le plat du jour: noodle soup

23 feb 2011

i finally decided to cook myself something fresh tonight. after spending the whole day at home and having had ready made food for lunch i felt i could try out fresh food. for this chinese noodle soup i stirred fried shallots and garlic in basil infused olive oil. added vine tomatoes, a pinch of chilly, mustard, a veggetable cube and hot water. then i added the chinese noodle to the pan. when it was nearly ready i broke two egges into the soup. it tasted nice and i think i truly deserved the treat. for dessert i had two clementines and also drank a cup of tea.

i am still ill, with this allergy that is lingering on and on. i felt very very tired all day and once again i slept many hours during the day. hope to feel better soon.

zzzzzezzoz Zoe

6 aug 2010

i was talking to a Chinese student and asked him his name. 'Andy', he said. i told him this is the same as his teacher's, Andrew, and that Andy is a nickname for Andrew. Andy was very surprised because he didn't know that. he said he picked the name out of the internet as he liked it.

i walked around and spoke with a Chinese girl. when i asked her name, she said 'zzzzzezzoz Zoe'. i smiled, repeated 'Zoe', and we talked about other, more relevant for the moment things.

i've seen this adoption of an English name by a Chinese speaker (both Chinese and Taiwanese) happen so often i decided to ask them why they do it a while ago. the ones i spoke with told me their name doesn't matter much. for them what is really important is their father's (family's) name, which is kept, along with the new, English name.

although i could understand and see the point in their argument, i still wonder why the need to do that. i would just simplify my name if it were too hard for foreigners to pronounce it, but i don't see people calling anything else rather than Kalina. do i have identity issues?