Learning Chinese for 1 year… oh lord!!

Bon s’il vous plait excuse les fautes d’accents mais pour de vrai si quelqu’un n’importe qui que ca soit votre chum, votre blonde, ou votre ami(es) n’importe qui… qui est en retard a chaque rendez-vous ya tu de quoi a etre un peu desappointer ou meme facher? Pis quand vous lui ouvrez votre coeur ben cette personne la a vous remet sa dans la face comme si c’etait correct.. non mais criss! Ya a marre en svp!!! Mais le meilleur c’est quand vous attendez… vous etre deja entrain d’attendre et que vous lui donner un text ou coup de fil bien cette personne dit a bien desoler je ne peux pas aujourd’hui…huh ya tu moyens de le dire a l’avance la prochaine fois… mais non la personne dit qu’elle n’est pas dans le tort a cause qu’elle vient de vous le dire non mais wow c’est vraiment une bonne ca. entk j’en aurai tout vue.

I am out pis en sale a part de ca!

Oh yeah il ne reste que 4 jours.. 4 JOURS!!!!! avant mon depart pour la Coree! Ca va etre malade. It’s gonna be crazy!!!

I can’t wait!

Language. Body language, sign language, spoken language, the unspoken words in a silence… those are the ways we use to communicate our feelings and our thoughts. Isn’t great when someone just understands you and you don’t have to say a damn word. You just have to be and he/she understands, whatever the situation might be, she/he understands. Hard to believe that other people doesn’t have a clue what you are through sometimes right? Yesterday I’ve experience something incredible. We were about 10-11 people drinking beer and sharing our lives to each other. The people involved were from Canada, Japan and Korea. Now picture this. We have new Korean comers who have been here 1 week, they can barely speak Chinese (like hello and my name is), can’t speak English except for one guy. My good Japanese buddy Yusuke can’t speak Korea but does have an amazing Chinese vocabulary and his English is not half bad (simple conversation) and I well I can speak English or Chinese at that table but not Korean. How insane was that!! Luckily there was my other Korean friends and their Chinese is also amazing so they helped translate to the new comers. But you know what was even more insane? When I was talking to the only person who knows how to speak English I would always speak to him in Chinese… it came naturally I couldn’t help it than I would switch back. This made me see how powerful is to be able to speak another language. You can just connect with other people!

SamTheChan

As you well know I have yet to experience the REAL fun in China this summer. I’ve been studying like mad till the month of July and that my friends is not what I am use to! My eyes were bleeding from too much reading, my body would get up for nothing but food and well lets just say that I slacked off on the exercise department. But nothing is lost because when there is a will there is way. I’ve gotten very good marks on those exams, I’ve stopped eating junk anymore and I’ve gone back to the gym. My body is very thankful about it

A little word about the weather around here… damn is it HOT or what! The minute I step out of my chilled room… there it is! “The Sweat” dripping down my face (for people who know me it starts from the nose…pretty fun fact I guess) Then ti’s the back and what ever comes after the back well it’s just adding to the sticky fluid on my body. I believe I’ve lost 5 pounds just in body fluids for I much I sweat! haha I am not complaining I just saying. Moreover, I sun tan on the roof top of our dorm… very very strong sun I LOVE it! For those who don’t know here is something you ought to know. Chinese girls do not want to tan… yeah… what?!?! is what I said. I said Chinese but Koreans and Japaneses also do not want to get darker. They want to be as white as they can!!! Talk about being on the world spectrum here right? For my MEN out there if you think about it, get yourself an Asian girl from any of those regions and you will save tons of money of tanning salon time. Just putting it out there.

Alright that’s it for today. Time to drink some beer and enjoy a chat time with my dorm mates! (they are leaving soon…so I am haha )

later!

SamTheChan

I’ve been feeling pretty lonely now that my girlfriend is gone back to her hometown. I miss her, I miss home, miss my brother, my dad, my mom and my friends! It’s crazy to think that I’ve gone for one year now… well I am found out that Montreal is really my home. You know sometimes when you feel lonely nothing but nothing can change your mood about it, you are just this sack of meat lying on your bed thinking of what to do next. Well today I feel sad, I feel like I need to go home, I need to see my family and my friends but most of all I want to see my girlfriend. You know your better half is someone that comes in your life out of blue and for some reason you think she or he will always be there for you when you need it or hope it at least.

Anyway, I’ve been immersed in a dual culture here on one side we have the “Chinese” culture which I learn about everyday around here. But what came as a surprise is that I am learning a lot more about Korean culture because well most of my classmate and people I lived with are Korean and since they are many of them they just bring their culture here. I guess now I understand why Muslims do what they do in Quebec or why we have a Spanish district in Montreal or why culture festivals are popping left and right… Not only do people love to share their culture but it seems to me that is it hard to accept others believe/traditions. I am obviously generalizing but most people I’ve been around here are very close minded when it comes to this. Why? hey, hell do I know. I’ve had my share of not accepting things too and you know what it’s not all that bad because it makes us who we are.

Today I have go to go work and I really don’t feel like going… it’s pretty bad, I am… I don’t even know what I feel anymore.

I am out.

peace

SamTheChan

So! All exams are over with and now it’s time to paaaaaarty… nah not in here not gonna happen. There is no place to party anyways and most of the people are going back home… I don’t blame them. This place is boring once you’ve toured it all. But now is the time to travel around China and see all the great things China as to offer.

As for me I’ll be staying in Qufu for another couple of weeks then heading out. The destination is unknown at the moment due to some changes of my plans for next year. Nevertheless I’ll be heading to Canada that’s for sure Now here I’ll be looking for another Job to get some extra cash and pay for my plane ticket back to my hometown. If my search is successful I’ll probably go to Korea first. I’ll see. I really want to go. My girlfriend is back there so hence the reason why I want to go.

This last year as been an amazing experience for me. I’ve learned so many new things culturally and on a personal level it’s been a ride of a life time. I strongly suggest this experience to everyone!!

RiZhao known for it’s beach and it’s food… although I never really didn’t see much of it except for the food. I went there about 3 weeks ago with my friends and my girl. While the temperature in Qufu was rising above 35 degree Celsius when we left, the temperature in RiZhao was not even close to 20. Yeah you can imagine my disappointment when we got there. No trace of sunshine in miles, just cold wind and a dark view.

So what did we do you ask me. First of all got there around supper time so we hit up a restaurant real quick after checking-in our room… we ate like pigs and drank like mads. The booze there was simple… beer… bai jiu 白酒 ( it basically taste like black reglish) and soju (Korean Alcohol my favorite). We ate Kao rou 烤肉 basically meat on the grill or bbq if you prefer. Pretty good indeed. We had a good chat because obviously there was nothing else to do and play drinking games.

Woke up with one of the worst headache ever due to the lack of sleep the night before and dehydration. We went on a little tour of the city. Ate some spicy and very greasy food at a clumsy resto. Then head out for what I went to RiZhao for… The Beach! Yes the Beach finally home sweet home I said… oh hell no! Picture this as we head out a bright sunny day, warm weather no clouds in few… we get to the beach FOG everywhere. The wind picks up and temperature does the opposite of rising and we are left with a dark beach my friends. Yeah I swam for like 15 minutes how cool is that! lol But anyways it was fun to visit the place. We when to a shopping place where all the shops are like in China town… it’s a GIANT flea market with prime goods! No second business or that’s what they say! haha Oh yeah stuff is cheap and cheap is not even the word!

Now the way back!! We plan to go back to Qufu 曲阜 by train and we get word from one of the teachers that the train leave at 17h30. We are more than please that gives us time to do more stuff during that third day. The day goes by and comes 16h30 we decide it’s time to go by our ticket and hop on our ride. Mistake! We get there, I buy 4 tickets for Qufu we look at the departure time 19h27… we are more than surprise buuuut we decide that we should take this opportunity to eat what we craved for so long on that trip… SUSHI!!! We get to this all you can eat sushi place for 15$ Canadian, eat like pigs and go back to the train station. Now here comes the fun part. We get on the train only to found out that there are no more seats available… those tickets are “standing tickets” oooh yeah departure time 19H27…. arrival time 11 isssh!! Well that was the adventure. Because not only do you stand over people but they are food carts going by every minute, people going from wagon to wagon so you are constantly on the move.Buuuut whatever it was all fun after all

Enjoy!!!

Yes I know I know I am late again but what do you want… that’s life sorry. No but for real. In the last month I went to this place called Xi’an 西安, it’s a town in the west of China very famous for it’s history and it use to be the old Capital of China if my memory serves me right. I went to a few…probably too many Museums, yeah museums are great for like 30mins or so but then I want to see the real stuff! Bring me to a tavern or a bar where it’s loud and people use the local language, eat the local food and spit in a bucket of dirty juice… you know? But no not this time. So what we did, because I went with my classmates, my girlfriend and 2 of my teachers, we visited the famous 兵马俑(Bingmayong) It is a famous museum for it’s finding of a thousand of buried pottery warriors, horses and chariots. It was indeed very cool Xi’an was beautiful, the weather was amazing and the food…well the food was not that great since we were in a “Group” thing. It’s always the same really, they bring you to these places with tons of shops around and the meals are just blaaaa. hehe whatever it was fun.

It was my first trip with my girl and to tell you the truth I don’t recognize myself in all this. My buddy helped me give her a little souvenir she’ll always remember. I am very happy to make her happy… and this time I have such an ease expressing my feelings. I don’t know if it’s because of the language or because I am in China or… I just don’t know but everything comes out of me so easily now. This makes me think of that one time my ex-girlfriend told me “You give me a gift but it looks like you don’t care”… I did care I just didn’t know how to express it. Yeah SamTheChan on it’s soft side I am doing a “Chunky” haha! Well all that to say that I am very happy at the moment.

I went to a nightclub in Xi’an called 一加一 （yijiayi）oneplusone. Very cool place… but damn they need to prohibit smoking in those places. It was as if I was in the time coughing my lungs out even when I was out of the club. Your clothes, your skin and ever your hair smell like nicotine! Just plain disgusting. Anyways we had a blast though. The music was cool… Chinese people can’t dance and it’s always funny to watch. lol

So yeah that was Xi’an… a trip I’ll never forget

What’s new right? Today I’ve decided to take on my first real exam the “HSK” … yeah I don’t even know what it stand for yet. All I know it that it qualifies me as a “good speaker, writer and what not” so I can legally work in China in the future. How sick is that haha Some people take a few months to prepare… I have about 1 month and some days. I’ll be getting help from my 辅导老师 (fudaolaoshi) coach to get me ready for that big step. At first I didn’t know if I wanted to do this or not. But seeing the opportunity go by would be a waste in my opinion.

Next, as you may already know, I’ve got closer to a special someone who fills up my days with happiness. I am not sure where it’s going or how it’s gonna turn out when I hit back Canada but for now it’s one of the best thing I’ve ever experienced. If I didn’t say it before I believe traveling one of the best way to grow personally…well she does lots of that and I love it. More to come that’s for sure so stay tuned.

In two weeks from now I am going to Xi’an 西安 province for about 4 days. This is actually a trip organized by the school so we are going with some teachers and obviously my classmates and what not. I don’t think I have to tell you that I am very excited about it right? You’ll see pictures as soon as I come back.

Soooooo that is it for now. I’ll give you more stuff soon

peace

Samthechan!

The first word that comes to mind is wow!!! An amazing show considering the fact we are in Qufu and I… well my friend who invited paid less then 3$ Canadian to watch an incredible production! Real rain, real waterfall, about 35 artists, wonderful music, humongous screen/projection and insane lighting! Just wow! I wish we could have this kind of stuff in Canada!

It was a “musical” but actors never spoke or sang… it was just with music, dance and a huge stage to be filled by incredible people. I felt so many emotions throughout the play. It was the Confucius’s life story… I mean not hard to know when the play takes place in Qufu (Confucius homeland) and at the Confucius theater

Well, it was a night I am not about to forget.

Thanks to my friend who invited me.

SamTheChan