For those of you wondering, I’m taking a vacation from Taiwan and will spend this spring semester teaching in South Korea. My students are fantastic, bright, curious, awake, motivated, able bodied… It’s a really great teaching experience.
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Happy New Year to everyone, a lot of prosperity, health, everything you want!
I’m back in Taiwan as of last Tuesday, it’s cold, rainy, and downright chilly in the house. Space heaters do their job, but I just wish we could have a nice fireplace!!! Anyhow, it’s probably going to be 20 degrees next week, so it puts it all back into perspective.
I had a great time back in Quebec and did almost as much in 2 weeks as I did in 2 months last summer! Even had time for a laser touch up for my eyes, not pleasant but so worth it!
Our friends Mara and Arthur welcomed their beautiful son Nick into the world on January 29th, congratulations to them!
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I’m back home until early February. It’s nice to visit Quebec in the winter: pretty snow, fire in the fireplace, winter landscapes! It’s even nicer to know I’ll be back in subtropical weather in less than 10 days, as I wouldn’t enjoy “real winter” as much knowing it would be like that until late March!!!
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There is a nice little restaurant O and I like to go to quite often, it serves Shandong specialties. Their best dish is the beef noodle soup, and it’s well worth its fame!
This bowl is for two people, I could never eat that alone. But a few minutes later, O and I managed to honor the dish…
And for dessert, the mandatory sesame flat cake, a mysterious concoction of a thin Chinese pancake, some thick syrup (maltose?) and sesame seeds. Delicious!!!
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To all my readers near and far, I wish you a very happy year 2008!
Wow, I can’t believe we are in 2008 already, time really flies.
(Cool pattern by iza-ann found on colourlovers.com)
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Yes, this is a promotion sent by my bank for some credit card… If it wasn’t that complicated for “FOREIGNERS” (to be pronounced with the official accent and tone like the locals do) to get credit cards, I would get one right away! I love Miffy! I would love to have a Miffy credit card!
So for those of you that see me every year, coming back to Canada with some stuff dangling off my cellphone, some Hello Kitty handkerchief in my purse, stickers stuck on my Ipod, well, you now that it’s as contagious as H5N1 and that it’s not entirely my fault!!!
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During our honeymoon in Greece last year, we stoped in Kalambaka for one night, to visit the Meteoras monasteries. The place is just out of this world: gorgeous rocky formations, pretty monasteries perched on top of the rock, nice villages around the area. And the Kokaroka! This guest house and restaurant is worth the trip! We had the warmest welcome from owner Arthur and his mom Ekaterini. Their house wine was to die for, and their BBQ lamb is the best meat I EVER had in my whole life (and I’m not a big meat eater, so this is the ultimate compliment!)
Arthur is now married to a pretty American lady and we got news from them today, including their blog address, which I’m now sharing with you! Mara and Arthur’s Blog
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I’ve been wanting one of these for a long time. I’ve seen them in Montreal, in South-East Asia, in Taiwan, in China… And last week was the time! My very first Erhu! I took a generic picture, my erhu looks a bit different than this one.
I just LOVE it!!! So far, it sounds like a strangled cat or a pig living its last atrocious moments on Earth, but I’m positive that in a few weeks I will be able to extract some decent sounds out of it! I was amazed to find so much information on how to learn Chinese traditional instruments online. There are forums dedicated to the subject and many Westerners are just like me: they’ve been fascinated by these beautiful musical instruments for a long time and decided to acquire one.
Now I need to find a teacher who’s patient enough to endure me!!!
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Learning Chinese, what a task! It’s nice to be immersed in a Chinese speaking environment, but let’s face it, we need to actually study Chinese to learn it. I updated my page on resources for Chinese learners, so please have a look! If you know any tools or want to share your secrets, please post a comment!
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