Getting used to :)

And finally you realize…you’re at home. It’s the feeling I’ve got today, for the first time, when I went out. J The morning I took a taxi to go working and I could say where I wanted to go in Chinese, the taxi driver understood me and even tried to talk to me, in a nice way. He asked me where I came from and what I was doing here, simple things and I could understand and finally when he tried something more complicated, the language barrier cropped up and I had to say that I couldn’t speak a good Chinese and we ended the conversation nicely J After, the afternoon I took a new bus and I went to a huuuuge markets in Wuhan without getting lost ;) it’s so big..Insanely big… 1365 meters of shops*5 because it’s got 5 floors, I don’t know if you can imagine, it’s very big for someone from France at least. I went into many many shops doing some shopping for family and friends when I realized that I was happy to be there and that I did not feel aggressed anymore by sellers when they are coming to me willing to sell something. Indeed now I am able to say “I just want to have a look”, I can ask questions about the prices, trying to make it lower when it’s way too expensive, I know how to say who I am, where I come from, what I am doing in China, I know how to say “I could hear you but did not understand” and finally “I don’t speak Chinese” and all the basic sentences you need to know  to live in a country when people don’t speak English and here I swear...They don’t.  Something funny happened in a small clothes shop. I came there and I started to look at the dresses when the woman  seller came and told me something, I replied in Chinese “thank you but I just want to have a look” what she understood and left during 2 mns,  later she came back with a dress and shown it too my while she was saying something that I obviously didn’t understand, I looked at the dress and replied straight “thank you but I don’t want it, I am too big”, she denied and tried again to show me the dress but I insisted “I am too big for this dress” and I turned back. Then she started to talk to me and I couldn’t understand so I said “I am sorry I can’t speak Chinese’ but I told it in…Chinese ;) The woman started to look at me very weirdly but she did not insist and she started a discussion with another woman…about me! “Where does she come from??” – “She must be American! Or English maybe English!!” it made me laugh so I looked at them and said “No I am French” and at this moment the glance of the first woman was priceless lol, she looked at me like “what the hell are you kidding me?? You say you don’t speak Chinese and after you understand when we talk about you?!!” and maybe this was what she was actually saying in Chinese while she was looking at me ;) Anyway I  couldn’t understand so I apologized and I left, trying to stop myself laughing. This was priceless ^^ Finally I went back home by bus and when I got off I saw this smiling old man, which sells Chinese pancakes in front of my bus station every day and who told me “helloo” with a big smile like everyday since I came here. Sometimes I buy him something just because his hello is very warm and I always take it like a “welcome home” after a hard day of working and I really appreciate that J Well I arrived in my flat and I saw my flatmates in the living room waiting for me before eating the dinner they had prepared, I said hello and they told me about their day while I was taking off my shoes and having a quick drink, then I went upstairs in my room, I set down on my bed, looking at all the pictures of you on my wall and yes…I smiled and I felt home J

I met a woman from the Church I go sometimes (I told you in my first post, I go there to meet international people and to sing J ) and so this woman told me something which made me thinking a lot. She said “when I arrived, at first I thought I was not going to do charity at Chinese people, I have enough with the French ones, Chinese people should care about their own beggars”. Honestly, it amazed me to hear that, especially from someone who is Christian. I don’t know, it’s neither about religion nor about nationality, if you see someone who needs help and if at this moment you can bring this help, there is no matter of nationality. We are travellers,   we all leaved our country to go very far away from where we come from, we travel again and again and we are not going to stop somewhere before a while. She is a French teacher like me and she is going to move out in different countries again and again, as I will probably do myself and once you get the idea, once you are fine with it you are not anymore French or Chinese or American, you are a citizen of the world as we all belong and I would say all beggars are yours if you chose to see them and to do not pass through. I don’t really know if you get my point… I am French and I am extremely proud of this, I am proud of my History, of my country and of my life until now, I try to assume everything and I never forget where I come from, my city, my friends who are waiting for me. But now I don’t feel only French, I shared so many things with “foreign people” that I feel as well English, German, Korean, American, Scottish, Mexican, Venezuelan, Ethiopian, Taiwanese, Japanese, Chinese too because these are all the nationalities of places I have been or of people I met and who by sharing ideas, stories, experiences made the girl I am today. It’s not easy because I often get lost, lost in my life, lost in translation but I don’t regret it and I don’t understand how this woman could say “I have enough with French beggars” because she is not only French anymore, she’s got some Chinese cultural aspect in her mind, in her way of living and obviously she still doesn’t see it, it’s a pity.

Here two videos of Wuhan by night :) I downloaded them on youtube, blogger is too long about videos!