Yummie Stew (we're sure, it wasn't a english recipt - no mince in it at all ;-), italian Polenta and asian cauliflower. That sounds like a nice night, doesn't it? Regina and Stephan prepared "Schollameggala" for desert and we had a lot of fun, training the right pronunciation of this difficult word.
If you think, we're only talking to westerners and we're only eating western style food and celebrating western culture - well, you're wrong. We found our new famous game: Mahjong. It's a really nice game, very old (so it's true to say, that rummy or canasta is similar to Mahjong, but not vice versa) and with very much extra exception rules.
The goal is quite simple: get four times triples (3 same tiles) plus and pair and you're the winner. To reach this, you chooses one out of the three different "colors" (Bamboo, chinese characters and spots). Additionally there are other tiles like the season, the wind direction, a man and a honeypot, a cat and a mouse, flowers and dragons. Everything clear now?
It's not that complicated as it sounds, after a couple of games you get a feeling for it. But we started not only Mahjong. We also found a new japanese restaurant. Including the short tables, sitting on the floor and french flies. We put some photographs of the dishes here on the right side of the page.
Since a couple of weeks there is a new Tai Tai attraction: Tai Chi Quan. Master Yang from Shanghai teaches a bunch of untrained, ungainly women from all over the world. And he stays calm during the lessons. It's really impressive watching his gracefull and elegant movements. We Tai Tais are a little bit clumsy - compared to him - but we have a lot fun, training the movements and the syncronized breathing. Until now we're also allowed to train with the golden fan. The sword, so Master Yang, we'll do later. Maybe much later - safety first ;-)
Teaching language is chinese - sure, we're in China. But some of the participants do speak some chinese, so they translate the most improtant things like "relax", after breaking some bones during the excercises. Depending on the season, there are different organs which need support. And the support is given by the reight respiration. The right respiration is done by different sounds: "Ha ha, ch ch, ssssss"....that's not that easy for the most Laowai. In the current training situation, there are no photographs allowed by the participants. But after some mothns of hard training maybe.....
To be a real part of this kind of Tai Chi, your body has to be in a perfect shape. That's one reason, why some of the TaiTai's meet from time to time to have some manicure. The men meanwhile have some beer in the blue marlin, just to get not bored.....
But the men are not left alone for a long time. Not for sure. The Blue Marlin also serves cocktails, so what to say. The origin idea was something different why we met, but at the end we had a really funny Saturday......
Dahliana found in her neighbourhood a Bar with a piano in. A tuned one, which is working. Surprise. So she "kidnapped" Stephan for one night in the bar. And for sure, she brought also in all the others. But it was a really funny night, as almost.
And now something completly different and new: Advertising.
Friends of us started a export trade company here in Suzhou and as usual, start up companies need some advertising. As soon as their homepage is ready, we'll also provide the internet link. Until then, here some pictures of the products, so if you know somebody, who knows somebody, who might need,....... you understand......
Soon there is chinese new year, and no, we're not travelling to the Phillipines, Thailand, Malaysia, or where all the Expats are travelling. We'll stay at home and Stephan is gonna work. But there'll be soon a holliday for us, but that'sa completly different story.......
Japanese...
...food is one of our favourites. And now we found one
around the corner....
