Frosting 101

What's the best way to practice writing Chinese characters?

In frosting of course! (I can't believe I haven't thought of this before!)

In the parks around town we'll see people of all ages practicing characters with massive paint brushes and water.

To practice with frosting, all you need is a Chinese colleague of your husband's who wants to learn how to cook. At her request, this afternoon we made bruschetta, spaghetti carbonara, and two cakes. Yes, two. Xu Li is my kind of gal! We took the chocolate cake out of the oven and then she asked if we could also make the yellow cake I'd made for Brian's birthday. How could I say "no?" Someone who is eating, let alone making, cakes for the first time has to be given the opportunity to decide if she's a chocolate cake or yellow cake kind of gal, right?! Thank goodness we ran out of time, so I couldn't show her how to make mashed potatoes. I thought living in China would be a much needed diet by default for me, but it has unfortunately proved otherwise. Oops!

My go at Xu Li's name

Xu Li's maiden voyage in frosting!

Holy Shi!

We had another Chinese lesson tonight and we are both brain dead. The lesson was about asking/getting/giving directions. Holy bizarre word order Batman! Plus the fact that that (na4), which (na3), and where (nar3) all sound similar. Or how about three very different meanings for zuo4, and throw in zuo3 and zou3 for good measure! Shi is another word that has only 4 pronounciations, but seemingly infinite meanings. The Mandarin character for each "shi" is unique, so reading is one thing, listening however.... Which brings me to the following story (thanks Amanda!): Shī Shì shí shī shǐ  Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī. Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī. Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì. Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì. Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì. Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì. Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì. Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī. Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī. Shì shì shì shì.            The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den

In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten.

He often went to the market to look for lions.

At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.

At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.

He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.

He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.

The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.

After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.

When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.

Try to explain this matter. 

Holy shi, what have we gotten ourselves into?

Much clearer, no?

Wo3 xue4xi4 Han4yu3!

First and foremost, fame and glory belong to Celia for correctly naming both mystery fruits (mangosteen and rambutan) in the latest installment of Food Fight.  Celia, I looked into mail ordering you some, but I'll admit the cost was prohibitive. From now on, I'll be posting cheap and readily available mystery foods!

So we've been taking Chinese lessons for about 6 weeks now, and I'm really enjoying it! It's amazing how empowering it is when the taxi drivers and store clerks understand what you're saying! Of course, a 2 year old probably has a bigger vocabulary than me, but at least I'm not getting blank stares all the time! Our first two months we collected business cards from all the restaurants and shops we liked, so we could show them to the cab drivers. No more! It's qu4 bu4xing2 jie1 and zai4 zher4 ting2 or bust! Alot of "this is X" and "that is Y" interspersed with a healthy dose of "I don't speak very well" (we can say this VERY well) and "please repeat that." My latest triumph was finding a twin size memory foam mattress topper for our rock hard mattress and being about to say "Excuse me. This is too small. I want big."  And having the clerk understand and telling me the price for the right size--$300!! ridiculous! We plan to stop by Costco in Australia in July and come back with one for a fraction of the cost. 

The best part is that our teacher wants to improve her English, so on top of 2 lessons a week, she and I are now getting together 1-2 times a week to practice speaking in Chinese and English. She's hoping to take the TOEFL and wants to improve her  already impressive vocabulary (I doubt I'll ever need to know puckish and primoridal in Chinese!) and in exchange is helping me practice Chinese and showing me more of Jiangyin off the beaten path. We're going to lunch on Friday--she asked what I liked, and I told her, "if you like it, I'll try it." Here's hoping I don't live to regret those words!