Toilet paper
I’ve been a little too busy to post lately having appeared on local TV 5 times and the national CCTV once. Ha ha! It’s true! Most of my time here in Tianjin is preparing for exams. Today Ryan and I had out butts whooped by a test in Chinese language; however, we are learning something. It’s not much, but it is progress. Now we can proudly understand, and write, such remarkable phrases as:
你好。(Hello)
你好吗。(How are you?)
我很好，你呢？(I’m good, and you?)
我也很好。(I’m good too.)
Actually, we’re now starting to understand bits and pieces of conversations around us. Sometimes for clairity it’s easier to say 星期三 than to say “Wednesday”; frankly, it’s more fun to use what little language skills we’ve got, because we always learn something. Just a few days ago, Ryan and I went shopping at Ancient Culture Street where Ryan engaged in some skillful negotiation. We didn’t even need to say, “不要，太贵了” as we were laughing too hard at the ridiculous price she wanted to charge us. We even struggled through a conversation where we learned the shopkeeper has a daughter at our school, 天津理工大学.
Last Friday (星期五) I went with some friends to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Many people said they’ll just save the RMB$45 (CAD$6.54) and download it. The theatre is Warner Brothers, or at least has the logo of WB just about everywhere. The movies they previewed looked cool, but when they’re released they will be without English subtitles, so it’s just more encouragement to keep studying hard. Of course, Harry Potter was a great flick and I was impressed by the quality of the theatre; it was just like a major cineplex in Canada, but with less tacky stuff decorating the halls. The strangest thing was actually being recognized by someone in the audience. Just as we took our seats, a girl in the next seat said she recognized me from when I was shown on the previous Wednesday at an English Competition. (Which reminds me that I’ll be on again in one hour, but only in the audience this time. LOL). One of the first foreign friends I met here said it wouldn’t take long to end up on TV, and she couldn’t have been more correct.
I’ve finished uploading my photos from the trip to Xi’an. The 179 photos are enough to bore a person to tears, but I hope some of you find at least a few interesting. I’ve also added a two halloween photos, and several more to my collection of “Interesting, curious, and funny” including this photo I wanted to highlight that includes a “culture” moment.
After enjoying some delicious Korean BBQ with a few foreign friends, we walked by this stack of toilet paper being sold on the side of the road. While that might be a perfectly normal sight for a local, it gave us a laugh and I snapped the photo. Only a moment later, the shopkeeper came out laughing with his friends at the equally strange sight of a bunch of foreigners taking photos of toilet paper for sale. A curious sight, indeed!
Halloween is, without question, a Western tradition. I can tell you from experience that, in China, when a guy sneaks up to someone wearing a mask it’s… well… actually scary. We couldn’t resist spending some time on Halloween scaring a couple classmates, and then catching a late night snack in the cafeteria (wearing the masks, of course). The little Halloween party we went to on November 1st must have had at least 200 people overflowing from the lecture theatre. It was great fun with a garbage-bag costume contest, some spontainious karaoke, and lots of other events.
Well, it’s back to work. I think I’ll be shown on TV again on a show called “East Meets West” in about 10-minutes. Our second Human Resources Management midterm will be on Friday and I must study hard. TTFN!