Very quick update

Thanks for your e-mails, messages and wishes. I haven't updated for several days, so here it is, just a short one to show you I am still alive and kickin' ass.



- The weather is getting quite cold here... Well nothing like Kanada for sure, but still, I had some frost on my motorbike yesterday morning. It's weird, tonight it's windy as fuck (as I type this, I hear the wind whistling around the buildings outside) and freezing, but Monday and Tuesday it was so warm I was walking around with just a shirt on! I have the hypothesis that maybe it's the haze of pollution absorbing the heat from the sun, and when it overflows, BANG we get a warm December day.



I still wear shorts most of the time I'm not working though, so I get asked "冷不冷?" "leng bu leng" quite often, like 50 times a day. It translates by "are you cold?". I also added "ri bu ri" to my vocabulary rotation, it translates loosely by "are YOU feeling hot?!".



- SO yeah, I'm still learning Chinese, or trying. Once you pass the psychological wall, it gets easier and encouraging, especially Chinese because of the vocabulary and grammar simplicity ("leng bu leng?" means literally "cold not cold?"... to ask a question in Chinese, most of the time you just need to follow this pattern). I know how to get around decently now, read more and more characters, and can even hold a very, very simple conversation. Yay!



- I started cooking more and more... just to pass the time, and to change from the school food. I am surprisingly not bad, and yesterday I made some badass tofu with eggplant as a side dish.



- Last week-end I have traveled to the north of the province, to Reecy (my Chinese tutor and friend)'s hometown. I met her family, ate kickass food, went to see some sites, and got stared the fuck at. Complete story coming soon (en França!).



- I lost 15 pounds since I landed here exactly 3 months ago... A bonus for living in China I guess.



- I am still in a great fucking mood most of the time, and I spend a lot of time with my new friends. The classes are OK most of the time, and the school administration doesn't impress me anymore with its bullshit. My morale is unaffected by it. And the winter vacation is coming soon!



- Speaking of which, here are my (not definitive) plans:

week-end after Crisse miss: Shanghai

first week of vacation (Jan 2-9): still not sure... maybe Beijing, Tianjin, Qindao...

second and third weeks (Jan 10-23): down south... where it's warmer

spring festival (Jan 25th and around): back to Henan, spend time with Davey's family

Davey is a junior student here, and one of my good buddies. should be fun!

after that, and up til the beginning of classes: ?????????



But right now, I'm going to bed... I have to wake up in 6 hours to go to Zhengzhou (again...). Hopefully I can buy a toaster!



Boring little post just to give some newz... take care! Pis petez-vous pas la yeule en pelletant! 嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻嘻