J+100 ... A sentence I should use with caution...

I told Nicky I wasn't afraid of her threats about how "creepy" Chinese food can get.

This had an immediate and direct consequence on my dinner! We both took the underground, and went to eat in Xin jie Kou together. I let her order... She didn't miss that chance.

I was served a bowl, of .. (it looked like soup) .. Her smile was up to her ears, "taste taste !" She said.

I had a try, ate one of the brown lumps.. In the soup. Difficult to chew, not so tasty.

- I was informed, that the bowl was in fact "internal organs".

Yeah. I ate a bull's heart, liver, lung, stomach and.. Big intestine...

 

J+99 The PE lessons in Chinese middle school.

This topic deserves little article. The PE (Physical Education) lessons have turned out to be the most surprising thing in School for me...

I was expecting something very very hard, exhausting, taking account of the Chinese disciplined way of training... But NO.

In fact it is more like a break. In France, we had no choice, it was obligatory to run unless we wanted a terrible grade.

In my PE lesson, there are 3 classes. We all go up 6 floors, into a hall, with Badminton courts and ping pong tables. The teachers chat with some of the students, and people can do pretty much as they want! A lot of students even bring their homework ... with the hope this will allow them to get a little more sleep at night.

As far as I am concerned, this is always a great moment and opportunity to see my friends from the other classes. Besides, I do enjoy sports!

I am surprised by the extent to which teenagers here are in bad physical health. They are far from being fit, this includes most of the boys. The truth is, they simply don't have any time to exercise, so everybody thinks I am a exceptional runner here, I have more endurance than them.

J+98 Usual winter dinners...

Since the weather as been so cold in Nanjing, (it feels very cold), must people eat 火锅 (hotpot), specially in the evening. My aunt prepares it quite well. She cuts enough vegetable for a whole week, and then makes a "juice", a sort of soup with spices and herbs, we then add ingredients ourselves (meat, rice noodles, tofu...)
This dish is brilliant, it warms up the whole body!
I also enjoy having Taiwan food after school with my friends. It is slightly sweet, I'm not sure how to call it. Next time I will take a lot of pictures!

 

J+98: Usual school day...

Nothing special happened today.
I just thought this view was interesting,...It caught my eye. What people wouldn't do in Nanjing to secure a parking space... Indeed this is a big problem here, I have been told parking a car can take up to 2 hours.

J+97 invited for traditional dinner ..

This evening I had the honor and privilege to be invited for supper by one of my school mates, at her grandparents home.
She told me her grandmother (fathers mother so "奶奶", for the mothers mother we say "外婆") was very excited about cooking for a foreigner!
Her family welcomed me so warmly, we all laughed happily together, in Chinese.. They didn't speak a word of English!
They had asked me two days earlier what I usually fancy eating, I answered "I can try anything!!" ... The people who know me, will remark a change here; indeed, I have decided to be the most open minded person Nanjing people will ever meet! I give this answer all the time, I used to be a little .. Insecure maybe, (I always sticked to habits, yeah, a form of security..daily routine, don't try so many new things..)
Now, on the contrary, I hear many people saying "the French girl likes everything, she tastes everything, she's so sunny, so happy!"
I just wish my parents would witness that! .. I look back on my stubborn behavior, refusing to have a taste of something ..
The girl, who's name is Yan Ling, is in grade 11, one year above my grade, so she's my age. We didn't take any pictures, I regret it, but we didn't take our phone to eat so I couldn't. This picture was taken by her father, before we arrived. (They insisted, asking me what I liked to eat.. I said I liked vegetables, as you can see, 奶奶 got the message quite clearly!)
We had ribs, (delicious), Fish, rice, soup, crab, shrimps, beef, vegetable, fried egg, spicy omelette... We drank coconut milk, this dinner was so tasty!

Later on, we went back to her home, after having said goodbye to the grandparents, (they invited me to come back, as often as I wanted.. That's good to know!) we went back to Yan Lings home, not so far.
I stayed about an hour, with her parents and herself, she has a beautiful flat, very homely, colorful.
We ate (again...) fruit, biscuits, and drank one of my favorite drinks : warm (homemade) soya bean milk, it is specially good when we have this cold weather..
Her father took me back home.
(Of course, useless to mention during all of that time, my sister, had been hardworking in her bedroom.. I found out she is probably the only student in her grade who works this intensively.. Because the people I go out with are her classmates!)

Tonight I also realized, that my friends here, were all part of the students who "applied to receive me"! This is maybe the 10th time, I meet a friends family who tell me they had filled in the form, and were willing to welcome me for a year, and are very sad they weren't chosen!

Unfortunately the only photo I have of Yan Ling is her QQ profile one.. So not very natural!

 

J+ 96 Photo-shoot!!

Today Lisa took me out for a photo-shoot in the afternoon. I had in mind a traditional Chinese one, but it turned out it was nothing of the sort! I was very impressed by her own posters on her walls in her home. She phoned up the studio and booked it for me.

When we arrived there, they started by making up my face, and decided the style I should be going for.

It was hard to choose, half of them made me look like a 5year old, wearing a pajama, and little butterfly outfit... Lisa said "no no no, we want something sexy!"

They asked me if I disagreed, I just told them to go for it, I trusted them.

The photo-shoot lasted about 2 hours, we have more than 350 shots. I have to go back next week and pick a hundred of them, Lisa will come with me.

The pictures I have just there are just taken by Lisa, behind the photographer, and the one with the black dress was during a break...

Once I get the real shots, I shall share some with you.

 

J+95 Zhangzhi's "rebellion" against strict Chinese teacher...

My best friend and classmate, Zhangzhi has a different sense of humour from most Chinese people. Her English is almost fluent, this allows her to appreciate the flexibility and quality of foreign humour.. Thank God I have her, because most of my classmates laugh about childish Japanese cartoons all the time.. Not quite my cup of tea!

So..... We both often have our private jokes! She sits three rows in front of me in the classroom, and just turns round, makes a facial expression only I can understand, and that's it.. We both laugh..!

Last week, dear Zhangzhi had a rather bright idea.

~ they received old English homework, from two weeks ago~

Zhangzhi turns round..looks at me, giggled, and said "he he he... we don't need this anymore.. do we justine?" smirking...I replied "indeed, we don't." She said "oooooohhhh that is mighty brilliant. Hold on a sec' girl!"

The next thing I see.. She is smiling in triumph, very proud of herself.. a little laugh filled with pleased guilt..holding up the paper.. With a HUGE tag on it, written with a thick black marker:

*"CREEP MOTHERFUCKER"*

Doesn't end here. No no, this is the beginning. It gets interesting!

Our head teacher, takes her microphone, steps on the stage, not longer than 40 seconds after this, and says : "I will collect the papers at once. Are you clear?? I want them back, now."

Zhangzhi's face went absolutely CRIMSON (this is rare for a Chinese).. Her face just froze, she was petrified! Before she could do anything, her work of art was taken away... You can guess what happened next..

"Zhangzhi, to my office!."

Apparently, it seemed our head teacher did not appreciate the little message my friend had left her!

... I saw Zhangzhi's little face turning at me, desperate.. Hopeless..

Next thing I see, when I come back from my lunch, she was cleaning the classrooms.. This is a sort of punishment. Anyhow, she was lucky. This could have gone quite far.

I laughed a lot that day, simply couldn't help myself. This, in china, writing this to a teacher, is probably as bad as walking in a Mosque wearing nothing but a bikini.. Inappropriate and potentially dangerous!

J+94 Here are some of my friends !

You may notice two of them appear often, they are absolutely hilarious.
The girl is a tomboy, (nicky) and the boy,(Evan) is very very feminine..
They are always together, and so entertaining! I went to the cinema with them. I was seated between the both of them.. Gosh! I hardly paid attention to the screen! So funny!

Vain attempt.. To add a member to the Tang family...

My dear sister received quite an interesting and original present from a boy in her class.. A small round box (about 7cmx7cm) with... A small mouse inside!!!

All of her classmates were very exited, so was my sister! As soon as the bell rang, she hurried out of her classroom, ran down the stairs, to show me her cute little friend, who's name is 小达.

I smiled, unlike others I don't like touching animals.. She noticed my face was a little strange.. And asked "what's wrong sister??"

I just answered "nothing nothing. It's gorgeous!"

But in fact, I was thinking : "she wants to take this home... Oh my God she is simply dreaming. That will never happen, impossible.."

Yeah.. Our mother is particularly attentive to hygiene.!

That evening, I went out for dinner with some college students I met in Xin Jie Kou, they learn French, are very outgoing, gave me adorable presents!

I came back home a little late, after a walk with them.

From the elevator, on the 17th floor, I started hearing a woman shouting.. My mother. (We live on the 19th..)

When I came into the flat, lots of things weren't in place, it was a mess. My sister and my mother were having a big argument, it turned into a fight..

My sister was desperately trying to keep my mother away from 小达...

Trying to prevent her from killing it: this was her intention!

My mother was furious.. And, honestly, I was afraid. I went to my bedroom.. The noise calmed down about half an hour later. I went to see my sister.. She was crying, her jumper soaked by her tears.. I told her:

"Give me 小达 in her box, I shall go outside, and hide it somewhere safe in the building while mother is having her shower. Then I shall go and recuperate it tomorrow morning. Or she will kill it. You can just tell her you let it go outside."

She replied "no.. I can.. I will fight my best to insure his safety, at least for this night."

We took it back to school the next day, both trying to think about someone good enough to keep it. My sister came down, smiling, singing, and announced her head teacher had allowed them to keep 小达 in her classroom! He would be the symbol of the class 11!

In the afternoon I had my Friday Chinese lesson, and talked about this with Lisa, my Chinese teacher. (When she invited me for lunch that day)

She saw the picture of the box and said " oh! If she stays more than 3days in there, she will die"

She took me to her home, and gave me her own cage. She's so generous, and caring!

While she was cleaning it, she proudly did the tour guide "here you have the bathroom, the first floor has a little house, the bed, I make it cosy with some soft fabric, the food bowl here, this is a way to go to the second floor..."

When I went back to school at 2pm, holding this in my arms, I can't even describe the welcome I had. Like cheering creams, and when I came in my sisters classroom, all the students eyes, sparking as if they had seen Santa Claus!

The 47 students gathered around the table, yelling "HOW GREAT THIS IS" "SO PERFECT" !!!

I had rarely seen my sister so happy!

小达 now stays comfortably in the classroom 11, many students from other classes go and greet him. The teacher (it helps to have a biology teacher as head teacher..) takes him home every week end!

It seems I (... Or should I say Lisa) saved the day! I received many messages on my QQ, "thank you so much" "小达's cage is perfect!!"

 

SUNNY NANJING!

Just after 3 rainy and grey days... The sunshine !
From my bedroom window...

Solution to my uniform!!

I posted something on my QQZONE, social network here.
I simply pointed out our winter uniform made girls look like a big fat "baozi" (chinese stuffed bread bun).. This amused a lot of people, who praised my remark. The next day, in school, one of my dearest friends (english name=nicky) told me she would take me somewhere spacial after school. We took the underground, bus, and ended up in a fabric market.
She handed my trousers to the best taylor in Nanjing, he measured my waist, legs and so on... Told us to come back in a week.

Indeed.. I couldn't work out, why my trousers were so large... almost too dangerous to ride a bicycle! Well... all the girls in school have modified them I was told.

 

After a cold cold and rainy school day...

Recently the weather in Nanjing has been very humid, and there is a very cold wind... it goes right through the flesh if you aren't wearing appropriately warm clothes!
After a long day, my best friend an I, (she's in my class, her name is Zhangzi) walked about 20 minutes, it was dark... at about 6pm.
We both looked at each other, said "I'm cold, I'm wet, I'm hungry"
....YO, let's go have dumplings!!!!
Nothing is as comforting as a dinner with this girl... her sense of humor is exceptional!

"School autumn outing"

We are now in the end of november...! Already!

Time flies, this has never felt so true to me.
About ten days ago, we had the "school autumn outing", all the senior middle schools in China have this. It lasts one day, and is usually a small trip to a park, or open space.
Our school sent the students from different grades to different places. My grade, the grade 10 (counts more than 15 classes of 45-50 students) went to the XIxia Moutain, very well known for the Maple leaves.It is one of the best sights in China to enjoy the beauty and warmth of these trees.
We took a school bus, early morning. The head-teacher had asked us to arrive earlier than usual, in our classroom. she gathered everybody, and announced the different groups (she had made them up), and the leaders of each group.
The groups had to stay the whole day together, and could go "hiking" freely in the mountain, all day.
Unfortunately, we were really unlucky with the weather.. the pictures were taken in the morning, shortly before torrential rain started pouring, and soaking us!

This was a great day, and allowed me to know some of my classmates in a different context than school!