I have found the right shoe, at last...

Je suis bien arrivee a Pekin, apres une dizaines d'heures d'avion. Et surprise lorsque je me suis reveillee le elndemain matin : Il neigeait!!
Le temps ideal pour faire du tourisme, n'est-ce pas? Entre le froid, le vent et la neige, les nombreuses fois ou il faut enlever ses gants et son bonnet pour ne pas attrapper de chaud/froids, ce n'est pas facile de prendre qlq photos afin de satisfaire votre curiosite, hihi. Surtout que Pekin est si vaste, que l'on passe son temps a prendre des bus et des metros. Les endroits sont si eloignes les uns des autres!
Je crois que je n'ai jamais porte autant de couches de vetements sur moi : collants, doubles chaussettes, deux pantalons, des T-shirts empiles, et deux pulls... Jimmy ressemble a un gros poupon tellement il porte de vetements, et marche comme un pinguoin a cause du pantalon de ski qu'il a enfile par dessus! Je crois que l'on peut dors et deja inscrire mon nom dans le livre des records sous la mention "le nez le plus rouge du monde" tant il est gele. Et, comble de ridicule, j'assortis mon nez avec un bonnet peruvien bleu et blanc deniche au marche pour proteger mes oreilles... je deviens ainsi ambassadrice congelee de mon pays...

sandy models

A few week-ends ago, my aspirin-colour self and three golden-skin friends went to the bai sha wan, an -almost- white sand beach. The weather was great except that a strong wind was blowing the sand on our skin (free exfoliation) and the sand was boiling hot. I had never bathed in such warm water , i must have spent half of the time in the ocean -anyway, it was impossible to shai taiyang because of the wind, we would have ended up with strange sand-pattern tans. Swallowing so much sand makes one thirsty, so Josh and I went to get more water from the car, and were stopped on our way by a group of people. They were taking pictures of a car ( a kind of giant burgundy motor-insect) for a magazine. they made us pose in and in front of the car and promised to give us the pictures and send us a copy of the magazine. here is one of the pictures:

you must have noticed that "my English is no" lately ;)

jiufen - village

Jiufen - view

Jiufen

Last week-end i went to Jiufen, as my lonely planet said " it is the first place foreigners who live in taiwan bring their families".

As my family would not take the trouble to come to an island nobody knows could exist in this part of Asia - i am sure they are still convinced i am in Thailand...no, just joking..quoique! I convinced Patty it was worth going. And off we went. Forty minutes by train and a taxi ride later we were there, ready to explore.

What a disappointement when we discovered the only attraction was a shopping street with stone beads, food and T-shirts "been there done that".... well, we tried every type of food : herb cakes, taro cakes, honey cakes, chili oil marinated fried fish, Thai crisps and of course my favorite stinky doufu. we also saw a weird creature for sale ( remember Yehliu...two new animal discoveries in 8 days. ) It was a kind of sea animal, with a shell. I have checked on the internet, and apparently it is a "Calcinus Tibicen". Check this link for more info : http://www.recif.be/article/hermit.htm . For a hundred yuan you could take one home in a small plastic bowl. I struggled not to adopt one and bring it back to France. But then i thought that it would probably not survive the week when i will not be in Taipei, or the length of the flight home. And what about passing the customs...hum, i guess i cannot prove it had got all its shots and i do not think you can get them an identification tatoo or chip like cats and dogs. So i did not adopt any.

I also took pictures of things people thought weren't worth taking a picture of, doors, windows, streets, while the average taiwanese tourists took pictures of themselves in front of the scenery, their friends in front of the scenery, themselves and their friends in front of the scenery...with fingers in the shape of a "V" and a bright smile. the scenery was indeed beautiful. ( please can someone tell me if i can use "indeed" in the middle of a sentence? thanks)

The sun was really hot so we had a cup of tea and guazi in a small traditional house with a view on the port and the mountains. Soooo relaxing.

I almost adopted one...I would have called it Albert or Hortense, a "cool" name like those

Yehliu photos

Today I went to Yehliu

Yehliu is a port town at the very North of Taiwan. I chose my day, the sun was hot and bright...maybe too bright for my camera though. i had a hard time playing with the contre-jour.
It was full of tourists, and every body took the same photos, posing beside the "queen's head" or in front of the ocean. So people waited in procession to take pictures, they queued up, as usual, very polite and patient!
It was so hot today, and the rock formations at yehliu were the perfect place to get roasted by the cruel sun. And roasted and sweaty i was... ( see picture) Summer is the period when i shed skin... it peels off because i am sun-burnt!

The scenery is amazing there. There is a huge yellow cliff with bizarre-shaped rocks and holes and cracks on the ground. it is exactly how i would have imagined the moon looked like if we had not sent people there to see how it really looks like. ( hum... i really feel like a 3-year old when i spaek english like that! hahaha!)

The yellow of the earth is matched by the green of tropical plants and the blue of the sea.

people usually stay on the path and just go on the site to take pictures. But i climbed two hills to the observatory, where i enjoyed the silence and the view. It is such a treat to be able to enjoy the silence, far from the permanent noises of Taipei! it was all flowers and bird songs up there. And it must be the butterflies' reproduction season, because there were so many. I even saw two huge black ones -as big as my hand- i tried to take pictures of them, but when they got close i got scared, so i wasn't really successful! they are really impressing. I also discovered a new kind of animal/insect/sea..food? it is called "sea cockroach" in chinese 海蟑螂. little kids are scared of them, scream and run away when they see one, and sea cockroaches are scared of little kids, move their antennas and "run" away when they get close! So they end up chasing each other when they were trying to avoid each other..

Pictures of the beautiful Yehliu natural park in the next post.

retour en arrière 3bis : photos

Retour en arrière 3 : juming museum

En avril, je suis allée au musée de Juming (prononcer djü minegue.) Ce brave Monsieur Juming, artiste de renom 60naire maintenant, a réunit un bon nombre de ses oeuvres, des sculptures, dans un musée qui s'étend sur des hectares avec des expositions permanentes en plein air. Il est célèbre pour sa série "taichi":
















Il faisait incroyablement beau ce jour-là, quelle chance ! Nous sommes allés là-bas en bus, à partir du musée d'art contemporain. Taiwan n'est pas très grande; donc nous y sommes arrivés tôt.

Les jardins étaient très sympas. Si sympathiques, que nous avons décidés de faire une sieste sur un îlot artificiel au ,ilieu d'un bassin...jusqu'à ce qu'un garde ne vienne nous en déloger, à grand renfort de gesticulations.

Allez, quelques photos de l'art de M. Juming dans un prochain post. Photos par Anthony.

Retour en arrière 2 : les photos promises

Tout ça, c'est ce que je vois de mon rooftop. C'est sympa, (sauf l'autoroute, j'en conviens...) non?

Retour en arrière 1 : il s'est passé beaucoup de choses, ces quelques mois...déménagement

Je viens juste de coller des stickers sur mon clavier pour pouvoir taper en français avec un clavier QWERTY, je m'excuse donc si il y a des fautes...
En effet, tu temps a passé depuis que j&ai délaissé ce blog. Je dois remettre les choses en place.
J'ai déménagé de Shida Lu à Xindian, au sud. J'habite donc près de la rivière. C'est un endroit magnifique, il y a un long pont suspendu pour les piétons, et deux autres en béton, mais aux formes incurvées pour les véhicules. D'un côté de la rivière il y a comme une mini-foire permanente, un peu bruyante, ou l'on peut jouer à des jeux de massacre, des jeux d'adresse, faire de la pêche, du karaoké. Puis des cafés ou l'on peut dîner aux chandelles au bruit de l'eau soulevée par les pales des pédalos que dirigent les amoureux.
De l'autre côté, après le pont, il y a un chemin après le barrage le long duquel j'allais courrir (maintenant il fait trop chaud, même à 5h du matin!) le matin ou le soir. J'y suis allé il y a quelques jours pour un jogging matinal : à 6h du matin, c'est incroyable le no,bre de gens que l'on croise : les voisins qui font leur sport ou leur power-walk, les vieux qui font leur balade ou leur Tai Ji quan avant qu'il ne fasse trop chaud, les pêcheurs (beurk! je ne mangerais jamais ces poissons, l'equ n'est pas si propre que ça, même si elle est bleue.)
Le bâtiment où j'habite est un des plus grands de taipei, après la tour du Mitsukoshi en face de la gare et le Tapei 101; bien sûr!
C'est une residence de quatre tours de 34 étages; et une de 36 étages. La vue du rooftop est magnifique!
J'ai trois colocataires : un Indien, Oumesh; un Anglais, Stuart; un Américain, Logan. Ils sont cools. Quelques problèmes à propos de la propreté de l'appart (ce sont des mecs!)mais sinon, ça va.
Allez, quelques petites photos dans le prochain post.

1st baby, 2d baby, 3rd baby...

I took this from Emiko at http://healinggetaway.blogspot.com/
She also has beautiful pictures of flowers and trees there.


1st baby, 2nd baby, 3rd baby

Your Clothes
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soonas your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long aspossible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regularclothes.

Preparing for the Birth
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother practicing because youremember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your 8th month.

The Layette
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes,color-coordinate them, & fold themneatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes areclean & discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries
1st baby: At the first sign of distress - a whimper, afrown - you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threatento wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your 3-year-old how to rewind themechanical swing.

Pacifier
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you putit away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, yousquirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop itback in.

Diapering
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour,whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every 2 to 3 hours,if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before othersstart to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics,BabySwing, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket andthe dry cleaner.

Going out
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with asitter, you call home a few times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, youremember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter tocall only if she sees blood.

At Home
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day justgazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to besure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When 2nd child swallows a coin, youcarefully watch for coin to pass.
3rd child: When 3rd child swallows a coin you deductit from his pocket money.

Pass this on to everyone you know who has children...or everyone who KNOWS someone who has had children...or anyone who has ever been a child themselves!(I guess that cover almost everyone, huh?)

strange woman

Hier j'ai rencontré une demoiselle bien étrange...

昨天碰到一位很奇怪的女士

I met a strange woman yesterday...

reprise de blog

Me re-voici; prête à reprendre ce blog que j'avais laissé à l'abandon.
J'ai un peu honte de voir le niveau d'anglais de mes posts - il est vrai que j'ai beaucoup perdu de ce côté-là depuis la Chine - et aussi du manque d'intérêt de ces posts, qu'est-ce que vous avez dû vous ennuyer!
Il s'en est passé des choses!
j'ai déménagé, changé de petit boulot, me suis fait de nouveaux amis, dont certains sont partis déjà.
J'ai aussi appris a utiliser mon clavier QWERTY pour taper en français, comme vous avez pu le remarquer!
Bon... c'est reparti alors!

Un parc en cas de catastrophes naturelles - Anti-calamity park

Je crois que ca se passe de commentaires...lisez vous meme. I like the "clothes drying field"

Ange Gardien

Forcément...fallait y penser !

children playing with the cat

how to curb overpopulation

chinese new year ( trilingual version )

Cette annee, j'ai vraiment eu un nouvel an chinois.
j'ai ete invitee par Huang Yang Shan, un ami taiwanais, a passer le soir du nouvel an avec sa famille.
A 18:30, me voici donc dans le salon, assise entre le pere et l'oncle, a leur expliquer ce que je fais a Taiwan et a les ecouter me raconter leurs aventures (commerciales) au sichuan.
Les femmes de la famille : la mere et les deux tantes maternelles, etaient en train de finir de preparer le repas.
Tout le monde est passe au salon, les deux oncles, les cousines et le cousin, le pere, Yang Shan et moi. Puis les "cuisinieres" nous ont rejoint. Il y avait tant de plat sur la table! Des plats de legumes, toute sortes de fruits de mer, du poisson, de la viandes, mais aussi des plats de nouvel an traditionnel comme l'oeuf seche de poisson, le gateau de nouvel an poele, et une soupe avec des boules de poisson. Nous avons trinque plusieurs fois pour le nouvel an, les cuisinieres, le boulot du cousin, les diplomes des cousines, ma venue ce soir la, le plaisir d'etre ensemble.
Le principal de la conversation etant fait en taiwanais, la maman de yang Shan me traduisait au fur et a mesure en chinois.
Apres le repas, nous sommes alles Pao cha ( faire du the et le boire ) entre "jeunes", pendant que les autres pariaient aux cartes.
Ce sont des gens tres tres gentils. J'ai passe une tres bonne soiree, et ils m'ont fait me sentir "a la maison".

Vers 11:00, tout le monde voulait rentrer, alors je suis allee rejoindre Kenji et Tommy a Shangdao temple, oules garcons ont prie.
Dans le temple, il semblait que le temps s'arretait, l'atmosphere etait irreelle. Il pleuvait, et l'encens s'elevait en volutes grises et bleues au dessus des sculptures du toit du temple, qui etait rempli du bourdonnement des prieres.

In Chinese now:

我今年跟我的台灣朋友和他的家人過春節, 他請我出他 家作客。那天晚上有yangshan﹐ 他爸媽﹐他媽媽的兩個姐姐跟她們丈夫孩子。我來的時候媽, 大姨﹐ 和 姨母還在做飯, 所以我們都在客廳聊天。姨夫和yangshan 的爸爸告訴我她們在中國大陸作生意的故事。過了一會兒﹐媽叫我們來吃飯。飯廳的桌子上有幾盤海鮮﹐一個小火鍋﹐魚丸湯, 魚蛋, 肉﹐青菜, 年糕。我們為大家乾杯幾次。
大姨﹐ 姨夫﹐ 都講台語﹐ 就yang shan 的媽媽幫我解釋她們的話。她們都喜歡講故事, 開玩笑﹐所以氣氛很熱鬧。吃完飯, 青年人去樓上泡茶﹐樓下她們都想賭博。
十一點到了大家想回家。我就去接我的男朋友和他的朋友。我們出善導寺拜拜。寺廟裡的人很多。藍灰色的供香煙飄到黑色的天空, 使氣氛很嚴肅。即使很多人在一起拜拜﹐寺廟裡也很安靜。離開寺廟的時候我們互相拜了年。

In English now ( mais ou s'arretera-t-elle?!?)

I spent the chinese new year's eve at my friend's Yangshan. He invited me there to have new year diner with his family.
When i arrived, his mother and his aunts where still in the kitchen cooking. so everybody sat down in the living room. I sat between Yangshan's father and his uncle, who told me stories about their commercial adventures in Sichuan, mainland China.
Then we were called to diner. we hate seafood, meat and vegetables,fish ball soup and the traditonal fish egg and new year cake. We "ganbei-ed" a lot!
Most of the people there spoke taiwanese, but Yangshan's mother transalted in chinese for me. After diner, us young people went upstairs to make some tea while the others were gambling downstairs.
At eleven, everybody went home. It had been a very nice evening and Yangshan's family are really nice people.

Afterwards, i joined my boyfirend and his friend at Shandao temple, where they prayed. The atmosphere there was surreal. It was as though time had stopped. incense fumes of grey and blue were flying over the temple's carved roof, and the whole place was full of the buzzing of hundreds of people prying.

Preparation pour la fete des lanternes. Les photos: 1- Cyril, moi, et le "chicken" 2- le cote de lanterne des st-vincentiens 3- Gordon et Seab 4- cote de lanterne francais 5- cyril, laoshi, une lanterne et moi 6-cote de lanterne allemand 7-julie dessine un elephant sur le cote de lanterne du Malawi 8-Thomas et Kenji