Tag: in shanghai

Categories
just life

so… yeah… and it’s all true!

hello!
posting on this blog has been scarce, and gently replaced by other tasks… here’s a bit of what has been going on:

– i’ve been keeping things running more or less at anita na china and hanzillion, while studying chinese and learning new characters like a mad woman. i’ve finished my first textbook and we’re moving on to a harder one, which uses characters all the way for the texts and exercises. it feels really good to read them now, in full sentences! but i am still too shy to strike up conversations in the street, on the elevator or even with our ayi… which is slowing my learning process a lot, says my teacher. i have to agree, things would go faster if i made the effort to use the language i am learning – must work on that.

– meanwhile, i’ve discovered the wonders of taobao, the chinese ebay site, on which i am now completely hooked. it feels like an online version of my dearly missed mama mini, a shop where you can find the most amazing treasures or everyday items for a small percentage of the price. oh! and all with the chinese convenience of things being delivered to your doorstep on 24 hours, for one euro. :) it’s perfect, and it’s working as a big chinese learning motivator.

– after considering guilin, sanya and thailand, we’ve set or heads on malaysia! we’ve been planning a trip to redang island, which will include lots of sun, sandy white beaches, coral reefs (and some sharks!), blue turquoise sea and snorkeling every day. looking forward to escaping shanghai for a while, especially now that the much dreaded steamy summer season seems to be here to stay, with 30ºC temperatures already!

– i’ve been fighting distractions… and headaches. daily headaches and some dizziness that sent me to the nearest pharmacy, to get checked on my blood pressure. “too high!”, said my mom on the phone. so we’ve been reducing the caffeine & salt intakes to nearly 0. not as hard as i thought it would be. the headaches persisted for a while (lack of caffeine?) but now they are gone and that also seems to be the case with my caffeine dependency too (not that i was that dependent). so how about that? a blog called meia de leite (café latte) written by someone who doesn’t drink coffee anymore! :P

Categories
in china

sichuan earthquake, donations and a pack of postcards

to help the victims of the sichuan earthquake, postcrossing is raising donations which will be sent to the red cross society of china. as a bonus, we will send a set postcards to the first 100 people who donate over 15 US dolars or 10 euros.

the postcards are part of a set called “no man’s view” by chinese photographer phoebe jin who kindly offered the packs to postcrossing. “no man’s view” is a collection of 25 photographic postcards, with images in black and white or muted colors, taken in china and abroad.

all help is appreciated. thank you!

Categories
in china

word of the day: 地震 = dì zhèn = earthquake

during today’s chinese class, 2:30pmish:

me – teacher, can we stop a bit? i’m feeling dizzy.
heidi – me too, strange.

a little silence followed, while we realized that the whole apartment on 31st floor was gently swaying back and forth.

heidi – is it an earthquake?
me – hum, you’re probably right.

scary mixed feelings: the urgency of getting cover and feeling safe ground, the panic of being too high to reach safe ground quickly, the fear of the building just collapsing on us (i don’t think many of the buildings in shanghai would resist a serious earthquake).

so after a bit of hesitation, we got our shoes on, ran downstairs and rested a bit in the park until we felt calmer… and eavesdropped on passerby’s who seemed to have either felt it too and seen the buildings moving – or not felt it at all.

i ended up canceling the rest of the class because afterwards i didn’t feel too safe up there and took a taxi towards a coffeeshop on nanjing. the driver had heard about the earthquake on the radio, but didn’t feel anything and proceeded to reassure me that in shanghai, earthquakes were very rare.

good.

Categories
in china

blind dating

the description on the back:

It’s amazing to me that a society which has mastered the concept of fire is capable of making a film this bad.

Too insipidly, cloyingly cutesy to be edge, too crass, juvenile and vulgar to be cute, and not funny enough to be either. Additionally, there is not one single iota of genuine wit, emotion, or originality in even one frame of this odious film.

It’s as if someone took “At first sight”, “Daredevil”, “My big fat greek wedding” and “Bend it like Beckham” (among others) and threw them in a blender. Worse than that the film is insulting to every group it portrays: blind people, Italian-American, African-American, Indian-Americans, limousine drivers, therapists. Even the portrayal of prostitutes is somehow beneath the dignity of the profession.

The ludicrous, predictable plot would be easily forgivable. After all, this is a romantic comedy. We’re here to have fun and feel good.

what would your reaction be, if the movie you were about to pick had this (brilliant) synopsis? :D

Categories
just life

1 year in china (一年在中国)

1 year in china and a lot of mixed feelings. hard to measure how much we fit here, with so many dramatic ups and downs, like cosine waves or bipolar periods.

yesterday, for instance. a bulldozer on a construction site accidentally hit a small brick wall by the sidewalk. p. was passing by on his bike when it happened and got caught under it. he’s cool, just scratches, bruises, a smashed bike and a dirty coat. nothing some ligaments and a lot of love won’t cure. could have been so much worse…

it makes you think, right? more than a year in china, today we’re celebrating each other and taking it easy. that’s it.