The lessons today were really good we had a new teacher who had superb English and was a really good teacher. He taught us how to say lots of sports in Chinese. Then we had another teacher and she sung the dumpling song with us again. It is so addictive it stays in your head for days after. During class we were also treated to a excert from the Peking Opera sung kareoke style by one of the Chinese helpers. It was hysterical!
Then, in the afternoon we resumed our martial arts classes where we were faced with the challenge of swords again. Needless to say we were no better than last time! Thankfully it was our last lesson.
The rest of the afternoon was spent getting dolled up to go to the opera as it is quite a formal occasion . We all looked very posh when we got on the bus to go.
The opera itself was an experience! They had the English translation on electronic boards at the side of the stage, except that it was very poorly translated with lines such as 'But i have a disturbed state of mind' and 'We are aquatic animals'!! It was very difficult to keep our giggles under control. However, the second half was a lot better with gymnastics, including backward flips etc!
All in all it was a good day,
Ailithx
In class
Lesson
Chinese ladies
Opera
Sounds
Download charlotte_ailith_sports_dailogue.MP3
Peking opera
Ni hau ma from the chemistry dept. My problem at the Beijing Opera was that we flew in on Tuesday, did Tienamin Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace on Wednesday in 33 degrees plus then drove in the coach for an hour to get to dinner and the Opera. When I wasn't giggling at the translation, I was in danger of nodding off and was terrified I would start to snore - several mambers of our party did sleep through the performance! Seriously though I think there is a real market you girls could get into, as I was astonished at some of the mistranslations and typos on signs - there was even one carved into a beautiful sculpture at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yanzi and we found the sign to end all signs in a service station on the Expressway between Luo Yang and Zhenzhou but I didn't have my camera with me. I plan to put my photos in an album if you would like to see some of my trip round the rest of China.
PS Your panda looks cleaner that our one - In Beijing we stayed in a hotel right opposite the zoo, but our panda visit was in Chonquing Zoo at the end of the Yangzi cruise - a city with a population of 30 million and five pandas!!
Posted by: Seonaid McLaren | August 17, 2006 at 09:39 AM