Sunday, March 29, 2009

Withdrawing from Class, Classmate Withdrawls...

For the past 4 months, I had been studying Mandarin at a local university. We had a small class, but at 15 hours a week, we bonded quickly. Though there were two other Westerners, I was the only American. Using Chinese as our strongest common language, I communicated with my classmates the best we could. Nonetheless, they were an encouraging, enjoyable bunch. It's nice to have my mornings off, but I do miss them.

Thankfully for email and BabelFish, we're able to keep in touch, and hope to get together soon.

We had a lot of fun in our 4 short months together.

Here's a few pictures to glance back at the past.


Most of the Crew


Learning the Art of Tea Kung Fu
(no, really, that's what it's called)

Outside the Tea House


We like pictures.



We had the chance to learn how to paint "New Year's Pictures" with a group of other classes

We also were able to make little figurines out of rice flour.


He didn't survive the bus ride home.
R.I.P.

Our Last Class Outing was on Taiwanese Opera
which somehow translated into learning how to use the Spear...

Doing what I do...

That's my Teacher (老師) lounging for the jugular
...I think he failed the last test. . .





It's a good crew, and I definitely miss seeing them on a daily basis

8 comments:

Andhari said...

Oh you guys looklike a fun bunch. Tea kungfu, I suspect you know Asia even more than I do. I just heard of it now.

the girl in stiletto said...

awww poor panda!

floreta said...

lol what is it with asians and peace signs/bunny ears? that totally made me giggle. i love it! so cute.

those spears look like they could be good martial art weapons! i used to twirl a baton too, well, a flag in color guard. heheh similar?

you are too full of talent!

Young Traveler said...

I can't lie, I may have had some Ninja Turtle flashbacks while I was looking at these pictures.

Chase = hero in a half shell.

(Turtle power).

? said...

Now we know who is having all the fun. Excellent pics
God bless!

Diana said...

i'm sad for panda.

I love Babel Fish, too! It saves a lot of friendships.

Chase said...

@lolita Maybe one day you will learn the art of Tea Kung Fu, young grasshopper

@Stiletto it's okay... I have a turtle that survived. Panda's gone to a better place, but lives forever in photos

@Floreta Peace Signs are an epidemic. Welcome to the culture of cute. Baton is pretty much the same thing... there's just less blood when used properly (...or improperly for that matter...)

@Young Traveler It may strike you as odd... but I have no Ninja Turtle memories to flash back to. In your case, though, I blame the maroon shirt. Turtle power.

@Serpent Thanks for stopping by for a gander!

@Diana BabelFish is most definitely fantastic. I can always tell when my taiwanese friends are using it during our MSN conversations. Hah!

Anonymous said...

you killed your panda!!

and it was soo cute too