Chinese class is over

So, today was my last day of intensive Chinese. For the last almost 4 weeks I have been spending every morning and afternoon learning Chinese (well, except weekends, and except my holiday to Beijing, and except the days I spent hunting for somewhere to live, or visiting the Chinese immigration office). In total I managed 84 hours of Chinese. My level is still very basic, but I've certainly made progress - anything is better than nothing!!

This morning one of my teachers, Christine, took me on a field trip. Firstly, I had to bargain with a shop owner over the price of cushions. I managed to get the price from 15 Yuan to 12 Yuan. As I bought 2, Christine said I should have got the price down to 10 Yuan each. I thought £1.60 for a pair of silk cushions was OK! I don't feel ripped off.

Next step on the field trip was a clothes shop - groan. It was fine though 'cos there was a big white cat to play with (I've been watching this cat for the last few weeks and he spends most of his time with his nose pressed up against the cage containing two white finches!!). Anyway, we just worked on my colours and sizes, didn't buy anything.

Final stop was lunch. We went to a Sichuan place. We had already discussed that I like my food là (spicy), and Sichuan food is well-known for being spicy. The restaurant was a bit different – you picked up a plastic basket and went to the vegetables, which were all on bamboo skewers. I got to take the vegetables I could say in Chinese, plus a few others I’d never tried – bamboo shoots in China are different from bamboo shoots in Scotland. I now understand how pandas can live on bamboo shoots. They are about 5 inches long and at least 3 inches in diameter. They seem very fibrous, and pretty tasteless to be honest! Then on to the meat; the meat is also on skewers, and kept in a fridge. I managed to say beef, but there wasn’t and, so I had to settle for pork. I didn’t fancy eating the chicken or the fish. It was a bit too ‘local’ for that. So after all that, we then paid – 40p, and waited for it to be cooked. Christine did ask me if I liked pig’s blood………I said no, but I was left a bit intrigued. You could help yourself to the condiments – salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, chili and chopped-up raw garlic. When mine arrived, I decided that unadorned was fine, even although I’d managed the words. It was very tasty, and hot – both temperature and spicy. I enjoyed it, even although my face went all red!

Well, need to stop there, I’ve just been invited out for a few beers by a couple of my colleagues – rude not to go!!