Categories: cinema
Date: 17 November 2004 04:59:01
Thanks for all the tips on getting tid of ulcers: the salt-water method is being employed regularly, and I've taken note of other creams as this one is rather foul tasting (unlike Bonjela, according to Jack ;-). The swelling seems to have gone down, and I'm not in as much agony now: thanks be to God.
I saw Hero at the cinema today (it's just been released here), on the recommendation of my manager who loved it. As did I. I am sure I'll be discussing it with her extensively tomorrow. A great story, fantastic acting, wonderful panoramic shots of China, wondrous martial arts, fantastic use of colours to symbolise...and so much more. If you get a chance to see it I heartily recommend it.
Just before the movie I took my conversation class for the week with five new students and two previous students, all of whom were eager to talk. Wonderful news for me given my ulcer -- I wanted to talk as little as possible. We dicussed weddings in each of our cultures (Australian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Peruvian) and I learnt a great deal, as I always do. The main discovery for me, and given it's me, main discoveries will always be food-related ;-), was that in some places in China they have 12-tier wedding cakes! 12-tier!!! I thought 3 was a lot. ;-) And, in most cases, all 12 tiers are real cake, not "fake cake" as one of my students labelled it. Another interesting, and to me, a bit sad, note, was that many people are now forsaking traditional Chinese, Korean or Japanese weddings for a Western-style wedding. Apparently it is much cheaper to have a Western-style wedding.
Plenty of new words for the students as well (and a lot of French words (bouquet; bonbonnière) to confuse their pronunciation skills) and, as always, plenty of laughter. And a good sign was that many of them asked questions of others as they explained their wedding customs: often I've had classes where people are shy to ask others: there was no sign of this today. A particularly great class today: thanks be to God.