Engrish

Many months ago i submitted 2 photographs to the Engrish website but didn't hear anything since. Today i got mailed by the webmaster that one of my pictures made it as as Engrish of the day. just too make sure nobody feels insulted i think Engrish that is funny English resulting from too direct translations from the original language (mostly Chinese) is very very charming nothing to be ashamed off. now when i am trying to learn Chinese i totally understand it really isn't easy. The result are often beyond hilarious so i can definetly recommend the website www.engrish.com . I made and make plenty of mistakes myself when speaking foreign languages and made people crack down in laughter.

too see the picture go to :
http://www.engrish.com/2009/01/its-usually-most-fragrant-when-hot/

Neighbour from Hell

At a for me unussually early hour i am writing in bed. What a night and I don't mean that in the positive way.i like to think I am rather relaxed and calm and certainly don't have to many violent thoughts going through my head but last night it was ever so tempting to take my broadsword and do some damage to my neighbour and his property. My neighbour who lives upstairs is a very small Italian guy that hardly speaks any Dutch or English. He works in the Pizzaplace downstairs. The owners of the restaurant own the whole building and that is how he as the only guy found his way in an all girl student house. Perhaps the dream of some guys but I can assure you we feel anything but attrackted to him. He is an aspiring musician and a pothead. So apart from his electric guitare, drum kit he brought his karaoke machine, loudspeakers, lots of extremely loud friends, cannabis and sigarets to smoke out a whole town and enough wine to flood the Sahara.

Last night at midnight, they were still loudly yelling into the karaoke machine, if only the music would have been good but unfortunately, that was not the case. It felt as if I was in some kind of B-Movie out of the eighties. I don't like nagging so somehow reluctant I went up there, realising I looked far from threatening in my white silk pyamas with pink flowers and wearing pink wool socks (it is winter you know). The room was filled with lots of people and I could not even locate the neighbour. I asked nicely if they could turn down the volume a bit adding that people wanted to sleep. I heard somebody utter :that is the neighbour from downstairs and then how late is it anyway? Only just midnight another replayed so no worries……….yeeeh only just midnight I remember the last time I stormed up there and then it was 05:30am nice. Some girls promised they would keep the noise down.

 

To my great surprise I heard them break up there party and leave with plenty of stumbling and yelling. Yes it worked! Untill 03:30 am, shit, the doorbell kept ringing and the neighbour had some friends come round. It makes you wonder what people go round other people's houses at that time; I mean it is only Wednesday. But I guess I am getting old . tja. The music went on again and they started to yell at eachother. Have you noticed how some people seem uncapable to speak in an normal tone? Perhaps they had their hearing damaged I do not know but I could almost completely follow the conversation. Nice. So much for sleeping. after 30 minuts, I couldn't stand it anymore. Fed up with running upstairs I was going through my possible options: A. Running upstairs with my broadsword (it is the most impressive) and hacking his tv and radioset in two pieces, B. asking once more nicely to shut the ø*#!Θ up, C. finding the right powerswitch in the electricity cabinet….

After finding my flashlight I tried all the switches untill it went silent upstairs. Hi Hi it was quite funny. I ran up to my room again and tried not to laugh. They were probabely pretty stoned and drunk so linking the powercut and the switchboard together was too much. It was quiet at last! The loud talking resumed shortly after but it was at least without the bad music, that helped. Moments ago some loud tv noise went on again. So I ran upstairs but the place was deserted. The childrens programs had started…..i havent got a clue were they all went but after some hesitating about fiddling around with otherpeoples properties I switched the thing off. Peace at last. So goodnight and speak to you later

Solitaire lock up

University deadlines, upcoming exams and ofcourse the upcoming Chinese New Year make this a super busy time. I have locked myself up in my room to read and to write on a paper that I have to hand in. I like to write but when it is for a mark, it suddenly becomes difficult. Yesterday was fun, I finally made it to the Kung Fu class on time and spend two hours learning the tree animal form and practising the Tiger- Leopard with a fellow student. It is starting to come together a bit more but I still need lots and lots of practise. Ofcourse the tiger is kinda ferocious so I have to remember not to smile too much. Then it was time for TaiChi, where we started on the 108 form. That was my first try and it will probabely take forever too remember. I was already happy to remember the 24 form! Finally, it was time to eat! It was too late to cook so then it is always tempting to make a stop at the eazie where you can create your own noodle soup. It is fast and way better then all that really unhealthy snackfood and it gives you a good change to practise your chopstick skills! It was raining and cold when I got home. Today is much better it is tempting to go outside but I really must study. So back to the books for now. I wish everybody a great day!

Wolfmoon, skating and blauwgrond

After making it to the TaiChi Class were it was almost just as cold as it is outside(there is no central heating in the building) or maybe even colder because outside there was lots of sunshine, we first went to have some lunch and then walked off to the park.

It was supposedly the last day to skate so i just had to try the ice; my friends had no skates unfortunately. A long time ago i used to do figure skating but it must have been 8 years since i last skated. Way to long. I stopped because the city council closed our beloved the ice rink and with that, our skating club went down. I was never any good anyway (should have started when i was 5) except in doing pirouettes. But man did i feel like bambi on the ice yesterday. My skates were a bit blunt and felt so strange to my feet not to mention all the stuff on the ice, little twiggs etc. Hmmmmmmmm but it was fun and after a while, it felt a bit better. Definetely have to go skating again! We drank some tea that we brought with us and then set out to practise in the music pavilion overlooking the skating people and swimming ducks.

Stretching was no good in the cold so we did some Bagua walking; we are learning the steps to another friend of the Kung Fu school who also went to China. Doing the mudwalking step is not easy and is a great excercise for your balance. You have to step a bit inwards with your outside foot and in a straight line with the foot on the inside, that way you walk in a circle. Then ofcourse there are the 8 different postures that aren' easy either. With these postures you train and stretch your body and ligaments. It is very intresting to see that when you have the correct posture you can see what you train, when you do not have the correct posture or do not keep the right shape the effort is in vain. It looks like some quiet walking with your arms up in the air but it is a serious fysical exercise ( and then we are only talking about the outside effect) , it makes you so warm (but without getting out of breath) that you just have to start taking your coat and jumper off. Even if it is freezing you dont need gloves. When you are halfway, even a t-shirt will do. It is quite amazing. When you stop you have a warm and good feeling allover. Then it is time to wrap up again. There is a circle of dirty foodsteps that you can just spot now... After that we walked through the 24 Chen form. It still gets dark very early and we did not bring our campinglight this time so after that it was time to leave. We went for a hotdrink and some soup in the Surinamese Restaurant called Blauwgrond. It is very close to the park at a roundabout. I have passed it so many times in the past always thinking it was a snackbar, take out kinda place. Only recently i discovered it is an excellent tropical style place with delicious surinamese food and an always feel good atmosphere. The prices are very decent and afforable and you get so much food that you will not need breakfast the next morning. On Sunday, there is lifemusic that makes it feel like an eternal summer. You cannot sit still even when you have no sense of rythm like me you are moving on your seat. They play some kind of i think salsa music. If you are ever anywhere near Leiden i can definetely recommend this restaurent if you like spicy food you wound be dissappointed. MMMMMMmmmmm especially the masoesa vegetarisch is supergood! Even my non-vegetarian friends love it and prefere it above meat! The restaurant is located at the Wassenaarse weg at the roundabout. It is very big and i think the outside does not do the place justice. It is absolutely one of the nicest fun places i have been to recently!

 

And then ofcourse there was the moon.



It was the Wolfmoon as native Indians call it if i am correct. Luckily, it was so cold and with the clear sky the moon was perfectly visible. It looked so enormous and bright. I took some pictures but they don't do the moon any justice. It was beautiful. I hope everybody got to see it.

Old Dutch Boats

Leiden is an old historical town, with beautiful old houses and a very historic city centre. When walking from the station you pass some canals and near the place Rembrandt used to have his workspace there are old boats in the small harbour. Very typically Dutch boats. the light as i mentioned before is so bright and intensely clear i just had to come back to take a picture.It was -3 today and i saw the first people skating on the big canal. They have guts, the ice is still very thin but the smaller canals are fine.i certainly will put on my skates aswell this weekend!

Wintertime!!!!!!!!!!

 
 

It has been a while since i last posted a blog but i was just to busy with studying, training and looking for a good part time job and not to forget celebrating Christmas and New Year! All the best wishes to everyone! It was a relaxed Christmas and a well behaved New Year; no hangovers, no bad behaviour, none of that. This can only mean two things a. i am getting older or b.   I am getting wiser...The kungfu school remained open this year so there was no reason to be lazy either (as if there is at all), we found a bit of time to go to the Leidse Hout during daytime.


This year there is the first real winter since forever, it is freezing cold , there is ice and even some snow! It is nothing short from a miracle. I can't even remember the last time i saw people walk over the ice! It seems to do something special to people, everybody has red cheeks and a matching nose but for a change people are not moaning about the weather. Walking around in the park you could see all the excited faces and talks. It was a beautiful day with bright clear Winterskies, fresh biting cold air and the sun shining. Ice crystals had covered the grass and plants, glittering like diamonds, it looked unreal to see all this in the Netherlands.


Children and adults were walking around on the ice that is still rather thin. I am sure, we will be able to skate this year! Finally. Ever since i moved here i have wanted to go skating on the canals!

 Now it is a week later and it is still cold, this morning there was some snow and the weather reports said that it was the coldest night since a long long time they even measured -20C wow. Finnish temperatures!  I dont know what it is with the cold maybe it is in my genes but the colder it gets the better it feels. As long as you are dressed up enough. There is just something exciting about those sharp clear skies during day and night, that cold air that seems to bite you in a nice kinda way. The light is also different, clearer brighter, the colors more defined. 

 Now when it is dark early we have to  think of how to keep training in the place we train ( a small music pavilion by a lake).

I am sure it is good training to practise in the dark but a little light helps. So we set out to by buy a big camping light that we string up between the poles. It is just enough to see what you are doing. Dressed up in ski pants, gloves and a hat and multiple layers of clothing it is perfectly doable. It is so funny when we start our circle walking exercise it makes you feel super hot (no....... not that kinda hot), even when it is freezing. In about 5 to 10 minutes you can walk around in  a t-shirt with short sleeves and not feel cold. It is pretty amazing. It seems to turn on some inside radiator. Of course when you stop you have to put it all on again before you get cold.

Here are some pictures for you to see Winter in the Netherlands.

Bye bye for now

 
 

 

A small TaiChi competition

Last Sunday there was a friendly small competition organised as a practise for both contenders and judges. like a warming up for the national championships that are held in a month. it all started at 10 am in the morning. I had to rush down to the school but it turned out the times weren't that fixed. the competition was held in the other TaiCHi school in the building opposite our school.

After signing up we started with a warming up. there were lots of judges who were new and had to practise for the NK. I am a student from a school that teaches Yang Style TaiCHi the traditional way. It was intresting to see what other styles were out there and what different opinions there were regarding the differences among the styles. When i went to China I learned the Chen style that has it's own character. There are not many people practising Chen and it was clear that no one had ever seen this form. It was funny one lady was shrieking enthousiastically CHEN!

most of us started in the beginners group Yang. it is one of my not so good qualities , i get extremely nervous when i have to perform for an audience. One of the judges started to question my annoncement that i would do the yang 24 form the traditional way. That was intresting because another student had just walked the same form and then he had not noticed a thing. He claimed it wasn't traditional.NOt soon after the gong the shaking started it was so annoying. i tried to breath and keep my balance. later when i saw the video it looked better then i felt. But it wasn't like i normally walk at all. Too bad but it was a good experience. you just have to push yourself to do these things otherwise you never get over it.

after a break the advanced group started. Being advanced has nothing to do with how good you are but with the time that you have been practising TaiCHi. When it is 3 years and more you automatically become advanced.The Sihing of our school did very well. After a lunch break and a few more advanced students, it was time to show the judges the CHen Form. We walked it together but should have been judged seperately.That was not clear to all the judges. some came to tell us that we better do it apart as we were not walking in a synchronised way and have a different way of walking. but most of them got it right. There were no other people doing CHen and i think it was intresting for them to see something new. I was a little less nervous and it felt almost ,like fun.

Shyness sucks and i am trying to overcome it by forcing myself to do these things. it is nice to compete and learn from it.well the positive thing was that i did not hold my breath this time like last year...

then it was time for Tui Shou. there were only to other ladies to compete. So it was a short game. It was funny the two ladies were excact opposites one was soft but to weak and the other one was strong and tried to push hard. It was fun. I tried to stay gentle. But one of them still thought i used a lot of force. HMMMMMMM i was thinking that it is perhaps good that not everybody goes to China, this lady would be so shocked.

After a bit of fun pushing we went home. I cooked a Chinese Style dinner, and then we had ice cream with warm blueberries mmmmmm that is just the best dessert!