So much happened this week. I am off to a rough start! Let’s see if I can tell you everything without forgetting anything…
A summary
- I saw dragons
- I moved apartments
- I met my future colleagues
- I signed up to participate in a Chinese show
Let’s start at the beginning. I had to see my first dragon, so I tempted fate and went to visit a museum of ancient art. It was full of them, in sculptures, paintings, furniture, and columns. It was wonderful. There were many different types of animals represented, the most common being birds and tigers. I saw two cats, they have longer and fluffier tails than in Europe, I think. I’ll leave you with my selection of favorite photos for you to see.
A text that caught my attention: “In traditional Chinese society, the literary class had aesthetic needs and vital value orientations. Culture integrates morality, sentiment, character, and other symbols with cultural symbolism, especially in study utensils such as pens, ink, paper, and ink commonly used in the study of literati. Since most users of study utensils are literati and doctors, they also often participate in their production. In the selection of materials, styles, and longevity patterns, they pursue the aesthetic trend of exquisite, fresh, and unusual elegance, which compensates for the deficiencies of the monotonous methods of expression in longevity culture, convergent content, and lack of spiritual and cultural connotations, giving them a richer and more elegant connotation. [translated from Chinese by deepL]
I moved apartments!
I had already signed everything when a colleague called me complaining about the dorms. I went back to the agency with him and we found an apartment five minutes from the university (ten if you walk very, very slowly). It looked better, with more light and color, and it is on the fifth floor instead of the sixth. The floor plan is typical, with one real bedroom and the other in the living room. When we entered it for the first time, we fell in love with the place, despite (or thanks to) the princess bed in the bedroom. The decision was: who wants the bigger place, but where we dry clothes, and who wants the pink bed with a bunk bed. It’s not hard to guess: I took the princess room.1
With my roommate, I visited a supermarket. It’s called Wu Mart.2 (I imagine it’s an imitation of Walmart. Inside, there’s also a small lingerie store called “Three Gun,” which refers to Freegun). It’s very large, and the prices inside are quite similar to those in Europe, which surprised me. I swear I saw other things besides alcohol, but I was walking around taking pictures of the dragons, and most of them were on top of pretty liquor boxes. I took pictures of bottles of Italian wine thinking of a friend because they come from Abruzzo, her region, where they make parmigiana without eggs. The last photo, well… I don’t know if it was a mistake or if a place is really called “andasaludsia.”
A dragon
✨Dragón✨ rice
Another, but green
Abruzzo Wine
A third dragon
“Andasaludsia”
A little more about shopping. Because really, discovering it is also visiting. Many people order what they need online because it’s cheaper. It arrives with a lot of single-use plastic, which bothers me, but it’s the only thing I can do for now as I’m starting my life here (yes, I even had to order sponges). When we order, sometimes it arrives right at our door (yep, on the 5th floor), or at a store that takes care of accumulating all the packages. The one in the photo is ours. I don’t know if they ever stop working. I went early, around 8AM, and late, after 9PM.
In shopping malls, everything is much more expensive. But when you need something quickly it is easier. I saw many of them this far: Galeries Lafayette, Xidan (two of them, the normal one and the “new” one). The names of the stores make me laugh sometimes, but I only took pictures of three of them. “AMONAVIS” (“à mon avis”), which means “in my opinion” in French. “The green party,” but they only sell toys and useless things inside. And the last one made me think of another friend with whom I had a conversation about ancient language writings and the history of the Turkish language. They sell bags and suitcases. Again: nothing to do with it.
Afterwards, I wanted to buy a children’s book to read and learn. I went to the nearest bookstore and, how wonderful, there’s even a café inside. There was a class of young children learning how to program in English (clever young minds). I saw lots of books that interested me: foreign literature (see the photo with Proust), science, and everything. But obviously, I can’t read them yet. I bought a book of ancient stories, and they explain how the characters were created. Look at the bunny and the dragon. How cool is that!
Now, random facts:
- This photo seems pretty useless, but it contains two crucial elements. The chair is broken, someone threw it away, but it is very small, it looks like it was for children. Sometimes people crouch down on the street to “rest” instead of sitting down. I imagine that being close to the ground is a habit; thus, most chairs here are actually very low. The second significant thing is the fire next to it. Every day, people sweep up the street, making piles of what they collect (dry leaves, plastic, etc.). And at night, people set them on fire. It’s a very effective way to get rid of them, but it pollutes the air a lot.
- I have to check the air quality to know whether or not to wear a mask. The weather app on my iPhone isn’t reliable. The other day, the particle index was so high that I had to stay home.
- Are you familiar with captcha verification to prevent bots? Well, obviously in China it’s in Chinese. I felt silly and thought, “Maybe I’m a computer” when I had to take a screenshot and put it in the translator.
And what about the show? Well… the university’s anniversary will be celebrated on the 19th, and they asked some students to sing at an official event. I already did the first rehearsal, which was stressful. I have a lot to prepare, but I’ll show you the video as soon as it comes out. So, this week I’m going to be studying Chinese a lot. Next week I’ll share a post in the learning category.
P.S.: a screen taken by mistake when calling my mom, with the sunset behind me. It is still summer but it is at 6PM. How strange.
