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...