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Today's weather:
- Day: 32 degrees, sun but also a bit cloudy
- Night: 22 degrees and thunder
Sentence of today:
Your home looks really nice!
您的家里看上去很棒!Nínde jiā lǐ kàn shàng qù hěn bàng!
Today's - Good to know:
In China, the friendliest way to address people is by brining them into your family. You can call a woman of an older generation āyí阿姨 (auntie). It's polite to give people the benefit of the doubt on the upwards side when guessing their age. In Beijing, gēmenr 哥们儿(buddy) and jiěmenr 姐们儿 (sis) are popular for men and women respectively, reflecting Beijing's laid-back youth culture. Elsewhere, the terms dàgē大哥 (bigbrother) and jiějie姐姐 (big sis) are commonly used. On the less friendly side, to call one of your peers sūnzi孙子 (grandchild) - a rank two full generations below yours - is a popular insult.
You can really say that I have been brought into this family, especially bacause my host Mom said I could call her Mama, and the dad, Baba. Otherwise its more common to use auntie and onkel.
Todays tip:
Never give a clock as a gift as it has morbid overtones.
Dish of today:
Běijīng kǎoyā 北京烤鸭 Peking duck - slices of spice-imbued roast duck often served with pancakes, shallots & plum sauce. (Very very delicious!)
Today's Historical fact:
CHINA'S ONE-CHILD POLICY:
The 'one-child policy' (actually a misnomer) was railroaded into effect in 1979 in a bid to keep China's population to one billion by the year 2000: the latest government estimate claims the population will peak at 1.5 billion in 2033. The policy was originally harshly implemented but rural revolt led to a softer stance: nonetheless, it has generated much bad feeling between local officials and the rural population. All non-Han minorities are exempt from the one-child policy.
Rural families are now allowed to have two children if the first child is a girl, but some have upwards of three or four kids. Additional children often result in fines and families having to shoulder the cost of education themselves, without government assistance. Official stated policy opposes forced abortion or sterilisation, but allegations of coercion continue as local officials who force woman to undergo inhumane sterilisation procedures. Families who do abide by the one-child policy will often go to great lengths to make sure their child is male. In parts of China, this is creating a serious imbalance of the sexes - in 2007, 111 boys were born for every 100 girls. That could mean that by 2020, over 30 million men may be unable to find spouses.
Book of today:
When a billion Chinese Jump (Jonathan Watts)
China's environmental travails under the microscope, and it's not pretty.
My day:
First I would say how lucky I am that my sweet Chinese teacher, >Li Min< found a really nice family for me. 非常谢谢你!I was asking my host Mom 由妈妈 how much I should pay for living here, and she said, you call me Mom, you are my foreign son, sons don't pay rent, and don't pay for food at their Moms place, so don't have to pay for anything else than entrance fee in the different places I visit, and for the things I buy of course.
And defiantly couldn't ask for me here. Have my own room and bathroom. And they always serve a lot of food. This evening we ate with the neighbours, You Mama ask me to go knock un their door and invite them for dinner. So I did. The grandma already started cooking, so they just broad the food over to us, so even more food. Think I will gain weight here. Hehe.
This Morning I ate breakfast with Deng Baba, he served warm milk, some kind of bread, and fried egg. Tasty except the milk, really hope I can avoid it the next time. Baba gave Jiaojiao and I a lift into town, where we went to the National Museum. Must say I was a bit bored in there, they have some really interesting exhibitions, but also a lot which are not. The place is not just huge, it's gigantic. A thing I noticed in there, when a high official want to visit, then they just close down the section he wants to see, and if people is captured in some part of the building where you cannot go down, before he is finish, to bad, you just have to wait, which happened to us, but only for five minutes, luckily. One great thing was, its for free.
After the museum we went to Tianmen street, very commercial place, actually quite interesting. It's a long straight street, and on all the small side street, there are shops in every kind, I bought a magnet for my aunt, (I know, but she want a magnet from China?) also a Xun. Xun is an ancient holed wind instrument, egg-shaped and have a really elegant sound.
Another commercial place, Wangfujing, is where we went afterwards. We took a cap there. Paid around 12 yuan for 10 minutes drive. So caps are quite cheap I would say, and much more pleasant than busses, which can be a b****. I had to go home alone today, first with the subway, which is easy to figure out, and everything is in English, but the busses are another matter. The subway has 4 exits, to find the right bus stop took me about 15 min and only because I ask for the way. The busses are also overcrowded, people pushes, smells, the driver drives like s***, but its cheap, only 1 yuan. Normally I would take a cap, but it's worth the experience.
The time is around 11 pm, and I'm sooo tired! I can finally sleep for long tomorrow, first have to get up for lunch time, where the neighbour grandma will cook for me..
Good-night!
Ps: Got 12 in Basic Marketing and Consumer Behaviour! So happy! :)
PPs: I miss you Vince!
- comments
Martin K. Hvor må det være spændende at opleve en så anderledes kultur på så tæt hold og hvor er det fedt at du bruger tid på at lave disse blogs. Det er virkelig en lille oplevelse at følge med i. Og nice med de små billeder i højre hjørne :D
Patrick So exciting :)
Svetlana U O ME dinner xDD gratz about marketing :)))))) really enjoy reading your notebook