try again

I just posted this and it didn't work so now I have to try it again.

I met a Norwegian girl here yesterday who is just about to start her anthropological fieldwork research on Mosuo culture for her Masters degree. She'd been in China about nine weeks and spent time with friends in Hong Kong, Kunming and Lijiang and has only just arrived at the lake the last couple of days. My impression after talking with her last night and this morning is that she is almost completely unprepared. She doesn't speak Chinese, and apparently didn't realise that almost no one here would speak English. She also doesn't seem to have read much of the literature on Mosuo people either, which can't help. We get along quite well, I'm just finding it difficult to imagine what she will find out in a couple of months. Oh and she's vegetarian. Not sure what she's going to eat for the next couple of months either. You've heard enough of my complaints about the rule of pork to understand why. Even vegetables and potatoes are fried in pork fat.

This doesn't sound very nice but I suddenly feel like I'm coping fine and have got a lot done. Just by comparison of course. I might go out to a village and do some interviews after this. I'll take her along maybe and she can watch or something. Acted as interpreter last night as she asked my friend at the guesthouse questions about Mosuo culture. That certainly stretched my skills. He was trying to explain the difference between walking marriage and a one night stand. Evidently 'one night stand' was not in my dictionary in English or in Chinese, so we had to use the descriptive method, which got quite funny.

eg. Imagine him saying in Chinese
'well it's sex, you know the word 'sex' right?'
Me 'yes, you mean sex where the next day you don't have a relationship anymore, where you can walk away and find someone else for sex'
Him 'yes, but walking marriage is different to that. Young men nowadays just want 'one night stand' but then they call it 'walking marriage' to try to sleep with the tourists, which is ruining the meaning of walking marriage, ruining Mosuo culture'
Me' I don't recognise that word you used, 'ruining'.
(We get dictionary, look up Chinese word that means 'ruining')
I say 'aaah, yes I understand'
Him 'Yes, but walking marriage is between two people who have very strong feelings for each other, who are talking about love. It is just much freer than other marriage because you don't live together so there is no pressure to find someone wealthy, or to worry about money, and if you don't love each other any more you just break up'
Me 'Would I be right in saying that local boys generally don't have one night stands with local girls, just with tourists?'
Him 'Yes, the village would shun him / send him away if he had one night stands with local girls'
I translate all this to Norwegian girl.
Her 'Is that exactly what he said?'
Me 'Yes, more or less, that's what I understood'
Her 'But I don't understand why they don't want to move in together if they are in love?'
Me 'Well because they sleep together every night anyway and their ties to their maternal family are strong'
Her 'Are they allowed to see each other during the day?'
Me 'I'll ask....'

And so on...