Alright so, i had my first evening out. Every since i came to Lyon i almost nearly slept before 10pm... dunno because of jet lag or because my inner mammal needs to hibernate but yeah.
So anyway, i had my welcome tea thing at 5pm. I was a bit late and when i came in i realised i was the only friggin ching chong china there. And i was a bit offended cos after their presentation they asked me (only) if i understood what they just said. I'm like "erm yes". SO INSULTING. i know my french is very bad but i could at least catch the main points. And we were off to a bad start...
but as the saying goes, we shudnt judge a book by its cover. And that is so true cos they were actually all very nice and sociable and most of them can speak english as well. We've got a couple of Brazilians, 2 Chileans, 1 over-enthusiastic Columbian, 3 Mexican babes, 1 Finnish girl, and a guy that i never tok to at all (now i noe he is Andre from germany). Most of them said that by the end of the day their English will probably be better than their french since most of us spoke english the whole time. Even the 2 french hosts had to speak english to accomodate us sometimes. haha.
for the dinner, Francois, one of the french guy invited his China fren to join us so i was quite happy cos i can tok to him in chinese too!! He's Zhou Ze and he's doing his Shou Shi (i have no idea whats that in english... Masters?) and he arrvied 4 months ago so his french is quite good too.
Me being me, the whole nite i didnt really talk a lot. cos i dunno what to say at this kinda occasions. so i was basically listening the whole nite, trying to figure out what everyone is saying and chomping on pizza (we only ate like at 9pm... i was famished to say the least). Its like a mini United Nations. I spoke to the Zhou Ze in Chinese, sometimes Francois will speak with us as well cos he is like s friggin linguist (he noes French, English, German, Sign language and a little bit of Chinese).... den i spoke to the Mexican girls in English and they were mumbling spanish within themselves. And the Brazilians, Chileans, Mexicans and Columbian could basically understand what one another is talking about. Xavier, the other french host, was speaking in English with the Finnish girl. SO yeah. it was quite a sight.
So anyway, i had my welcome tea thing at 5pm. I was a bit late and when i came in i realised i was the only friggin ching chong china there. And i was a bit offended cos after their presentation they asked me (only) if i understood what they just said. I'm like "erm yes". SO INSULTING. i know my french is very bad but i could at least catch the main points. And we were off to a bad start...
but as the saying goes, we shudnt judge a book by its cover. And that is so true cos they were actually all very nice and sociable and most of them can speak english as well. We've got a couple of Brazilians, 2 Chileans, 1 over-enthusiastic Columbian, 3 Mexican babes, 1 Finnish girl, and a guy that i never tok to at all (now i noe he is Andre from germany). Most of them said that by the end of the day their English will probably be better than their french since most of us spoke english the whole time. Even the 2 french hosts had to speak english to accomodate us sometimes. haha.
for the dinner, Francois, one of the french guy invited his China fren to join us so i was quite happy cos i can tok to him in chinese too!! He's Zhou Ze and he's doing his Shou Shi (i have no idea whats that in english... Masters?) and he arrvied 4 months ago so his french is quite good too.
Me being me, the whole nite i didnt really talk a lot. cos i dunno what to say at this kinda occasions. so i was basically listening the whole nite, trying to figure out what everyone is saying and chomping on pizza (we only ate like at 9pm... i was famished to say the least). Its like a mini United Nations. I spoke to the Zhou Ze in Chinese, sometimes Francois will speak with us as well cos he is like s friggin linguist (he noes French, English, German, Sign language and a little bit of Chinese).... den i spoke to the Mexican girls in English and they were mumbling spanish within themselves. And the Brazilians, Chileans, Mexicans and Columbian could basically understand what one another is talking about. Xavier, the other french host, was speaking in English with the Finnish girl. SO yeah. it was quite a sight.
Francois, Enthusiastic columbian (i think he is Costa??) in stripes, Skinhead Chilean Joseph Miguel, Mexican girl Martha in pink, Finnish girl Tutti in Black
Isabela and Alexandra from Mexico whom i sat opp the whole nite
Mr Zhou Ze
Guy i didnt talk to in the centre, Xavier with the thumb on the lips, Christiano and Fernando from Brazil and Luis from Chile who lives in the same residence and studies the same fac as me...So anw, everyone couldnt really pronounce my name. Before coming i actually wanted to be known as Hubert (say ooo bear) since thats really my name. Not some funky name i gave myself. But in the end i just told them my chinese name instead cos i am quite proud to be a chinese (unlike a certain Ziyi Zhang). Most of them end up pronouncing my name as Shong Shy. Oh well wat the heck. fine by me.
We walked all the way back from the restaurant to Insa which took abt 40mins?? I nearly died but i didnt sweat at all and the weather was quite shiok. Spent most of the time talking to Miguel (cos his french sucks as well so english was the prefered language) and Xavier, who spent a semester in UK so his english is quite zai for a french man as well.
I end up realising that i am the oldest there... the rest of the exchange student were like 20 to 22... and they arent racist. at all. Latin Americans can pick up French faster cos apparently its almost the same... hence the abundance of Latinos and Latinas. and erm.... everyone speaks english. english ROCKS. (PS i promise to speak more french after the french course. i SWEAR)
We walked all the way back from the restaurant to Insa which took abt 40mins?? I nearly died but i didnt sweat at all and the weather was quite shiok. Spent most of the time talking to Miguel (cos his french sucks as well so english was the prefered language) and Xavier, who spent a semester in UK so his english is quite zai for a french man as well.
I end up realising that i am the oldest there... the rest of the exchange student were like 20 to 22... and they arent racist. at all. Latin Americans can pick up French faster cos apparently its almost the same... hence the abundance of Latinos and Latinas. and erm.... everyone speaks english. english ROCKS. (PS i promise to speak more french after the french course. i SWEAR)
A failed attempt at taking a pic of The Opera house. too cold my hands shaking.So all in all it was quite a successful first gathering of the international student. And i just finished walking a tour of the campus. Later going to walk ard Lyon.... Lyon by day hahaha. Ciao!
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