It's the end >:3
It's the end of it all, only 11 days left before I come back, omg, the time passed so fast, and seems so long now, with all the exams and stuff. Many things happened lately, but I got a bit sick and lacked of the energy to post a proper LJ post, now I have too much to say and don't know where to begin, but let's try...
First, Marie invited me to spend Christmas with her. I had no proper project, so I thought it might still be better than having no christmas at all. She had invited 8 other chinese friends along, they don't have christmas in china, but some of her friends were very curious to see how Europeans spent it. For Chinese people, Christmas is all about a Coca-Cola colored old guy bringing presents, it's very commercial. Marie gave a lecture about Christmas in her class and asked if any of the students knew who was Jesus' mother's name. Nobody could answer. Another teacher interrupted her and asked "I asked you to do a lecture about Christmas, I don't see how that is relevant". So she had to explain them the whole story, they never even considered there could be a religious meaning to the 25th of December.
I arrived a few hours before the expected arrival time, I decided to give Marie a little help with the food since she had to cook for about 10 persons. She cooked and I had to wash the dishes (I got tricked, I'm telling you...). Another of her friend arrived earlier and helped us cooking, he had to cut some of the food in pieces, but he was amazingly skilled. We gave him a few of the things we wanted for appetizers and he just made awesome things with it in a matter of seconds. What we hear about Chinese skill is true, I saw it with my own eyes, and let me show you the result :
(please notice the little christmas tree on the table :D)
It was really impressive. Then, Xiying arrived, she's been learning french for 4 years now and speak it really well. And I must insist when I say "really well" because French is by far one of the hardest language I know (even french speakers such as myself aren't able to speak it perfectly, just properly enough), but she understood everything we said and managed to answer in a very understandable manner, so it made communication with french and chinese way easier. Marie asked us to go to the supermarket and buy a few things we needed for the food. So Xiying and me ran there and came back with what we could find. Some of the ingredients weren't exactely what marie asked, but well, we didn't find everything since Chinese supermarket are....well, Chinese :P
Marie's friends arrived. It's normally very impolite to have them arrived while the food isn't ready, you're supposed to host them the best way you can, but we were rather surprised when some of them actually offered us to give some help. They said that that way they could also see how European dishes were cooked. And of course, for the big Finish, they wanted, no matter what, to be allowed to attend the Making of Pancakes. It was very funny to have 5-6 people running everywhere in the kitchen to make sure the food was well-made. She even made a Ratatouille. We started eating
And of course, one misunderstanding had to happen. We asked them if they needed cuttlery (pronunced "daocha"), but Marie, by asking, actually had her tones wrong, if you pronunce "daocha" in a certain way, it means "to serve some tea". We asked them if they wanted cuttlery and had for answer "no, it's okay, we already have drinks". Of course, we looked at them like ô.o
But then bad stuff got noticed. The ingredients we found aren't exactely the same as those in Belgium, and therefore the cooking should've been different. Ratatouille was a bit too sour, pastas tasted way too much like the onion sauce we had added, etc... Actually, the only dish that was really good was the meat, which at our grand disappointment, was the only thing that Marie hadn't prepared herself. And the Pancakes turned into an epic fail. We tried to make them, but they just wouldn't be made. Put the pasta on the pan, and it just wouldn't solidify, or it would just turn burned-black. I felt really sad for Marie, especially since I've seen how much effort she had put into that. But for what it's worth, I told her that I had a great moment and enjoyed way more running around in the kitchen trying to help her and meeting her friends than spending my Christmas all alone in my hotel room
i also received one of these little cat statues that wave paw :D
2 days after I was told that my Chinese teacher, the one that gives us classes in Belgium, is actually in Shanghai. She's Shanghainese and is there to spend christmas with her family. She arranged a little meeting with us. I was the only guy attending, and also the only one from my school (we actually have 2 schools attending the same classes with that teacher in belgium, we have the chinese classes together, but at that moment, i was the only one from mine). We chatted for a good hour and a half before she had to leave. It was cool to see another familiar face there. I was told for the third time by a different teacher that my name sounded Korean. This time the teacher explained me that the "Zhe" character in my chinese name is often found in Male Korean's names, so she found it "funny" to quote her.
And today I had my oral examination. Once again, I did well, but the teacher hadn't warned us that right after, she would ask us a few more questions about other lessons that we weren't meant to study for that day. None of us saw it coming. The dialog I made with my partner was really great, the teacher loved it, but for the questions that followed, I think I just did quite okay, but I really wasn't prepared for it D:
That about it for the "journal" and the news, now about some random stuff i found while i was there, there are some quite worthy things.
The first one is a clothes shop. At first we thought it was a Carnival or disguises shop, but no, the shop was actually saying "chinese traditional clothes, custom make". I honestly doubt it was serious, but i decided to take a picture, it was....bleeeargh
One of my favorites is the following. When you see chinese all the time and everywhere around you, you don't even pay attention to other languages anymore. For example, when you have a chinese pronunciations written with letters, you only read it the "chinese way", you don't notice it when it might sound funny in english for example, and that's where one of my Texan friends just got so shocked that i hadn't noticed that, I decided to take a picture to share it with you :P
*coughs* Well yeah :D
And well, one last one i found by walking around :P
And that's it for now. I wish you all happy hollidays, a merry christmas, happy new year, and all the stuff we don't have here :P (we've been granted one day off for christmas since we're in a foreigner's school and that's all the time off we'll have till i come back home :p)
I'll be back in Belgium on the 10th of January, hope to see many of you soon ! Have to get used to the jetlag once back, gotta see my family and friends, put order in a lot of things, and might even get my fursuit soon after, mwahahahah, ahem
I'll bring you some food but can't promise i won't eat it in the plane :D I got some chinese cooking books though, in case some of you would be interested :p
-Reeve Signing Off
PS : I'm a Chocolate Covered Belgian Delight
First, Marie invited me to spend Christmas with her. I had no proper project, so I thought it might still be better than having no christmas at all. She had invited 8 other chinese friends along, they don't have christmas in china, but some of her friends were very curious to see how Europeans spent it. For Chinese people, Christmas is all about a Coca-Cola colored old guy bringing presents, it's very commercial. Marie gave a lecture about Christmas in her class and asked if any of the students knew who was Jesus' mother's name. Nobody could answer. Another teacher interrupted her and asked "I asked you to do a lecture about Christmas, I don't see how that is relevant". So she had to explain them the whole story, they never even considered there could be a religious meaning to the 25th of December.
I arrived a few hours before the expected arrival time, I decided to give Marie a little help with the food since she had to cook for about 10 persons. She cooked and I had to wash the dishes (I got tricked, I'm telling you...). Another of her friend arrived earlier and helped us cooking, he had to cut some of the food in pieces, but he was amazingly skilled. We gave him a few of the things we wanted for appetizers and he just made awesome things with it in a matter of seconds. What we hear about Chinese skill is true, I saw it with my own eyes, and let me show you the result :
(please notice the little christmas tree on the table :D)
It was really impressive. Then, Xiying arrived, she's been learning french for 4 years now and speak it really well. And I must insist when I say "really well" because French is by far one of the hardest language I know (even french speakers such as myself aren't able to speak it perfectly, just properly enough), but she understood everything we said and managed to answer in a very understandable manner, so it made communication with french and chinese way easier. Marie asked us to go to the supermarket and buy a few things we needed for the food. So Xiying and me ran there and came back with what we could find. Some of the ingredients weren't exactely what marie asked, but well, we didn't find everything since Chinese supermarket are....well, Chinese :P
Marie's friends arrived. It's normally very impolite to have them arrived while the food isn't ready, you're supposed to host them the best way you can, but we were rather surprised when some of them actually offered us to give some help. They said that that way they could also see how European dishes were cooked. And of course, for the big Finish, they wanted, no matter what, to be allowed to attend the Making of Pancakes. It was very funny to have 5-6 people running everywhere in the kitchen to make sure the food was well-made. She even made a Ratatouille. We started eating
And of course, one misunderstanding had to happen. We asked them if they needed cuttlery (pronunced "daocha"), but Marie, by asking, actually had her tones wrong, if you pronunce "daocha" in a certain way, it means "to serve some tea". We asked them if they wanted cuttlery and had for answer "no, it's okay, we already have drinks". Of course, we looked at them like ô.o
But then bad stuff got noticed. The ingredients we found aren't exactely the same as those in Belgium, and therefore the cooking should've been different. Ratatouille was a bit too sour, pastas tasted way too much like the onion sauce we had added, etc... Actually, the only dish that was really good was the meat, which at our grand disappointment, was the only thing that Marie hadn't prepared herself. And the Pancakes turned into an epic fail. We tried to make them, but they just wouldn't be made. Put the pasta on the pan, and it just wouldn't solidify, or it would just turn burned-black. I felt really sad for Marie, especially since I've seen how much effort she had put into that. But for what it's worth, I told her that I had a great moment and enjoyed way more running around in the kitchen trying to help her and meeting her friends than spending my Christmas all alone in my hotel room
i also received one of these little cat statues that wave paw :D
2 days after I was told that my Chinese teacher, the one that gives us classes in Belgium, is actually in Shanghai. She's Shanghainese and is there to spend christmas with her family. She arranged a little meeting with us. I was the only guy attending, and also the only one from my school (we actually have 2 schools attending the same classes with that teacher in belgium, we have the chinese classes together, but at that moment, i was the only one from mine). We chatted for a good hour and a half before she had to leave. It was cool to see another familiar face there. I was told for the third time by a different teacher that my name sounded Korean. This time the teacher explained me that the "Zhe" character in my chinese name is often found in Male Korean's names, so she found it "funny" to quote her.
And today I had my oral examination. Once again, I did well, but the teacher hadn't warned us that right after, she would ask us a few more questions about other lessons that we weren't meant to study for that day. None of us saw it coming. The dialog I made with my partner was really great, the teacher loved it, but for the questions that followed, I think I just did quite okay, but I really wasn't prepared for it D:
That about it for the "journal" and the news, now about some random stuff i found while i was there, there are some quite worthy things.
The first one is a clothes shop. At first we thought it was a Carnival or disguises shop, but no, the shop was actually saying "chinese traditional clothes, custom make". I honestly doubt it was serious, but i decided to take a picture, it was....bleeeargh
One of my favorites is the following. When you see chinese all the time and everywhere around you, you don't even pay attention to other languages anymore. For example, when you have a chinese pronunciations written with letters, you only read it the "chinese way", you don't notice it when it might sound funny in english for example, and that's where one of my Texan friends just got so shocked that i hadn't noticed that, I decided to take a picture to share it with you :P
*coughs* Well yeah :D
And well, one last one i found by walking around :P
And that's it for now. I wish you all happy hollidays, a merry christmas, happy new year, and all the stuff we don't have here :P (we've been granted one day off for christmas since we're in a foreigner's school and that's all the time off we'll have till i come back home :p)
I'll be back in Belgium on the 10th of January, hope to see many of you soon ! Have to get used to the jetlag once back, gotta see my family and friends, put order in a lot of things, and might even get my fursuit soon after, mwahahahah, ahem
I'll bring you some food but can't promise i won't eat it in the plane :D I got some chinese cooking books though, in case some of you would be interested :p
-Reeve Signing Off
PS : I'm a Chocolate Covered Belgian Delight