Today was the famous and much-celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival. That is to say, 中秋节 Zhōngqiūjié. Celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, the festival coincides with the autumnal equinox, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and brightest. The traditional way to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival is by hanging out with your family and eating mooncakes under the moon. However, since Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Wednesday this year, and our roommates have American "guests," of sorts, they elected to stay on campus and be our stand-in "family."
So let's talk mooncakes. Don't ask me about all the technicalities of this famous treat, but basically there's a doughy crust, circular in shape (naturally), and filled with pastes of different flavors. There are lotus seed, red bean, dried meat, and blueberry flavors, just to name a few. And how do you know what flavor you're biting into? They're imprinted on the dough of each mooncake. Too bad I really couldn't read it...
It's times like this that I realize I still have soooo far to go in terms of language acquisition. Oh well, 加油！
So... not-so-subtle transition to language acquisition. My roommate, 小雯 Xiaowen, has been preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) so that she can study abroad for graduate school. In order to help her along in this endeavor, I've been teaching her some key English phrases that could be useful to everyday life, such as: indignation, drama queen, legit, ADD, "that's what she said," "pound it," scatterbrained, literal, and a variety of other phrases of the vernacular. As she currently is working through some personal relationships, she's been fairly liberal with the use of "drama queen." It's so rewarding seeing the fruit of my labor.
My Chinese vocabulary has similarly expanded, although I probably won't ever be able to use my new-found knowledge in a classroom or work environment. I'm making progress, though. Surely and steadily, I'm making progress.
We actually went karaoke-ing last night.... you have not lived unless you have gone to a karaoke bar. It's so fun having an incredible selection of songs at your disposal, along with microphones and instruments, to sing your heart out for hours at a time. And since you and your friends have your own room, you can embarrass yourself as much as you want and hope there are no pictures to memorialize the event. It's also one of the favorite pastimes of the Chinese, so we were able to share in this experience with our Chinese roommates. I have no idea how they read the characters on the screen so fast. Two trends I noticed: 1. The frequently pushed for boy/girl duets. Apparently the Chinese are quite the romantics. 2. Chinese girls are more gentle and low-key; American girls are kind of crazy and all over the place. They're both interesting aspects of Chinese culture that I'd like to elaborate on later, but for now, it's 2:30 AM and the mooncakes are finally putting me to sleep. 中秋节快乐！Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
"she's been fairly liberal with the use of "drama queen." It's so rewarding seeing the fruit of my labor."
ReplyDeleteLOL! So awesome. Well done. =)