Sunday, August 9, 2009

I Love Chinese People

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while but honestly not a lot has been going on lately.  Since classes have started it’s like things have changed a little. All my friends have classes during the week but I don’t. So we haven’t been doing a lot lately because of classes and homework and stuff. Even though here I feel like I don’t even have half of the homework I normally have. I realized that classes here don’t require as much homework. They are all about the tests and papers here. Only one of my classes has weekly assignments and they aren’t even collected. They just check to make sure you do them. And that same class is the only class I actually have a final in. For my Planetary Science class our entire grade consists of is attendance and 3 papers. Papers! For Planetary Science? I understand papers for my writing class and my Australian Studies class but Planetary Science? Oh well, it’s easier for me so I’m not going to complain :) Fortunately, since I don’t have a very busy life, all my homework is getting done. And I actually want to do it. Well, ok, not all of it, but it doesn’t bother me like it normally does to do it. That could be also because I actually like my classes. That really helps I realized because then you don’t care to go to class and do the assignments and what-not.

 

            All of my flatmates don’t come out of their rooms as much as they used to and it kind of makes me sad. Laura doesn’t come out as often because she has a cold and she doesn’t seem to be getting much better fast. Ok, warning, I’m going to go on a rant about Laura again, but she just teaches me so much I can’t NOT talk about her. Haha Well we were talking about being sick and she was telling me that she went to the doctor and that they doctor told her she had a cold and not the flu. She said the doctor told her the difference so I thought she understood. Then she kept saying that she had a disease and that she didn’t want to spread it to other people. I tried to explain to her that a cold isn’t a disease and, of course, she didn’t understand at first. I told her that a disease was like what she had except VERY serious and something that is very threatening to your health. I said, “ You have a cold, which is like the flu but less severe.”  She said, “well what does that mean?” I was like, “well it could mean a lot of different things. Like you have headaches, runny nose, sore throat, belly aches, fever maybe.” She still looked a little confused and then it hit me. She thinks “cold” refers to her temperature. Haha. So then I added, “ HAVING a cold doesn’t mean that you ARE cold. It’s just a term we refer to when we are talking about someone who is partially sick. It has nothing to do with the temperature of your body. It’s just a term we use.” And then I saw realization spread across her face. Yes! I finally helped again. It really made me feel good actually. This conversation lead to one where she taught me that in Chinese they don’t use words like that. They have about 3 BILLION characters and each character has one specific meaning and not many. So when they talk there is no confusion to what they are talking about. Which I thought was quit interesting. And smart. But when were would all my fun be if I didn’t have to explain half of what I say to Laura? Lol

 

            Oh Laura. I just got done eating breakfast one morning and she comes in and pulls out the cake mix. I asked her if she was making cake for breakfast and she simply replies, “ Yes I don’t feel like cooking today.” Haha I didn’t say anything. I did find out though that she still doesn’t use any form of a measuring device and now mixes all of the ingredients straight into the baking pan instead of wasting time with a bowl. Oh that girl. She eats cake for breakfast and wonders why she is sick. The Chinese are so funny.

 

            Speaking of Chinese. My guy Chinese roommate told me that he prefers American Football to Footy. I didn’t understand why because I think Footy is sooo much more interesting not to mention or physically challenging. Hello they don’t wear any padding and they run the length of a football field constantly. But he likes American Football better and supposedly he watches a lot of it in China. I asked what kind of sports are popular in China and he said Table Tennis. Mostly sports that don’t require a lot of strong physical strength. Just quick movements. Which made sense to me. He then told me that they love the NBA. That completely surprised me! I didn’t know they showed NBA in China! I asked what team he liked and he said that he liked the Lakers. And you have to know this guy. He always talks very calmly and never really loud in a steady even voice. So after he told me he liked the lakers and yells, “KOBE BRYANT IS AWESOME!!!” (along with hand motions), I died of hysterical laughter on the couch. It was probably the funniest thing I have seen in a LOONNG time. I’m seeing the Chinese in a whole new light and I’ve come to the conclusion that I love the Chinese.

 

            My friends and I made dinner last night at Molly’s house. We made fajitas and had chips and salsa. It was very good. I also learned how to made guacamole and can proudly say that I should know be able to do it efficiently. :) While we were waiting for the chicken to marinade I thought them how to play Eukure. None of them knew how! Can you believe that? My mouth fell open when they informed me of this news. However, after I taught them they said that we should take another shot at playing because they liked it. So that was good! I was afraid I wasn’t going to do a good job explaining it especially since I was the only person who even had any idea at all how to play but I must have done ok. It took about a half an hour but I think they all get it and liked it! They will need more practice of course but I can say, mission accomplished!

 

            Unfortunately also our trip that we had planned through the school to travel up north and see a bunch of fun sites was cancelled. :( However, they are trying to book it through another traveling agency so we can still go so hopefully that will happen! Funny thing is that all of my friends got the email saying the trip was cancelled but I never did. Oh well thank goodness for friends! We also looked up different places to go today on our last break. We are mostly debating between Bali and the Northern/Ayer’s Rock Region.

 

            Wow I didn’t think I had a lot to say but I guess I was wrong! Hope everyone is fabulous!! 

2 comments:

  1. Euchre lol. and I love Chinese people too. most of the time =).

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  2. I'm being to really want to meet this Laura. She sounds like so much fun. Do you have a picture of her? Your stories about her are hilarious:)

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