usurp the PIs and take over the department (sometimes, i'm given to understand, in the presence of said PIs). (if i do drop out of grad school, by the way, i'm going to write a pilot for a sitcom based on these machinations, sort of ricky gervais meets barry evans meets mark lee). hengyi and wenchao were having one such conversation in front of me in the scanner room this morning, and about 5 minutes in, it suddenly occured to wenchao that i could probably understand what they were saying. a spy! he says, hilariously, and i promise on my life that i won't tell, and he offers me a ferrero rocher that's been sitting in his jacket pocket for goodness knows how long.

a little later, hengyi and i started talking about post-penn plans, whether or not i intend to go back to my police state, and he suggested i join a chinese university and try and get tenure there, listing a multitude of good reasons for doing so (money! fame! resources! red dragon rising!) it's a far-out, almost inconceivable, but extremely intriguing notion. i think it would make me both successful and miserable beyond anything i've ever known.

(the scans went well, in case you're wondering.)