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!

Hello!!!

I will start by apologising for such a long silence, just know that is was in NO WAY intentional on my part!

Indeed, I have had some serious Internet access issues. You know what I mean.

I was therefore incapable of giving any news..!

But the news are GOOD! In fact I have never been so happy here, I'm enjoying it more everyday!

So much has happened since my last post, I will try and resume it. I have lots of little.. Interesting stories and anecdotes to share with you all!

(I have unfortunately lost everything I wrote in the meantime)

Just know that I am back and have found a (inconvenient..but worth the struggle) way to keep publishing!

I hope you are all well and healthy.. Looking forward to your Christmas celebration! Actually I am too! Teenagers in Nanjing make a big big deal of it!

Anyway, keep an eye open, I will catch up. I promise!

J+73

This sunday, It turned out we didn't visit the military base...
Access to foreigners is complicated. I did meet up with my friend; we first went to the bookstore, then had a coffee in XinJieKou (where I live, on the Nanjing equivalent of "times square"), before heading towards the Nanjing "Ming dynasty Palace" -or I should rather say what is left of it-
Indeed, there was in Nanjing a huge palace, dating back to the Ming dynasty. Unfortunately it has been totally destroyed; there are only a few stones left, on display, in the big "park" there is at the same emplacement.
Before, it is said that two men decided to both circle the palace, riding horses. They separated at the same place, and in two opposite directions; they only crossed themselves 1 day later... (So they had only done a half-loop of the palace) many people say it was bigger than the forbidden city in Beijing, but this is only a saying.
However it still is a wonderful place to go walking. Lots of families come and stay a whole day, the parents lie down on the grass, eat, meet their neighbours or make new friends while the children all play together.
Some men practice traditional martial arts, young people meet their lovers, students sit down, peacefully to study ...

Katie, my friend then took me to her home. This was not an easy thing to do...
Her flat is in a group of buildings in which soldiers and military families live ~ the access to foreigners is forbidden.
She assured me everything was ok, her mother was in the flat and giving her instructions regarding 'how to bring me in without the security guard noticing...'
I had to wear a hat, and a big coat with a hood covering my face, I sat down at the back of a motorbike and we hurried, drove pass the guardian very fast, greeting him...
Luckily, it was a very cold day, so I didn't look suspiciously/ inappropriately warmly dressed!

Her home was beautiful. The military people are very well treated...
She played accordion for me, and let me have a try - so difficult !
This felt strangely nostalgic to me, for a instant, I felt like I was in Paris, Montmartre... She started playing "Amelie Poulain", and I also thought of my mother, who plays this same piece with the piano. Yeah.. The "sounds" I made were nothing resembling music, actually it was quite far from it!
This girl is really too generous; she took me to a French bread shop (she has been going on about this shop for a long long time...), called "Paris Baguette". There are a lot of bakeries in Nanjing. Bread is very popular here, and if you add an Eiffel tour logo next to the name of a shop, people go hysterical and buy everything, regardless of the price. (No, in fact, in Chinese's mind, the most expensive, the better)
I have tried a few of these bakeries, without ever, finding a proper baguette. They add sweet cream in everything, of "meat paste"...
But THIS ONE, "Paris baguette" is a keeper! I found a piece of bread, with the exact perfect French texture... I thought it was impossible!
I don't miss French food at all. Everything is so tasty here! I am, in no way, attempting to find bread! But my Chinese friends always take me to see these shops, they try their best to make me feel comfortable.

She took me to a Korean restaurant in the evening, it was delicious. She ordered far too much food~ not surprising!
I took a taxi home, it was late, and very far from downtown.
One of my schoolmates called me asking whether I would like to go to the cinema.. I had finished my homework so, (with my sisters and parents permission) I left, very excited!
We saw "暮光之城III", a horror film. It ended really late so I had to take a taxi home again.