The Alisaurus Blog

Today is 端午节 (duān wū jié), China’s Dumpling Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival. In class, we learned that long ago lived a man called 屈原 (Qū Yuán), who committed suicide by throwing himself into a river. People then threw rice wrapped in leaves into the river for him, and now we celebrate this festival, and eat 粽子 (zòngzi), rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. I’m guessing there’s also something to do with dragon boats. I’m not sure if this was what the teacher was teaching, or if it’s what the rest of the class learned, but it’s what I got from the lesson!

We have a long weekend off because of it, and my homework for one of my classes is to write a short essay on how I celebrated. I didn’t think it was going to be much of an essay because I wasn’t going travelling or doing anything in particular to celebrate, like a lot of my classmates, but it actually turned out to be quite an interesting day. If I can translate the following into Chinese with better grammar than the English version, I might not get a bad mark.

So, this morning I wasn’t feeling well. There’s something up with my left eye, and although I can’t see anything in it, something’s obscuring my view, and made me think I was getting a migraine. I think because I thought this, I started feeling other migraine symptoms that weren’t actually there. By late afternoon, my imaginary symptoms had died down, and I went to Mazagran Café for a bite to eat. It turned out they were closing in an hour, so I just got a coffee and a cake, and they apologized profusely (which they really didn’t need to do.) While I was eating, one of the staff came over and gave me 2 cinnamon pinwheels in a bag, and said “这个面包…送给你。” (This bread… something something something… give you.) So 2 enormous, free, inexplicable, cinnamon pinwheels. Not bad! A little while later she came over again and asked if I could write a sign in English to say that they were closing early, which I did. Not very well though. As a native speaker, my English is obviously good, and I can often understand things perfectly in Chinese, but can’t translate them into idiomatic English. That’s something to work on. I finished my drink and left, getting a cheery “thank you” and “goodbye” from the staff. They’re all ridiculously nice in there!

I don’t know if it’s because of the holiday, or because the Olympic flame is getting close to Kunming, or both, but there’s been a sudden proliferation of T-shirts, flags and stickers with “中国加油！” (Go China!) and the like on. After passing at least 6 people selling such merchandise, I stopped at the end of the overpass, and bought some flags from a girl. What kind of Chinese person would I be if I didn’t!? Oh yes, that’s right. I’m not a Chinese person. Anyhow, now I have a little Chinese flag and a little Beijing 2008 flag, and I think I made that girl’s day. As I wandered home, I wondered what reaction I’d get if I set up camp in the middle of all the vendors and tried to flog Union Jacks and London 2012 flags? You wouldn’t believe how tempted I am to try it.

My last stop before home was the supermarket, to get some milk and apple juice. They had no plastic bags left, so I had to put the milk in The World’s Smallest Handbag, and carry the apple juice in my arms along with the peedie flags and The World’s Largest Cinnamon Pinwheels.

So if anyone spotted a bemused looking 老外 (foreigner) sweating like crazy, with a bulging handbag and an arm full of random objects heading up 建设路 (Jianshe Road), that’ll be why.

Talking of the Olympic flame, I seem to have been calling it the “奥运会火鸡” (Àoyùnhuì huǒjī) or Olympic turkey, instead of the “奥运会火炬” (Àoyùnhuì huǒjù) Olympic torch. Nice one! And talking of “加油”, it literally means “add oil”, so a petrol station is a “加油站”. But I learned “come on!” first, so everytime I see a petrol station, it seems really encouraging.

Tags: China, chinese, olympics

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