Art

Saturday morning, opened my eyes, I saw wall, wall, wall, plain walls around me. The good thing about having plain walls is that you can see mosquitoes easily if there is any. Now, it is winter, plain walls  lose their functionality. It would be nice to have some paintings on my wall.

Talking about paintings, it reminds me of my trip to Lake Annecy in 2009. Annecy is a beautiful town with many artists selling their work there. I used to watch some live painting for a hour struggling with whether I should buy one or not. The painting was beautiful, but after knowing how it was done, which seemed to be easy, the desire of buying one gradually disappeared. Of course, it also costs money.

Like many other children, I did some paintings when I was young. Parents were very happy to use them to decorate their house. Maybe it is time to do some paintings myself and hang them on my wall. I am in Paris!

Life is short -- only a few decades left. Once having a good idea, should carry it out immediately. So I shopped as an artist and bought many things: 12 pencils scaling from 6B to 5H, 12 colours for water painting, 2 painting brushes, 1 protractor, 1 triangle ruler, 1 normal ruler, 1 drawing board, 1 small drawing stand and many drawing papers for different purposes.

Since I have got myself well-equipped, I have no execuse not to start. So I spent the whole Sunday creating some art, from pencil sketching to water colour painting. Out of three pierces of work I did, only one is presentable. Not sure which part of muscles artists use for painting, my whole body starts to feel painful. Nothing is easy!

No pain, no gain. Overall, the experience is good. Not sure colours stimulate creativity or not, but they do relax my mind and motivate me to continue.

Warmth and Peace

When do you feel warmth and peace? When I see my grandma doing some sewing, I feel warmth. When I see my mother doing some reading, I feel peace.

Durian

Durian is a delicious tropical fruit with a distinct smell. Last month, I had a trip to Singapore. On my way back, I bought some durian chocolate at airport planning to share with my colleagues in France. Even if each chocolate ball is a small piece of dried durian wrapped with a layer of white chocolate followed by a layer of dark chocolate, you can still sense the durian smell after opening the packing.

Colleagues, who tried durian before, thanked me for the chocolate. Colleagues, who have never tried durian, either refused to try because of the smell or tried it and felt regret. I understand all their feelings as I remember that it used to take me at least half a year from disliking it to accepting it, enjoying it and loving it. My colleagues' reaction again justifies the saying, "Durian is a fruit that you may not like it initially, but the more you eat it, the more you like it".

Many things in life are like trying durian: before dawn, it is darkness; before spring, it is winter. So, if someone offers you durian next time, try it!

Trip to fairyland

I had a chateau-trip to Blois, Chambord and Cheverny last weekend. My main destination is Chambord, which is the most beautiful architecture in France in my eyes. Nowadays, with the google map, giving you the name of the place is enough, pictures worth thousands of words.

To have a relaxed trip, I chose to stay at Blois over night. In the evening, before sunset, I joined a horse carriage tour. It is quite a big carriage with about 15 seats, driven by two beautiful white horses. I sat on the first row waiting for the rest of the tourists to join. Suddenly, I saw one horse kissed the other. [You might ask, are you sure that was a kiss? Dana: Yes. I am sure.] Aha! One is taller than the other and the smaller one looks more gentle. They must be one female and one male. I looked around. There were four such carraiges and each was driven by two horses that one is taller than the other -- four couples. In the past, when a horse carriage was a main form of transport, a good horse carriage used two horses of the same height to achieve speed and better balancing. Now, these factors are not so important to tourists and I am happy that they take care of horses' welfare. It makes the carriage tour more romantic.

Trip started, we passed by ancient buildings, river and bridge; rode on ancient lanes as well as modern streets. When I was capturing these beautiful moments, the carriage stopped. I looked at the front. Oh, it was because of the red traffic light, [Yes. Horses also follow traffic light.], which took me from the fairyland back to the reality.

After my chateau-trip, my first feeling is that I do not want to live in any of them as it does not seem to be a place that gives you much privacy. But it is quite pleasant to walk in the royal gardens being companied by these nice architectures. My second feeling is that my French seems improving. Although I only know a few sentences, it seems that they are good enough for me to travel around in France. Local people are quite happy to meet a Chinese tourist speaking some French. Some of them also speak some Chinese back to me, quite a friendly atmosphere in general. My third feeling is ...  Must I have the third feeling? Maybe not.  

New dictionary

If a man tells a woman "this is good for you, that is bad for you", it is called caring.

If a woman tells a man "this is good for you, that is bad for you", it is called nagging.

If a husband tells his wife "don't come back too late", it is called concerning.

If a wife tells her husband "don't come back too late", it is called controlling.

Spider

Today, I met my neighbour "Spider" in my room. As my window was open, the spider wrongly assumed that it was welcomed. I was shocked and also a bit scared when I saw it because it is so big -- as big as half of my palm.

People always judge other people or creatures by their look. For example, when you see a small rabbit, you may think that it is cute and lovely even if it is known that rabbits are tricky animals. For another example, when you see a lion, you may think that it is violent and cruel, but lions have good family values among animals. 

Although I know that judging the spider by its look is unfair to it, I had to invite it out by catching it in a plastic bag and then put it outside. On my balcony, I found that the spider net had been destroyed by the rain. So au revoir, my spider.

Spider net

Today, I found a spider net on my balcony. It is only visible when you face a tree and look up. No wonder I have never noticed it through my window. The net is very thin and looks quite new as there is no dust on it. For many people, spider nets indicate that the place has not been cleaned for long time and the first cleaning job is to remove it. But I did not. If spiders catch mosquitos, they should be my friends. So why not let them be my neighbours. 

Human beings always talk about being equal, talk about animal rights, etc. But it is very hard to achieve. I personally like spiders more than mosquitos so bon appetit to spiders.    

Personality determines forture

Motto in Texas

I visited a friend in Texas in the southern U.S. two years ago. In her house, I saw a motto:

Work as if you do not need money;

dance as if nobody is watching;

love as if you have never been hurt.

She told me that it is quite a popular local motto. Yes. From the motto, I can smell the care-free air in Texas.

Manners

I have had such a dream for a number of times:

"It was a luxurious buffet. I saw a lot of food I like. But we had to wait for the rest of the guests to arrive before we could start. I stared at the food and waited and then woke up."

Each time I woke up like this, I blamed myself, "It is in a dream. It is safe to do whatever I like as there won't be any consequence to face. Why care about manners. Just go ahead and eat. Don't be silly next time." But each time, I was still unwillingly waiting in my dream. I think sometimes people care too much about their manners than what they really want.

Yes. I just had such a dream last night.

Housework

When I was very young and lived with my parents, I always heard working women complaining about the burden of doing housework. So each time my dad asked me to either study or do housework, I chose to study because it seemed to be a much easier and less boring task. Although I did not do much housework at home, at that time in China, students were supposed to take turn to clean classroom themselves. So I did some cleaning in school before.

When I live oversea, I have to do some housework myself. To my surprise, maybe more advanced cleaning facilities and detergent have emerged, doing housework seems to be a very easy task. It turns out to be a great pleasure to see the kitchen and bathroom shine in few minutes.

What motivated me to write today's blog? I just realised that I could be a plumber as well -- unblocking the blocked basin and bathtub in few seconds. Well, I think everybody can do that. Only the person, who did it for the first time, feels so proud of herself.

回家吃饭

过年了，真想回家吃饭！

小的时候，每次做饭前，妈妈都问我：“今天想吃什么”。我的回答每次都一样：“随便”。我是个不挑食的孩子，有什么就吃什么，只要可口就行。妈妈后来对我说，每次问我是为了尊重我，每次我的回答都让她觉得很贴心。没想到我随便的回答竟也给了妈妈一丝温暖。

每次回国，也是回家，妈妈都问我：“想吃什么”。我的回答总是：“家常便饭”。不是我不挑食，而是在国外吃上一次地道的家常便饭很难。有人说，最好吃的饭菜还是妈妈做的。的确如此。

Chinese lunch today

Guess what? INRIA canteen cooks Chinese food for today's lunch and they provide chopsticks! Not only that, the canteen is also decorated with Chinese lanterns. What a surprise! 

The Chinese population in INRIA is quite small and I appreciate that they have this Chinese lunch during the Chinese New Year period. Today, one main vegetable dish is spring sprout, which is made from soya beans, which is also a good representative of Chinese vegetable dish. Spring sprout is the name I see in UK supermarket, Chinese call it Dou Ya, meaning bean sprout.

Some time ago, someone: I stayed in China for one year and I missed cheese very much because you do not find cheese in supermarkets in China. How can you people live without cheese?!

Dana: I know exactly what you feel because I cannot find Tofu in supermarkets in Europe and it is also hard for me to believe that European people can live without Tofu!

While cheese represents the west, soya bean represents the east. Besides bean sprout and Tofu, there are hundreds of food made from soya beans just like there are many types of cheese.

So INRIA canteen chose a right vegetable today!

Making wishes

New year, new wishes! I would like to make wishes. Making wishes is like setting goals or reminding yourself what you want at that particular time of your life.

I bought a French novel last Saturday. Bingo! One of my wishes is to master French. (Of course, I also have other wishes and subwishes.) I remember that my English was improved rapidly after I read a series of books titled "The Famous Five". This is a curiosity-driven way of learning a language. As you keep wondering what happens next in a novel, it pushes you to look up dictionary to find the meaning of those new words. As looking up dictionary is a tiresome job, you will try to remember as many words as possible so as to reduce the frequency of looking up the dictionary. After staying in France for one year, I feel that I am somewhat used to the French grammar although I did not feel comfortable at the beginning. One linguistic professor says that, once you accept a language, you can learn it fast.

Each time I learn a foreign language, I recall a Chinese great master JI Xianlin's words, "Cultural exchange is the main drive for humankind's progress. Only by learning from each other's strong points to make up for shortcomings can people constantly progress, the ultimate target of which is to achieve a kind of Great Harmony".

So look forward to the day that I can write blogs in French. Bingo! That is one of my subwishes.

Strolling

Last weekend, the weather was beautiful. (Actually you can see blue sky quite often in France even in winter. Feel jealous?) It was definitely not a good day to stay at home and write blogs so I went out for a walk.

I like strolling especially along a river. That is why I need a good pair of shoes which allow me to stroll for a couple of hours comfortably and gracefully.

The royal garden outside the chateau of Versailles is the best place to have a walk. There are ponds and a canal in the garden. You can see a thin layer of ice on the surface of the ponds. But the layer of ice is thick enough for swans to walk on it. Looking around, statues are there as usual. Do statues feel cold? I cannot help wondering because they are quite naked.

Standing in the royal garden, looking to the north, I hardly see any high buildings. I was told that there was a law in the past stating that no windows of a building should be seen from King's bedroom. So in order to  have slightly higher houses, people hide them by planting trees around. It seems quite true as I can only see roofs of some buildings which are not higher than trees around them. I do not think there is still such a law nowadays. I guess people do not build high buildings now partly because it is not necessary and partly because it may destroy the peaceful scene of Versailles.

There are benches made of marbles in the garden, pure and elegant. Imagine that lovers used to sit over there having a long chatting under the moon. I would say that the garden was quite a romantic place if all tourists and their cameras disappeared. (But I was one of them the first time I visited Versailles.)

Walking and thinking, walking and thinking ...

I feel lucky that I am a person who lives in the 21st century. I also treasure whatever I have today.

Shoes

It is very hard to find a good pair of shoes that are both stylish and comfortable. But I had found one before winter came. They are warm, smart, comfortable and lovely.

French home dishes

Why home dishes? I believe most people, who read my blogs, have been to a French restaurant in their country and know what French food is like. But what do French people eat at home? Is it as complicated and artistic as what you see at restaurants? The answer is "Yes". I am surprised to know that they make chocolate, ice-cream, sausages, etc. themselves at home. One reason to take all the trouble to make them at home is for the sake of health -- you know what you are eating. The other reason is to enjoy the great fun of making food for yourself and for your family. It is not difficult for me to imagine. I am pretty sure that I would feel a great pleasure if my children enjoyed the meals I make.

I have been invited by a French family for a Saturday dinner at their house together with another two guests. One thing to note is that usually the host says you can come at 7pm, but you are actually expected to be at their house at 7:30pm. Dinner in France usually starts at 8pm. They may provide you some snack (e.g. simple salad) to eat and pre-dinner wine to drink from 7:30-8:00pm and also have some pre-dinner chatting. If you reach too early, they may not know how to handle you. This is quite different from Chinese convention that guests usually reach slightly earlier to help out a bit, such as arranging tables and chairs, or even washing vegetables. In France, the hosts do everything themselves probably because they would like to do things in their way.

Children were put upstairs at 8pm so that hosts and guests can start their meals. The main course at the dinner was roasted lamb together with a glass of red wine. I had been asked beforehand what I do not eat because some people may be allergic to some food. I said, I could eat any meat as long as it is fully cooked. Well, this seems to be a relaxed requirement, but it turns out to make the host's cooking slightly difficult because they usually eat lamb that is half-cooked. It is harder to make it fully cooked and yet tender, timing is very important. Anyway, to respect my eating habit, the lamb was made fully cooked. It was roasted in a small machine in their garden (i.e. open air) with coal burning at the side of the machine. Coal? Yes, coal, because it just tastes better than those roasted in an electric oven. I read from newspaper that some harmful gas is formed when fat burns on coal, so having coal at the side is a smart design. I am not sure what spices have been put on the lamb, it tastes very delicious.

Each person was only served with one slice of lamb. After the main course, I still felt hungry. Well, so did they because there were still many other courses waiting for us. Immediately I was served with cheese and bread. Everybody knows that French people have invented more than 300 kinds of cheese. As a foreign guest, I must try. At home, they eat 5-6 kinds of cheese with bread after the main course. I tried a little bit of each and concluded that they were eatable. Of course, cheese and wine always go together. (A colleague of mine organized a cheese party a few months later. I found out that I could eat any cheese, so I passed the cheese test in France.)

The host made the desert himself as well -- something creamy and sweet in a cup. All dishes have their names, but I am not good at remembering names. Besides the dessert, some home-made chocolate was served, then the post-dinner wine. You may notice that the host is a male because I use the word "him". Yes, the host's wife confirms that her husband does all the cooking and he enjoys doing so. Yes, I myself also enjoy cooking and have a feeling that I am an artist when I happen to cook something nice. After this dinner, I feel I should practise more.

You might ask that, do they learn cooking from their mother? I presume women did all the cooking in the old days. But I found out that each such an artist has a sophisticated cooking book at home, which can be 1000-page thick, very professional. I would really like to buy one myself.

After drinking different kinds of wine and having a lot of interesting chatting and laughing, I started to feel sleepy. But I was told that such dinner (or gathering) usually ends at 2-3am. Because I am not a close friend of the family and also because they are no longer in their early 20s, we ended the dinner earlier, i.e. at 12:00 midnight.

Cinderella went home safely.

我的邻里

住在我这个小区的大多是六十岁以上的。我是怎么知道的呢？ 这儿附近有个大超市，几乎所有住在附近的居民都到此购物。超市主要卖的是新鲜的蔬菜水果，海鲜，肉类等，真可谓应有尽有。从超市也能看出一个国家的饮食文化。海鲜和鱼类独占一个大摊位，干净整齐的铺在一大片碎冰上，而且有条理的被分类。每次走到这个摊位，都让我回想起日本电视剧中阿信那股朝气蓬勃努力卖鱼的劲儿。不过购物的人当中，除了我以外最年轻的也是四五十岁的，大多是六十岁以上的。听说这儿的房子是六七十年代建的，当时他们正是二十多岁的年轻人，兴冲冲地攒钱买房子，组织家庭。现在他们已老去，这儿成了他们养老的居所。虽然购物者的朝气已不在，不过还是挺令我羡慕的。有人说最浪漫的事就是一起慢慢变老。看到一些老年夫妇携手推着小车来购物，感觉挺温馨的。人能活到老其实已经是一种福气了。

在这个小区，每家都有个阳台，而且阳台的面积还不小。我心想这下凉衣服可方便多了。于是在新的洗衣机到来后，把衣服，床单，被罩，窗帘布等等都洗了。我也买了个大的凉衣架，凉的时候还特别小心，特意把衣服类凉在里面，床单被罩什么的凉在外面，免得不够雅观。可是在傍晚，在我从超市回来的路上，被小区管理员叫了去。那是位年轻的女士，会说些英文，因为我是这区的唯一一个亚裔人，见过我一次后就记住了。她非常着急地告诉我她的上司看到我的阳台凉着东西，于是就拍了照片以作为证据，因为在阳台凉东西是绝对不允许的。我的天，这么严重！于是我问她除了这个还有什么其它条例吗，以免我以后再犯什么大错？她说，有很多，因为她知道我不懂法文，在我搬进来时没拿给我看。共四页纸，密密麻麻大概有五十多条吧。其中一条就是禁止在阳台上凉任何物件，除非阳台上安了篱笆，而且篱笆只可以是绿色或者黑色的，并且要和已有的金属栏杆一边高。原来如此！因为我周围的阳台都没有篱笆，而且没看过别人凉衣服，忽略了这一点。第二天，我特意去寻找有篱笆的阳台因为这样的人家很少。篱笆一般是塑料做的，有点儿像硬实的网。人们都买绿色的，因为黑色的实在太难看吧。即使是绿色的，也不怎么样。不过确实有了篱笆后，从外面看不到什么了。我的阳台外面很美，有花，有树，每次站在阳台上都有种心旷神怡的感觉，而且觉得很浪漫。一想到要在阳台上围一圈那种硬网，就觉得有些哽咽。于是我决定不安篱笆，只在室内凉，当然这是允许的。回想起来，不管在阳台上凉什么，似乎都多多少少破坏阳台上那股泻意，所以就默默接受了。（在英国，由于我住在学校宿舍，都是用烘干机烘干衣物，所以没有体会到英国人是怎样处理的。）

最近在网上看到一条来自中国某地区的新闻，是说政府给一些穷困的居民廉价房子住，但要求居民遵守许多条例，违反了就要扣分，扣到一定程度就收回房子居住权。例如，随地吐痰七次就会被没收房子。很多网民说这是对穷人的歧视，我到觉得不然。其实很多条例是合理的，干净和谐的环境很多时候是靠自我约束而得来的。在我住的楼里，楼下有个垃圾房，里面有几个大桶供人们往里扔垃圾。使我诧异的是那个垃圾房居然没有臭味儿。为什么呢？原来人们都把垃圾放在塑料袋儿里，而且把塑料袋儿扎得紧紧地。每天有清洁工把装着垃圾的小塑料袋儿放在一个个大垃圾袋里，也是扎得紧紧得，等待每星期来一次的收垃圾工把它们运走。

目前为止，我还是很享受这儿的生活，希望它能默默地持续下去。。。

除雪车

去年的冬天， 在Grenoble我第一次看到除雪车。 当地面上洒过除雪济后，白雪融化，车子带来的泥水使可爱的白雪变成了黑雪，显得有些泥泞。 这时一辆除雪车在我身边驶过。 这是个庞然大物一股脑把所有的污雪给除走了。除雪车的样子有点儿像铲土机，不过个头差不多是铲土机的两倍，前面的铲是由硬胶皮做成的。除雪车的后面留下的是一条清洁的马路，给我留下很深的印象。

记得中学的时候在中国东北，每次下雪后，学校就会组织扫雪。同学们拿着各自的铁锹在马路中央排成一排开始埋头苦干。雪下得很厚，气温又低 （大概零下15-20摄氏度），被汽车辗后，压得结结实实的。扫雪是个相当大的工程。不过扫雪的记忆还是挺愉快的，忙里偷闲干些体力活感觉很好，扫完后还有些成就感。不知现在每年冬天扫雪是个什么景象，好久没回去了，回去了也没碰上下雪。可能更现代化的除雪机已出现，只是我不知道罢了。

不过欧洲那种除雪车也只适用于少量积雪，而且温度太低时也未必顶用，因为今年冬天的第一场雪在巴黎造成了些混乱。报纸上也有很多报道关于大雪在欧洲造成的危机。看来人类在自然面前还是如此渺小。

It is time to start a Blog.

Why?

It is a new decade ... good time to change lifestyle.

I am in a new country ... a country who speaks a language that I cannot comprehend yet ... so I may have to talk to myself in languages I know.

I am a new person ... not a student any more.