This weekend was as hectic as hectic can be. It started off with our Chinese classes early on Saturday. It was once again a very good class! We learned a lot we can now say that China is a big country and Holland is not, it is small…. We also got introduced with the Moon festival, and ate moon cakes in class. The moon festival is all about meeting up with your family and admire the beauty of the moon while eating moon cakes. The story goes that there once was an archer Hou Yi who stole the elixir of life from a Goddess. His very beautiful wife took it from him to spare the people the faith of the tyrannical ruler living forever. She drank the elixir and then floated away to the moon. Where she still remains.
We had some food in Chinatown and had to go back to Leiden again. We also had an appointment with a new traditional Chinese doctor who is from Hong Kong. He really wants to learn Dutch so we decided it would be fun to teach each other! There is nothing better than a native speaker; I think we all learned a lot. After that I had to rush home to pack a bag and set off to Rotterdam were my brother was going to pick up my mother and me to go to Brussels My twin brother had invited us to come down to see his and his girlfriend's new apartment and enjoy the concert that was given in the monastery nearby. His balcony is perfect we could see the stage from there and the great light show and of course clearly hear the music.
Wow what an amazing place, the apartment was really big and the view was just stunning! They lived in a tiny place before but this looks fantastic. It was so good to see that they were both so happy and doing well. 
We had some food together and ofcourse some drinks and listened to the music. It was the SolisteN concert at the Abdij ter Kameren. Sinead o'Conner, Jose van Dam a famous Belgium opera singer, Billy Paul (the writer and singer of the Me and Mrs. Jones song), Lu Yu Cheng also an opera singer, and Catherine Lara were all performing. 
There was an amazing light show and fireworks at the end of the night. 
We finished eating quite late and when we were almost going to bed one of the neighbors dropped by. He is a musician called Mano and definitely not an average behaving person. He showed up again the next day wearing tiger pants…that was very funny. It was great to meet him, he was very good fun, very friendly, and we heard some beautiful songs. My brother told me that sometimes he shows up at their place to play some new songs for them. That was what really surprised me; everybody in the apartment building was so nice and friendly with eachother that is quite special. People in the Netherlands usually are a lot more distant.
The other neighbor a very friendly lady also dropped in to meet us and we all had coffee. In the afternoon we went for a small walk in a nearby park that was very big and quite beautiful but busy. Mano with the tigerpants also came along. We had some food when we got back and then it was really time to go. I was very glad that I did not had any classes yesterday pffffff I need a bit of time to recover from all that running around!
Last Saturday we drove down to Amsterdam for our first class at the Chinese school. It was early. at 7 am my alarm clock was annoyingly beeping and I really had to get up. For a moment it was flashing through my mind that this is what I wanted and if I want to learn Chinese getting up must be the easy part. Soon I was sitting in the car with Koen listening to some peaceful Buddhist chants. That will calm anybody down. The nokia navigator worked fine until we reached the city center of Amsterdam. It tried to sent us up a bicycle lane repeatedly and we drove around in circles for a while. Just in time we made it to the school. It is opposite Paradiso, a very well known popvenue.
The classes were given in a very nice old looking high school. There were 2 classes so that the groups wouldn't be too big. After the introduction speech the class started with probably the most essential sentence in all languages: Wo ai ni ; meaning I love you. Our teacher is a young lady who normally works at the Shaolin temple! We didn't have the chance to talk to her yet as other people are trying to do the same but next time we definitely will! The class started and soon we were asking each other questions in Chinese, the class existed of many vocal exercises, tone practice and a bit of writing. If my classes French would have been this fun I am sure It would have been a success too!
3 hours flew by and before we knew it we were walking around on our way to Chinatown to have lunch. The sun was out and it was a great day. Some student apparently thought the same as they were cruising around in a motor boat dragging one of their friends who was dressed in swimming pants with a beer in his hand and was lying down on a airbed.
Brrrrrrrrr the water in the canals is incredibly dirty so I thought it was pretty brave but stupid. I guess drinking beer helps. We found a great restaurant and the food almost tasted like it did in Beijing. It was delicious we had some eggplant with tofu, some duck and of course lot's of tea. When we got out we visited the Buddhist temple that is opposite the restaurant. There was a big statue of Guan Yin in the hall, which was very beautiful. There were books about the fundamental Buddhism that were free to take so we each took 1 and made a donation. I had walked by many times and always wanted to go in for a look. Then it was time to go back. We were rather shocked by the parking fee and then only found the car after a long search. Then we had to pay another 4 euros just because we had to search for the car. Next time we are probably taking the train.
It had been a great day, we learned a lot and I am confident that next them I will be able to have some conversation in Beijing! In the evening I went to see the Forbidden Kingdom. It was a very Chinese kinda day!
The past days i have been busy preparing my paintings for the little exhibition. For a change I decided to be slightly more commercial and make name cards and a small promotion booklet with an introduction of myself and pictures of some of my paintings. Who knows what happens. My domain name for a future website is also registered. So it is all very exciting. Yesterday was crazy after I spent half the night putting a somehow representative booklet together, there were some last things to change on the paintings and ofcourse sign them. Then I ran off to have the booklet bound so it would look more professional and rushed back to varnish the most recent painting. One of my friends was so nice to offer to pick me up as it would have been rather difficult to transport the pretty big paintings otherwise. The space was just perfect for two big paintings and the reaction was very positive the reception lady at the chiropractors office said that they where so so beautiful. now when I think of it , it is funny my friend saw the bench where you lie on when your bones are put in their right position again, he said it looked like a torture device from the middle ages… so now before people go in they can comfort themselves with the loving, compassionate expression of my GuanYin inspired paintings. I had one of the paintings above my bed and always when looking at her it makes you feel peaceful as if she is watching over you. This might sound strange as I made the painting but it is as if there is more to it. It is not only paint on canvas. It is weird not to see them for a while I got very attached to the paintings but it is great that other people can now see them and enjoy. I forgot my camera so it is just a snapshot from my mobile.
Now it is back to the books, tomorrow I am expected to hand in a very intelligent paper about the essence of the Rule of Law so some serieus study lies ahead. Have a great day everybody !
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