User Comments - cinnamonfern

Posted on: License Plate Characters

Hey everyone - a group of us poddies has compiled a transcript of this lesson (with a downloadable PDF).  Feel free to check it out here:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11416

Posted on: Getting Married in China

And my friend was embarrassed that she had to speak in English, answer questions, and do silly things like both eat the same 饺子...I can't imagine stage 2. That is terribly embarrassing.

Posted on: Getting Married in China

My parents had to go through the shenanigans after the wedding - my mom called it "shivareeing". My family supposedly short-sheeted their bed, put plastic wrap over the toilet bowl, and other mostly harmless things that my parents got to discover after the honeymoon. I'm a little worried that it's my turn now.

Actually, they had to bow first before they got the hongbao. :)

Posted on: By Myself, So Alone

No, I definitely understand and don't plan on going back there again. It was quite terrifying, and I'm really, really glad I made it out of there with nothing other than a bad scare. I'm also really glad there were only about ten monkeys there, and this didn't happen when we were surrounded by hundreds. If you scare a deer or a rabbit or a squirrel in the U.S. they will stop, decide you're a threat and take off the other direction. If you scare a monkey, they will stop, look at you, decide you're a threat, and then attack you first. It's freaky. Some of the monkeys we saw were missing ears and fingers, and one had no skin or muscle left on his upper arm - it was just bone. Gehhh...

Posted on: Getting Married in China

I attended my friend's wedding just before Spring Festival in rural Hebei. A few of the more interesting facts:

• Traditions are alive and well in Hebei - my friend had wanted to wear a white dress but her mom and aunts were appalled at the idea, so red it was! And did she wear red - it was January and cold, and the ceremony was outside, so she had on lots of layers - all of which were red (boots, gloves, long underwear, dress, skirt, coat). There was no changing outfits...my theory is that it wasn't so much the cost but the difficulty in getting all those layers off and new ones back on.  :)
• I wasn't allowed to see my friend before the day of the wedding, or participate in the fun morning activity of retrieving the bride from her parent's house. This was because I'm the year of the dog and she's the year of the rooster. Supposedly it's unlucky because dogs (and tigers, too) will both eat a rooster given the chance. 
  
• My friend's fiance had to go pick her up from her parent's place, and they put him and his cousins through lots of ridiculous activities (breaking down the door, finding her shoes which were hidden around the house, etc...) before they let him take my friend back to his family.
• My friend's parents and sister did not go to the ceremony/dinner at the groom's family's village. However, some of her uncles, aunts and cousins went.  But there was another huge dinner the next day for her whole extended family.
• Not many people came for the ceremony (which was outside and cold). There was a hired MC, whose primary job was to embarrass the bride and groom, and he also did the video and pictures. Later, every time before they got hongbao from an older relative, they had to bow three times.
  
• While not many people came for the ceremony, many, many people came for the dinner in stages - we estimated around 500-600. I didn't see them because they were scattered in nearby houses in the village.  So my friends had to bow...a lot.

Posted on: Getting Married in China

My proposal happened at home with no one around. I think most guys wouldn't want the already nerve-wracking and potentially embarrassing situation (what if, heaven forbid, she says no?) complicated by zillions of witnesses.

Posted on: By Myself, So Alone

...trying to decide whether to put "chromosome" in my vocab list or not...

Posted on: Plans for Children?

A group of us poddies have finished a transcript for this podcast. (There is even a PDF!) Feel free to check it out here:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11411

Posted on: By Myself, So Alone

Yep - I took this at 金山 (Jīn Shān or Kam Shan Country Park). My fiance was visiting me here in HK and we were hiking the Smuggler's Ridge trail. People were feeding the monkeys from their cars (in spite of being really stupid - it's also illegal) - hence why there are monkeys everywhere, climbing all over the cars and not afraid of people at all. At one point we were surrounded by literally hundreds of them. We had made it almost to the end of the trail, and then my fiance startled a baby while trying to read a sign, and a group of them attacked me. One even grabbed me around the legs! But I wasn't bitten or injured, just shaken up a bit, so I figure I'm happy and it makes a good story.

Posted on: By Myself, So Alone

Yay!  Thanks for answering my question!  I was so excited I had a hard time focusing on the lesson. :D 

And I'm a girl...I just like using random pics I've taken as my avatar.  Right now it's some Hong Kong monkeys sitting on a car.

I did have some friends in undergrad who lived in a house with ten guys. So if I wanted to say: "During undergrad I lived with five people."

可以说吗？： 我们大学的时候五个人住了。