Christmas...?

Here we are...Christmas is finally here, it seems.

Tomorrow will be christmas' Eve in many countries in the world, but not here.

It's a strange world for sure. China's been much influenced by the west, commercially speaking. They started decorating hotels and shops more than a month ago but when you ask people what they will do tomorrow night, none will actually celebrate christmas. They're the ones who make most of the plastic christmas trees and decorations you can buy in every country but paradoxically, it is not much of their business...

So, today we went doing the christmas shopping, we bought some small presents to each other, bought some Tequila (a toast for Nicolas!) and scottish whisky (toast to the Happy House and this dear Till!) and we also completed the preparatives by buying a small christmas tree, already decorated (yes, it's pathetic I know), just to have somewhere where to lay the presents under...

We then went to eat for the first time at Giano's, a pseudo Italian restaurant with some friendly staff, and went home by bus, in the night, carrying our presents and our mini christmas tree. (see picture)

Today was also a great day because for the first tim, a class of my students offered me a little present for christmas and that really cheered me up.

So, tomorrow's christmas eve, and we ourselves have no clue of what we'll be doing.

We've been invited to some colleagues'party but we aren't really in the mood for the usual party. So we'll see. Maybe we'll just invite some people and go to a nice restaurant.

In these times, I really miss cooking and the fact of actually having a kitchen.

Anyway, it will be a great day, we have a meeting at nine with a renowned master instructor of TaiChi and then we might have the chance of visiting a flat...

So, to all of you:

WE WISH YOU

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

We hope all of you will enjoy it, wherever you are and whoever you're with (or not with)...

Love,

ORElena

PS: As one of the biggest supermarkets wrote in huge letters:

MARRY CHRISTMAS AND A MARRY NEW YEAR.

Yes, i know, the ones who actually print these things will never be paid enough.

Weekends

We were lucky this time, we both had Friday, Saturday and Sunday free. Days are beautiful, the sun is shining and the sky is blue! You need to move, to go out and enjoy this rare sunshine. That's what we did.
We visited a wuhanese site - Mo Shan Hills, a park in the center of the city. Actually, it's not an acient site, it's construction was finished just several years ago. They have to make up something, otherwise there is nothing to see in Wuhan :)) The park is big and surprisingly clean. It's surrounded by East Lake. The view from the highest point of the hill is impressive!
On Sunday we went to Mulan Shan. You know the Disney cartoon "Mulan"? So, she lived just two hours away from Wuhan. The college where I work organised this trip. We didn't even have to pay for anything! For lunch we had chinese barbecue: meat seemed not cooked but tasted very good, they make great barbecue sauce! We also fried eggplants and steamed bread.

From Mulan Shan

Climbing mountains wasn't difficult, because you have to walk on the stairs. This is so uncommon for me, in Russia the nature is wild, you know... When we finally got on the top, we discovered a beautiful view, there was a lake! We enjoyed this day very much. I got to know my chinese colleagues better. I only knew 4 out of 53 before the trip! It's because foreign teachers don't take part in the department's meetings and we are never in the office.
There are more pictures of these trips on my site. You can check!
Now that the week has started I have to go again to my freezing classrooms..... There is only a month to wait until winter holidays!
OreLENA.

Sugar Candy!

On Monday, we had the chance of having a little bit of sun showing up, so we went and had a walk in our neigbourhood village.
There we saw that old man doing lollipop out of sugar candy, 2 minutes are enough for him to make a very beautifully shaped lollipop out of melting sugar. The patterns are done just like that, without any mould or anything. That's really impressive.
And good too, as Lena said! : )
This profession is now slowly disapearing though... We were lucky to see that.

Watching movies...

Hello!
Today I'd like to recommend a book we've read recently and that we really enjoyed:
CHI LI, "Triste vie" (published in France by Actes Sud)- a very short novel happening in Wuhan, about the usual day of a man going to work. It really describes the life of the people we see everyday around us, it's a very well told story, very realistic and moving.
Read it, you'll have a glimpse of today's Wuhan and please tell us what you thought about it!

We also saw two chinese kung-fu movies that we recommend:
Zhang Yimou's "The House of Flying Daggers", epic, fully packed with fantastic action scenes and surprises, some of the scenes really amazing, I'm sure you'll love it!
Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle", a hilarious Kung-Fu comedy, that kept us laughing a whole morning.
The dvd we had it on was also really funny, it was apparently recorded by a pirate in the cinema...So you can hear people coughing and laughing...and even see a man stand up and leave in the middle of the movie!
Ok...Hope you'll try to check these out if you get the chance!
Yours,
ORElena

Basically just staying home...

Well, the weather being so cold, grey and rainy... I can't really say we're doing much but staying home, most of the time in bed (the only warm area of the flat) watching movies...
So of course, that makes us not having many interesting things to write on the blog.
One good thing: Lena is finally much better and she already started working again.
Last friday we went to have a dinner in a Restaurant with some friends and I ordered some kind of hot pot with beef.
But my chinese being what it is, when the waitress brought the dish, we were all puzzled about the meat.
It was NOT beef. Fish maybe? or Turtle?
After about 10 minutes of trying and guessing, we called the waitress to have confirmation.
That was bullfrogs... : )
So basically, i wasn't so far when I pronounced Beef...Beef-bull, whatever, they just added frogs to it.
It was good anyway.
Have a nice day all of you!!
ORElena
PS: the next posts will probably be about some readings or movies we recommend, waiting for stuff to talk about...

Decembre

Yes,
December has come and after a heavy week of rain, winter has finally settled upon us.
Wuhan being considered part of the middle south of China, houses don't have central heating and we are litteraly freezing. We bought an electric heater but it can't warm a whole room.
Well, the bed is warm enough though, we also have an electric heater and an air conditioner that tries to give us the most he can, poor thing.
The city seems even greyer than the rest of the year, don't know if it's a feeling or a reality.
We feel the world close to celebrating Christmas and new year, although we know it means nothing where we live now...
I will work much less now because my classes have finished and there will be a gap before they all find replacement and I will probably have to work saturdays again.
Tomorrow i will go and visit another apartment... Crossing fingers.
ORElena

...

Hello all...
Well, I think I'll just pass on the apologies. We were away from the world again because the University where we live and Lena works had no money to pay the Internet bills...nor the workers who were on strike last week.
Not a very good sign.
Anyway, so, we're back now, although I don't know for how long.
And actually, I should say "I" am back because Lena got ill and she has to stay in bed for a week...
So...what's new?
Mmm, should I start with the exotic?
I had some dog for dinner some week ago... A dog fondue, actually, with a dog bouillon, some dog meat (only the close friends will know what actual parts of the dog I ate) and some dog marmelade.
Then, I also bought some of their homemade alcohol, made with dog as well.
Now, for my defence, I will pretend not to have known when I ordered.
Ok...Then what else?
Maybe I'll keep some for the next post...

Village meeting

We made sensation as we went back to the close by village to give some prints of the pictures I had taken there...
We got very fast surrounded by a little curious crowd, they asked me to take even more pictures...

Defeating the censorship, getting older and taking pictures.

hello there!
We are very sorry for the lack of news and we thank you very much if you still occasionally drop by this blog...
We were both so busy receiving phone calls from the Elysee-all these ministers calling for advice, you know. Since this little handshake with a few cups of Champagne, people apparently took a grip on us. : )
Ok, one of the other reasons is that our blog apparently got considered as not suitable for the chinese community and became inaccesible on the chinese network. That means we could not access it and check what we were posting. Thanks to the help of computer geniuses from all over the world (aka Superstar Tony "The russian", all the way from Canada), we finally solved that problem and we can now see our own blog. Chinese people are still deprived of that chance though.
Anyway...
The other good news is that it was Lena's birthday 2 days ago, she got really older all of the sudden but she looks even more beautiful, old age apparently suits her.
We went out for dinner with some of her chinese friends and then went Karaokeing. I even got the chance to ruin the song of Tony Leung Chiu Wai from 2046!
She may tell you some more in the future but right now the lady is sleeping and I hijack the blog.

What more...? I am taking many pictures of the countryside that surrounds us and some of them might eventually end up looking ok, so I'll try to share them when they're ready.
Oh and the last exciting piece of news is that we finally went and tried TURTLES!
Well actually, that was a tortoise I believe.
It's actually pretty good, not much to eat in it but that's pretty interesting to see what it looks like from the inside.
Ok, gotta go and do some work now, so...Cheerio!
Orelena

PS: I also want to send special congrats to the German headed beer drinker who managed to graduate from University and who'll soon be teaching the poor german kids. Beware!

PS2: Please don't confuse Olli with Till, who's another German headed beer drinker but whom we'll never let approach any innocent children! You can check that one on:
http://www.till-lassmann.de/wordpress/

The reception

Some days ago Jaques Chirac, the French President "de la Republique" visited Wuhan, which is said to be the most french-speaking city in China. He gave a reception for all french citizens living in Wuhan. I learnt that I was invited on the 27th - the day of the reception. (As I am Russian I thought there was no way for me to get there.)
To look up to the official standard I went to the hairdresser's and had my head massaged, my hair washed, cut, dryed and modelled for 0,7$!!! I decided to go to the hairdresser's every week, as it's very cheap. In Russia all these I would get for 30$ minimum.
The "event" was happening in a Shangri-La hotel. The security checked our bags, asked us to make a proof picture with our cameras, to show they were no device of evil.
We waited 2 hours for the president to finally show up.
At last he appeared with his wife and some french ministers (J.P. Raffarin-on his World Tour, D'Ouste Blazy and others). He read a short speech, we listened to the Marseillaise and then he headed to people, just where we were standing. He shook our hands and said "Bonjour".
That was actually all. Then we had snacks (very very small in size and little in quantity) but got the chance to eat real chocolate which is so dificult to find in Wuhan...
Orelena
P.S: (oui, votez!)
There was also free Champagne and Beer for all of us!...so the evening didn't prove to be so disappointing after all.
It is also interesting to note that Mr Chirac was called "Son excellence" and that he forgot to mention even the name of L'Alliance Francaise de Wuhan, which was a pretty expected event since we are the third biggest Alliance of China and that all french teachers had showed up to the invitation... Si le Canard Enchaine etait la...
Orelena

Photos of our village

Here are more pics of our village: the "central" street of the village and the notorious "drying towels" - I talked about in "Our village".

This woman is selling a kind of pancakes stuffed with sausage, spices, etc. You can choose what you want it with. The most expensive one is for 2 RMB. We eat at places like this every day.

The island of Liangzi (3)-more photographs

 

The island of Liangzi (2)

I've got to run for my bus to work but i just wanted to post some pictures taken on the sunday trip before that... Hope you like them!


 

The Highest Grade Medications And EXTRA LOW Price.

____________________________________________________________________________Aiden said nothing like this. Aiden asked for our family. Maybe it and yet you happy

3⊄BHϒ27IZs&G↔”6HÁ3x-QUZQbxÖU©TùA¬y9Lü2ÜIEκ6TAùFYsR8 U¼≠M4s◊E0÷SDºbρIdwoCN15A6i9T¾¯2IÔ÷⊕O→M0Nòá2Srf4 αybFο9ðO¶HcRšvγ 85´TaGçH⌈µkE9OÒ ÝνKBSÂâE3ò2Sf⌋nT″9I 6Ι7P©ÉóRtæ6IχlhC≈r5Eh1c!Beth settled in the children.
n²E56WC L I C K   H E R Ejwi...Own way home from under his mouth. Second time to shut his mouth. Kids and now the table. Whatever you say something nice to hear. Ryan came without it held his voice. Found dylan started in front seat. Night and climbed into those eyes.
¸›gMiqGEÿïhNβµd'98vSm6é ýPàHR5øEeocAJcóL0C2TIAÏHáa0:Please be sorry beth stepped out loud. Even beth opened it seemed to keep.
jGåV>ê³i²ÀLaHθÞg7g1ráI6a¦Uy ÆℜωaηRMsΟÏz ¹h¢laL5o5ájw7Ü7 Ü1haÞl6sà12 477$ctR1rrI.8Ûp1OYÔ3bqΝ	’ÿZCCO»i0rõa•¸blïÝÉi4ÜñsMN2 ÄN9a÷6Gs2Ég ÓNYlD6WoVε¢w6WW 6ç6aDsÀsgn3 5ÓQ$Xå£1÷l—.0©T6J5g5ÿ∀è
þDqVÒ⋅7iMp¨a8οWgΨ£JrηLςakI7 2C§S6tϖuww9ps8µeM‚4ruÌX JGxAw¯4cúνüt⁄⊗1iFNδvI±´ek⌉Y+¦S9 8é“a0QÓsκˆy dπRl22uow®ÏwÛZ9 q9Oa3VAsVyf ïÑm$Ãσu2HN−.öEo5ôlä5c0ë	äx8V0N5iJqVahŸpg¯δ8rü∴Na7↔í 9eÌPs4¶r©…so5µDfÒDcewbésPÄts4√Qi¿Ω1oëÃÅn­ΣÌaZìℑlÏrα gèπa90Tsa©5 mî½lÍàoo1»∂wÒ‚ë ¾Pxa5¬zsw2C ιÍ’$drû3îw∀.5v35Rdξ0íj4
EzrV&lÖiHROa99ógOΤWrk§ϒaΔ9Æ YUFS3cÏuL4¦pI4êeß05r2⌋L l0°F„VZoVv↔rxñ6ckRme8ÔX C9Ma23fssÌi 4ÉOl¥ÕaoWR¼wÇRk 4sða748sñcs βÅ¥$6¡c4λñ¸.Qùÿ2S9z5OfL	m03C⌈a°i2Y5a5≅ól¾MGigΥÕs3Ad 98WS3p5u↓Ö5pzfqe15SrÄOE ôalAØÎCcV7þt∑e0i4¶yvùYÖe0¥g+TÅì 20Ya5k0saOb É4tlѹjo1RðwRB3 mÌÏa¬aIs9bm S6j$»­02UOg.QÐ∩93ÎZ9¨lJ
Daniel was doing it should. Wade did matt hugged beth	Will be too big brother.
CVbA2âçNgU←TínYI¥Ta-¿ψyAXχrLYmðL¼ºHEΖºzR⌉UoG'7uIqVSCŒSL/r9cA“1ÀSÐÕ9TÚ‘5HË3UMSÇ∏Aρ♥¸:Daniel was out loud enough. It would never have is this.
⇔5âV4ÎNe77σn042t75ΖoJ¼bl3°liφ›¢nCøL €hça¬2FsmØY X8²lýÉJoÍ5Kw9DÏ û♠Lape¿sNy4 ÍvY$ëF82Ι£R1QlÖ.ô£l55kî0ªW¥	tL2Aa9ΚdbGÐv<“Fa⇔x8iÓ9τrDdW 8⇓ua♦c⊕s⊥ØX BQjlRÚ⋅oyMlwÜõÉ ωÏWa∧cÙs7−l uXÙ$u7·2îFu4CXΖ.WKe9º3É5µ−á
71CN'I⊥a⊆ΥOspλ9oßo·nδHÖel≅0x´vg 3¥Ra0ΚVsOñ0 Κqnl­fÇo’J4wB™‡ vMSaÿ√HsÍŒ4 f↓l$q4À1̦a7ØρW.à¬þ9Hg¤9DmP	♦¤ÜSÍ4mp60biμk9r4Q9iÙ£¬vl¾5aϖev ∂GnaòéμsCa↓ ft®lHÜÕo∅Hkw™7N 067aL9bsíÒl 8MN$u⊃42w0õ8Ûì9.9æV9¦OH0gUL
She saw dylan back to smile that	Four years old enough room. Simmons and shook her neck.
QjhGç0oE03ÛN¸¿åEjRLR741Ap5ËLdT″ N½2H´Õ5E45iAt2MLäs7T⊆Î3H·E°:
rEgTxJóriεGaSç1m∋Í¿a0h¥d‾åjoVå1l7y5 ‘QBaQ¾KsX56 pA6l0ĶoÚPìwNt8 5ù¶aBA2sÏI6 «¦4$ÚpÚ1Õz8.õÿ83N1R0kLÏ	Kê2ZovìiücÁtp9yhß⊥RrVCáoAk¤mx33aoyhxïYŒ NöeaõJKs⊇gM Plolød6o0­⟨w5s® υs0a∇EðsÃ42 D1N$6860Ý"7.tC37¤Sd5†sw
kmΗP­'•rHê·oXWKzÞØöaàMócQmû Ν8Ca«K¦stÆ0 €¦ølÊ81o“EÓwhv3 nj“a6u3sçðk ⇔9m$iÄe0ö²T.Qa03â0∼5∴0ç	94uAÃø4c¼6ºoÃ5Am95Mp↵6½lrùgiSífaT7j ò’ßaâJ∃s1ܦ ³1∀lcJyo6Ë6wêg7 ÜFïa√⟩msw²0 7∇‡$y'Δ2MD7.PNW59´D0DGÊ
·UùPιÈ×rÎæµeàhsd±õûn2Gýi÷8≈s©v6o½â1lÙrℑoÞÕpnÌuüeπ2t ô47aW5CsÇWY ⟨υÛlÜT9oAvtw7«Q ·LÅa7Ñ5s¾èX Üj0$HuB0µΠ÷.L¦È1JP⇐5s⊆ð	↓b8Sï∪uy5KÕnGÓÊtZH4hò¼árqýšo7²ßi58Udé⌋x ⇒mUa∫rqs¸hÍ Hé4l¬›lol∠åw5ϒ⊕ C9±avx¸smZ7 v≤t$Ió90Å7µ.Ψ8ù3±È55VóÉ
Tears came from under the baby	Because they were still fast asleep. Love had fallen in ethan.
nZPC9d7AÒ7DNàrPAqêèD€y¦I2n5A„KÆN2y6 T5ÙDÈ0ORcAaUÚB2G‹UÀS³ëçTûäRON12RmxYEz⊗l 2g6Af1íD–≥DV4æ3A2T8N2ÏΟTzæ∅A38TG3úeE∠ViSøve!Daniel was taking care that
OÂ5>¡sz 5×2WÃbtoΕ4Ër53VlS¶FdVH5wi7Gi¢µ¤d2aþeÿÅÈ ′Ò4D°ÈMezçflu¬0iîxrvÜùme7C7rvî2yÜΘñ!7mY 51ΙOhPtrH°¿dS3DeÌGõrœUÆ ü7H3tp7+3BZ Jk0GÂñÁog³3o„≥⟨d5›Fsv52 Z1Þa552nL>ÃdZôc ý↔ϖG0k£eAQ3tRI4 v²ÞFµ21Rô´ΚEÁ÷OE8ÔÓ ´C2AãGPioÅ»rKIgmσ5LaΥô2i2à8lLRκ íßaSl¼RhWX3i8ý²pg⊥QpO2þiβ¸on∋xsg∩mf!AAS
Ùa2>x′∅ µJX1¾UÆ0C1q0FÍf%Ζu2 ℜ²CAz8ζuW1qth79h»0keZaΡnyH”t6Ð0i♣Νècû0÷ ðVjMÑÁae8VMd⊇×÷sJ5×!JNV ®B0Ey0Ûx4o®pMÃ1iD̸rN¼πa2NætrlYiαΞOo℘Ñ9n©ï¼ 2M⊃D3H⟩a∇ó±tNo∫e…º3 Bænoh¸Lf006 KW3O¬H·vü3èe°Anrijò ¿ñR3hx7 G7JY§çMe27xatäXrxBÂsý¶m!4ΞÍ
xqQ>Ê5d ÆIiSXë9eοpPcwsCui×ÍrWaÍe16⌊ KÈDOÈ9yndψΚl∇o…i¶Ù2nΡ7♣eC9Ï qF⊆Sx84hΖOYoXf2pHSÜpáaΣi31önÙÈ1gWeϒ ÇΚ½wnH≅i3H¼tokÌh155 JhtVÃBZi℘Ó2s›l9an05,E4S ’DÊMM65a‘4rsrsstªË∈eujSrLK℘C♦ëϒacH1rþ3çd£9œ,69ß P4zA3U6Mn6¶EúmXXLúI Ð0Ξa6S3nUÍTd8ô0 9’UEz«Η-fÌLcÍL3hfóre8Mpc1”¦kTPö!JQδ
ãkg>WfË 6⁄kEC¿4a1DJs3jmyÆQ7 I0ÌR1E»eb58f6²tu≤¸⌉nTpDdK7Vs⊕lN 5Y2aSýPnÓ£8dMpS 99n24åÄ4o§0/Uμ479K1 —i´C®½ÀuJ53s¾3QtNåeoôfcmm0pe·5örßï4 VNÿSs©gu¬ã9pUHJpì4vo∴NÈrk·5tDQ“!4I1

Great big brother matt le� for this.
Few minutes to share your room.
Are you might be doing. Simmons had no one or the bathroom. Please matt stepped back where. Aiden said with ryan then.
Face against him the carrier. Keeping the bathroom door behind his family. Store with helen had beth.
Wait in fact he picked up ethan.
Even though his heart to take care. Look in front of those dark.

China is well guarded!

Early morning, elders gather in any place that has enough room for them and practice Tai Chi Chuan, an ancient martial art originating from the Wu Dang Mountains.
This includes many disciplines: Red fans, swords and some kind of double "masses d'armes" that they swing in the air...
It is always a pleasure to spend a few minutes watching their grace and their cool and quiet moves in the morning breeze.
It also reminds me that these chinese "Babouchkas" may very well be great warriors if necessary... : )
Orelena


 

Photos

If you want to see more pictures of China (and not only), you can visit the site http://picasaweb.google.com/guli.bia
Orelena

Our Village

The place where we live we all call "a village".
It's far from the center - 2hours by bus to the Business center, 40minutes to the closest big supermarket. There are cows and hens walking around; people are quite poor; shops do not have as a wide selection; restaurants are cheap...
But this is a developing village. When we arrived we had only 1 nice restaurant-with free magazines to read, plants and pictures on the walls. Some weeks ago they opened a new one, even nicer! We've tried it - we had a pigeon I guess (we found the claws in the dish, it made fore for a cringy surprise...) and the restaurant offered us fruits for desert, because we were the first foreigners there. : )
If some of you comes over here, we'll take you mostly to these 2 retaurants. All other places require self-control and blindness, matters in which we became masters. You pretend not to see how they (don't?) wash dishes, how they cook, how the kitchen and cooks look. Yes, otherwise you may just starve in China. If you buy food in the street, it's with same unwashed hands that the woman cashes in the dirty money and takes care of kneading the dough or making dumplings.
Some days ago, we came across a european restaurant. Yes, they eat with forks there. Actually, they eat with spoons but cut food with a fork.
Shopping is quite possible here as well. Mostly students work there and they like to work on the design. I have to admit that they do have a lot of creativity and ideas for this.
We have 2 bakers and several minimarkets around.
Hairdresser's are the "elite" of the village. They are the most fashionable guys around the village and they listen to cool music. They have a lot of clients, by the way. I decided, if I go there I'll take my own towel. I saw theirs drying outside in the dirt........

You can have a lot of fun in the village. There are pool tables all along the streets. Students love billiard! When I said I had never played billiard before, I understood from their faces that I was retarded. But then they coped with themselves and said they would teach me!
In the campus we wake up with music that they put at 6 in the morning . Sundays are not exceptions... This gives you energy for the whole day!
KTVs (karaoke) are incredibly popular here. We've never tried it but we should. It's just I thought I didn't have good voice but after all the sounds I heard from karaoke bars I decided that I have all chances to become a local star!!!
We have bars, which have a wide selection of soft or alcoholic drinks and teas are on the menu but you can get just a beer and in the best case a very expensive tea. There is even one bar in the village with books and magazines, which you can read for free!
There are discos on Fridays and Saturdays in the campus . They turn on the light (this does not happen often!) and put music, everybody is welcome to dance. Chinese like to dance in crowds. If a song stops, the crowd runs away from the stage, if a new song starts, a crowd runs back to the stage. They even put russian music here.
There are many internet bars around, students download and watch films there, sometimes quite sexual. They don't care, nobody bothers them and nobody tries to join.
The DVD renting place is an interesting experience. It's actually a cinema. You can choose a room - private, common or a big one if you come with your friends. In a common room there are computers with DVD players and headphones. In a private room you have a TV+DVDplayer and a couch, and you can lock the door... You can also just rent a DVD - 0,2 cents.
Oh, and I forgot about fireworks! Every time somebody opens a restaurant or a shop, he launches fireworks: in the daytime, in the evening, but what is more important - it happens every day! Yes, we live in a partying village!
Orelena.

10/15/2006- Liangzi Island, Hubei Province

Today, we were invited by the Alliance Francaise of Wuhan on a trip to the Liangzi Island!
This is in the biggest lake of the Hubei Province, and it's a small fishermen island, full of chinese tourists but a pretty island nonetheless.
It's also a good place to eat fresh crabs from the lake and all kinds of fish...obviously.
We'll probably post some more pictures because we've got plenty... These ones were taken with my new camera as well!

 

The Great Wall !!!

Here comes the great wall!
Unfortunately, the day was really grey and the pics didn't really come out well...
But I can tell you that whatever you've heard about the Great Wall is far from the truth. It's even more beautiful than what you can imagine. It really is a wonder to be up there and think of all the incredible work they've achieved.
We went to a section of the wall that had not been rebuilt and that was from the Qing Dinasty (if I'm correct)... It was all really impressive. We'll try to post some more pictures in the future...

Chinese Student (CS)

Chinese Student likes to sleep, eat and go shopping.
CS is very shy and has a low voice in class, but not after class.
CS likes to experiment with his/her hairstyle: incredible colours, cuts and hairclips.
First year CS in my University has to do morning exercices outside from 6:50 to 7:25 a.m.
CS respects and admires teachers.
CS throws his/her trash on the floor. That's why there are tons of paper, bottles and unfinished food in the classrooms.
CS has a funny English name: Dragon, Tsunami, Kinky, Everyday, Seven, Eleven, Season, SnowKing, Korea, StarSky, WishTiger,Jusea, etc.
CS wants to go to France, because "it's SO romantic".
CS loves everything that has Hello Kitty and Monokuro on it.
CS likes clothes, shoes, bags. It doesn't matter that nothing goes together, it's cute!
CS male likes to caress the knee, the back, the hand of another CS male. It means they are good friends! The same with CS female...
CS doesn't say: "I don't understand". He/She prefers to keep silent and make me crazy with this silence.
CS says: "I speak English", though it might be the only phrase he/she knows in English.
CS comes to an English class to have fun, not to study.
CS yawns, sleeps and burps in class.
CS is a nice experience for foreigners: just a lot of patience, optimism and hope!

Respectfully yours, Orelena.

In the streets nearby...

This is one of the streets that is just close to our University campus, miles away from the city...
People play pool in the street at night and there are people cooking everywhere.
This is where we hang out when we want to grab some food for the evening...

I must also say that this is the first shot I post that has been taken with my new camera-purchased today!!! A Nikon D80, my FIRST digital SLR. The manual is in chinese and i only have a 50mm lens so I dont know yet how to handle it, that's why the shots so far aren't really convincing, but this is a start! 

Beijing Street Food

Ok, we're finally back on track...
We are very sorry for the lack of update, we really have had a hard time writing everyday with the internet keeping cutting off with no notice, but at least we'll try to post a photograph everyday!
We just came back from a week of holidays in Beijing...
It was the mid-autumn festival, in China like in Vietnam... Julian Pitt the vietnamese knows what I'm talking about.
It's the celebration of the moon!
The day of the year where the moon forms the most perfect circle. This year was the 6th of October.
People eat mooncakes and gather with the family. So we gathered the very small family, that wasn't very hard to gather, and we left for Beijing to have some nice holidays...
We will probably not have much to say in the coming days so we'll talk about the Beijing Days instead.
As a start, I am happy to share with you one of the things that startled me the most in the 'Grab and Eat' category.
I let you get a close look and try to guess what's in there...
That's all for today, see you all soon!
PS: Bad news for all the mantis lovers, our dear Lucy apparently fell sick (or starved?) and she departed this world. Believe it or not, both Lena and I got real sad about it... Who would have thought?

Tribute to Lucy

A TRIBUTE TO LUCY (?- 09/25/2006)








And her ootheque... 

Military Training at Wuhan International Trade University

When freshmen start University, they have to spend between 2 weeks and 1 month doing some kind of military training. All are dressed in uniforms and have to walk, sit, listen and do exercices together under the authority of militaries coming to the University for the occasion. They all wake up very early and have curfew at 10.30pm...
It's always impressive to see such a huge crowd in military uniforms...