Categories
postcards postcrossing

postcrossing in schools out there

every now and then, we get an email from a teacher thanking us postcrossing, and telling us about their own projects that use the site. it makes me super-super happy to know that somewhere out there, some kids are excited to be receiving postcards and learning about new cultures through them.



maybe some day the world will be a better place because these kids understand a bit about other cultures, can point the countries on a map and remember one or two things about them.

more about this happy class, here.

Categories
in china

hsk

in case of emergency


a couple of months ago i thought that since i was leaving china soon and had been studying chinese for 1 year and a half, i might as well have some sort of certification. so, at my teachers advice, i registered for the hsk (the standard chinese test for non-native speakers, also called the chinese toefl), but on the basic level, because i hadn’t done any specific preparation for this test. to take the test on the basic level you have to know around 800 characters/1033 words.

so last month, i did the test along with a lot of other hopeful students. it’s a multiple choice test from beginning to end, and it has 3 parts: listening, grammar and reading comprehension. the first 2 parts are ok, but the texts they put on the reading comprehension part are really hard, some of them i was completely clueless… i honestly can’t understand the difficulty gap between the three parts. why would they make a reasonably easy test and then make the last part 100 times harder? :|

anyway, a month later, ladies and gentlemen, i am very proud to announce that i’ve passed the HSK exam! :D i was given a level 2 grade, which translates in

“The candidate has acquired the basic (middle) Chinese competence that can meet the demand of basic daily life, a certain range of social communication and study to some degree. “

yay! i’m really happy about this, and it’s a big motivation for me to keep learning chinese elsewhere. perhaps in a couple of years i’ll be ready for the intermediate exam. :)

Categories
in china in shanghai photography

spring: color version

tree tops

with spikes


not that different from the black and white version. i like the fact that, despite it being a color film, the colors turned out so subdued… spring can be like that too. and i haven’t got tired of looking up to the tree tops yet… :)

Categories
foooood

:-)

:-)

my happy bread!

Categories
foooood in china

thai house

me and paulo made a list of all the places we want to go before we leave shanghai – i guess we’re now in official count down mode (though i still feel a bit in denial…)
one of the places in that list was thai house, which was one of the first restaurants we visited in shanghai. it was introduced to me by my first colleague in the company i work (in the beginning, it was just the 2 of us, now we’re more than 16 in the office…) who has meanwhile got married and had a baby… yup, china is fast.

anyway, thai house. it’s a little restaurant tucked away inside an apartment building (really!) on wuding road/xikang road. it has the feeling of a hidden treasure that you can brag about to your friends, as if you were a city connoisseur :)
the pictures:
the new menu

they have a new menu and it is much less confusing than their previous menu with hundreds of choices! :D

the lonely shrimp crisp

the shrimp crisps, they’re so addictive! i almost ate them all before i remembered to take a picture!

dishes & spoons

pad thai!

i always have pad thai in this place, i can’t help it, it’s delicious!

beef and chicken with mango

paulo had the beef and mango dish, and luis had chicken and mango. they were both happy with their choices.

dessert

and this coconut jelly dessert is so good! i really like bite-sized desserts, and they get bonus points if they have coconut :)

that’s it! i definitely recommend it, it’s not an expensive thai restaurant (which seems to be the rule in shanghai) and the waiters are all nice and smiley, very thai-like!