New Roomie

My roommate has moved in. His name is Liao Chongyang. I have this written down on a karaoke flier, because this is a lot harder to remember than my Chinese name (it's An Ning, in case you were interested, which according to MDBG.net means "peaceful, calm, tranquil, composed, free from worry." I was told it was a warrior name, so that's a little confusing). He's from Henan province, I believe, and I met his parents over the computer yesterday. They were very hard to understand, which I'm going to say is because they spoke in the Henan dialect, or "Henanhua", which they actually weren't I just couldn't understand them because they talked too fast. But they were speaking Henanhua to Chongyang after I left. There are dozens of these different dialects, at least one or two in every province, each one basically as different as French is to German. Fortunately, almost everyone is taught the "putonghua", or common language, in grade school. This is Mandarin. Also, there is no difference in the written language, which probably helps bridge the language barrier a lot as well.
Anyway, Chongyang is a very nice guy with very nice parents (they repeatedly called me "shuai", or handsome) who is extremely enthusiastic about helping me with my Chinese. I don't think I've had a single conversation with him yet that hasn't ended in, "if you encounter problem, or something, you can come to me," jutting both thumbs out and vigorously pointing to himself and cracking a big smile, and then, "understand?" I then shake my head vigorously like a five-year-old being asked for the upteenth time if I've washed my hands after coming out of the bathroom. But he's a great roommate, he doesn't go out or do much but study, also he doesn't know very much English, so not much of a drinking buddy, but that's fine because he's clean and extremely nice. He's starting to grow on me. I'll probably have more to say about him as the year goes on.
Anyway, that's it for now. My mom sent me a care package so now I have a lifetime supply of M&Ms and a sudoku book to do while I poop, so that made me very happy. I like packages. Hint hint.