lijunlaopo.com

Chandler and I don’t lead the most exciting life at the moment, but it is quite relaxing.

We are making lots of new friends by the lake however, when we go on our fish-watching expeditions, as it seems to be the meeting point for the local elderly population.

Directly downstairs from our apartment is a small area of exercise equipment and a seating arrangement under the trees.  Generally, all the grandmas exercise and play with their grandchildren while the grandpas sit in their singlets under the trees and smoke.

Chandler and I cause quite a stir each time we pass by.

At first I had a little trouble answering all the questions asked about myself and my monster-sized dog, as I had until this point managed to avoid speaking Chinese at all, and had no idea how to say things like “dog biscuits” in Chinese.  Eventually, after lots of yes/no answer questions, I managed to pass on enough information to get the gossips started.

Now when Chandler and I go out for a walk we can hear all the information that has been gathered about us being passed around.

“She is Australian”, “Her husband is from Hefei”, “They live on the 11th floor”, “The dog doesn’t eat sandwiches”…

It’s a nice community atmosphere here, people spend so much time outdoors talking to whoever else is out and about.

I must learn some more dog related vocabulary and get to know my neighbours better.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 11:20 pm and is filed under parks, life, china. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.