The Secret Underground Mahjong Club
30:th of August. I had officially moved over to the dorm at Huashi (Huazhong shifan daxue) the day before, but I went back to my hostel that night to get the last things, the wole business took longer than I expected so I actually spend my first night after moving into my new temporary residence at the hostel, and not in the dorm. I returned back to my dorm room around noon the 30:th, opened the door, and found a blond girl intthe bed that had still been empty when I left the day before.
Her first words: "Where were you all night?"
This is Juliane Niedermeyer. From the German Bielefeldt, even though she's lived in Leipzig the last couple of years. She has studied Chinese part-time for two years, and this is her fist time in China. We went together to find the supermarket that first day, it took us an hour before we realized that we hadn't even introduced ourselves to eachother.
A few days later, we went together to the office to get information about the medical examination all the foreign students have to do. Teacher Li, who I most often wish to fall off a steep cliff somewhere, for once did something good. He asked the Chinese-looking girl, also fluent in Chinese, if the three of us could go together to the hospital, since neither me or Juliande could get by with our lousy Chinese in a situation like that.
This is Chin By Ang. From Paris ?and I believe that there are no questions about where Paris is located). She's born and raised in France but her parents were both Chinese Kambodians. She has studied Chinese for four years, and study B.A. courses in classical Chinese with Chinese students here at Huashi ?even though she's on M.A. level back in France). We would not have survived the hospital without her.
A few days later, passing the courtyard in the company of Chin By and her room mate, Radina, I caught sight of a young man sitting at the garden table (the same table that is now referred to as "our table"), I recognized him, and, as by then being used to the idea that I know everyone that I have ever seen before, gave up a friendly shout, sounding something like this:
"Hey! You're the German dude! I saw you speaking with the German chick I share room with at the office!"
This is Lucas Göepfert. (And this is the kind of moments that make me think that I should really work harder on my English vocabulary.) He's grown up in Erfurt, a city in the former DDR, living, just as Juliane, in Leipzig since a couple of years. They've been classmates, but the never spoke to eachother until they bumped into eachother here. And, this is his first time in China as well.
It just took a couple of days at Huashi before I had already found these friends, and we've stuck to eachother. We are nothing like eachother, and that's the beauty of it.
The rules and regulations at Huashi forced us at one point to sign a paper where we promised, among other things, to not keep pets in the dorm, not keep friends/ girlfriends/ boyfriends in the dorm, not use any electrical devise, such as riceboilers or refridgerators in the dorm (which is very interesting, since there is already a refridgerator in every room), and, most important of all: to not play mahjong or gamble in the dorm. This became the unevitable birth of the Secret Underground Mahjong Club. (Of course, we don't play mahjong. We reason that we are like the great kung fu masters, who never fight, because they are just so good that they never have to. Actually, none of us knows the rules of mahjong, but we would learn it just to spite the riddiculous rules.)
Juliane, Chin By, Lucas and me, we are family now. 1:st of October we will move to a 144 m2 big appartment, with one kitchen, one living room, two toilets, three bedrooms and a cupboard where Lucas will sleep. It will be the most beautiful German-French-Swedish joint venture ever. We are lucky to have found eachother.
It's late and I'm tired, and additionaly, I haven't put up many posts lately, so I will just post this as it is, without caring much about the spelling. It will drive me crazy next time I read it, but if you can cope with it, then so can I.
I'm even too tired to think of a good way to end this text. Maybe I can just do like this:
THE END
Alex
(Click on "Kommentarer" below to leave a comment.)
Her first words: "Where were you all night?"
This is Juliane Niedermeyer. From the German Bielefeldt, even though she's lived in Leipzig the last couple of years. She has studied Chinese part-time for two years, and this is her fist time in China. We went together to find the supermarket that first day, it took us an hour before we realized that we hadn't even introduced ourselves to eachother.
A few days later, we went together to the office to get information about the medical examination all the foreign students have to do. Teacher Li, who I most often wish to fall off a steep cliff somewhere, for once did something good. He asked the Chinese-looking girl, also fluent in Chinese, if the three of us could go together to the hospital, since neither me or Juliande could get by with our lousy Chinese in a situation like that.
This is Chin By Ang. From Paris ?and I believe that there are no questions about where Paris is located). She's born and raised in France but her parents were both Chinese Kambodians. She has studied Chinese for four years, and study B.A. courses in classical Chinese with Chinese students here at Huashi ?even though she's on M.A. level back in France). We would not have survived the hospital without her.
A few days later, passing the courtyard in the company of Chin By and her room mate, Radina, I caught sight of a young man sitting at the garden table (the same table that is now referred to as "our table"), I recognized him, and, as by then being used to the idea that I know everyone that I have ever seen before, gave up a friendly shout, sounding something like this:
"Hey! You're the German dude! I saw you speaking with the German chick I share room with at the office!"
This is Lucas Göepfert. (And this is the kind of moments that make me think that I should really work harder on my English vocabulary.) He's grown up in Erfurt, a city in the former DDR, living, just as Juliane, in Leipzig since a couple of years. They've been classmates, but the never spoke to eachother until they bumped into eachother here. And, this is his first time in China as well.
It just took a couple of days at Huashi before I had already found these friends, and we've stuck to eachother. We are nothing like eachother, and that's the beauty of it.
The rules and regulations at Huashi forced us at one point to sign a paper where we promised, among other things, to not keep pets in the dorm, not keep friends/ girlfriends/ boyfriends in the dorm, not use any electrical devise, such as riceboilers or refridgerators in the dorm (which is very interesting, since there is already a refridgerator in every room), and, most important of all: to not play mahjong or gamble in the dorm. This became the unevitable birth of the Secret Underground Mahjong Club. (Of course, we don't play mahjong. We reason that we are like the great kung fu masters, who never fight, because they are just so good that they never have to. Actually, none of us knows the rules of mahjong, but we would learn it just to spite the riddiculous rules.)
Juliane, Chin By, Lucas and me, we are family now. 1:st of October we will move to a 144 m2 big appartment, with one kitchen, one living room, two toilets, three bedrooms and a cupboard where Lucas will sleep. It will be the most beautiful German-French-Swedish joint venture ever. We are lucky to have found eachother.
It's late and I'm tired, and additionaly, I haven't put up many posts lately, so I will just post this as it is, without caring much about the spelling. It will drive me crazy next time I read it, but if you can cope with it, then so can I.
I'm even too tired to think of a good way to end this text. Maybe I can just do like this:
THE END
Alex
(Click on "Kommentarer" below to leave a comment.)
Kommentarer
Postat av: Helga form Sweden
Vad fint att ni hittat en lägenhet! Det låter skitmysigt. Puss puss.
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