Zao shang hao!

Wed, Jun 1, 2011
Zao shang hao! (good morning)! It is almost noon but as I write it will be "xia wu" (good afternoon).

We have learned so much while in class. About 9 total hours of class and already we can greet, say or ask what day it is, say family names (older brother, younger sister, mom, dad, etc) and have you eaten. We are using what we've learned to help us get around the city and knowing numbers is especially helpful. It's exciting when a local says something and we can respond back well or vice versa! Class is soo funny! The classmates are hilarious and we cheer for each other when someone finally gets a pronounciation right.

The last week we've been free to wander around the city once class ends. A few days ago Riley and I ran into some other classmates and decided to have a study session in McDonald's cafe. Two of the locals overheard us reciting and were kind enough to help us pronounce words. It's nice making friends with the people in our group. Last night (5/26), we were invited by some in the group to go downtown together and find a good restaurant. One of the girls knows Chinese decently and was able to help us order something. It's helpful because very few restaurants have menus in English and some don't even have pictures so it's a gamble to order something without knowing what you'll get.  The restaurant we went to serves fried (real!) scorpion but none of us were brave enough to order it. I was too hungry. They have real ice cream here AND real chocolate and Riley and I found a milk bar & bakery yesterday. Milk seemed to be hard to find. .

 Xia wu, it is 6/1. Picking up were I left off. Riley and I are making friends well here, mostly from our American group. We go out to find good/cheap restaurants. Some with dumplings, pork/vegetable buns, noodles with egg, or fried rice with egg. There was one restaurant that served fried scorpion but none of us were brave enough to try it.

Last weekend we went to Yangzhou. It's about 2 hours from Nanjing. Our sights:
1. Thin West Lake: It looks more like a river than a lake. It is long and thin. It is very beautiful and breezy. There were many willow tries and we noticed trees with rope wrapped around the trunk. Riley and I guessed that it's either to shape the trees a certain way. It is a very open area. And the architecture of these ancient temples is beautiful. We hung out under the Five Pavillion Bridge for a while but the tour went by really fast because we were short for time.

2. He Garden (pronounced Huh! like a punch in the stomach): It is my favorite place I've seen so far. It's hard to explain but it was very botanical. With lots of rock cave paths, ivy covered walls, stone patterned walkways, etc. They gave us 45 minutes of free time to wander around the place and it was awesome. I took pictures before my camera battery exhausted. I have to put up pictures tomorrow. I have pictures some of last weeks pictures up by the way. Czech them out si'l vous plait.

3. I made a Chinese friend last week while we were at a restaurant. She was a new waitress who wants to be a pharmacist and is going to England. She wanted to practice her english with Riley and me. It was really good.

4. One of our chaperones (kinda) had her last day with us on Friday. She works at NCState and speaks Chinese very well. For her last night there we went out for dinner, drinks, and to 1912. This was my first time taking a taxi. 1912 is a strip of clubs and we went to one that had many many red chandeliers. I felt like I was in the scene of Moulin rouge minus the dancers. It was sooo crowded in there. We thought we saw some people playing Liar's Dice but we weren't sure.

5. Three of us from the group, went to church Sunday. It was a pretty big church and the entrance to the church says "Jesus Loves You". They had hymn books and we sung some songs (sorta) but the tune we did recognize "Ode to Joy" and "Jesus Loves Me" and sung along. The sermon we understood 10% a little was in english and we knew that the sermon was about love. That's about it. But we plan to go next Sunday.

6. Yesterday 5/30, we had a meet and greet with the Chinese students of Nanjing University (the new campus). We played funny games that involved the loser being punished=sitting on a balloon to pop it. It's funny cause chinese people are so happy to meet Americans and they would grab us to take a picture with us.

7. Our group is hilarious and we definitely want to keep in touch once we get back to America. There are a number of people who are pretty cool.

8. I'm taking care of Riley cause he's sick. He's really cute when he's sleeping though. A lot of people weren't feeling well today. It might be the pollution.

9. Chinese is hard to learn. Somedays we feel like failures and some days we feel very good about our progress. It would be hard to learn if tone-deaf or spoke in monotone cause different tones could be the difference from saying joke to digest. Some days we are really silly and thank goodness our teachers are patient with us. Laoshi (lao-sure) means teacher. Pengyou (paeng yo) means friend. Xuesheng (juway-sheng) means student. One of the students sang "you are my sunshine" to the teacher cause to us her chinese name sounds like Sunshine (her name is Chen Xia). It made her blush.

Feel free to write us! Pictures are on picasa (this email account). Gotta go!
Love,
Diane