First notebook entry: Why I am learning Mandarin I am Italian / Canadian and I work for a company that does business n China. I have been to China twice and I love the people, culture, country. I wish to move to China and immerse myself in the language and culture for a couple of years and find and explore new opportunities. But I know very little Mandarin and I feel I need to learn the basics before making a move this big. I cannot write Chinese ( I only know a few characters), so this notebook entry is not in Mandarin. I do not want to do a "Google Translate" because that is cheating. I do know how to say my name and that is Yà lì shān dé luó (Alessandro) or Yàlìshāndà (Alexander). The friends I have made in China call me "Yà lì" which I like. My name in Chinese characters is 亚历山大 or 亚历. The first character "Yà" means Asia I think and the second character "lì"can mean two different things... either the noun calender or the verb experience / pass through. So I think it is my destiny is to experience or pass though Asia as it is in my name! :) The third Character means "shān" mountain and the last character "dà" means big. I have been to the mountains in Inner Mongolia near Ketsheteng County near the town or Reshui and fell in love with them. There is a national park there and was about 5,000 up in the mountains looking down into the valleys at the wild horses grazing and running. It is my goal to be there again.... for more than just a couple weeks.