Week 14: 第十四周
I love my aunt's co-workers. 我很喜欢我姨妈的同事。
I've found how to always feel adored. I just need to keep eating with my aunt's co-workers. Last weekend, I went back to my parent's hometown of Jingjiang and I got to meet two more of my aunt's friends who teach at the same school. One of them originally wanted to invite a co-worker who is an English teacher, perhaps to translate. That's my aunt's theory anyways. They assumed I couldn't communicate with them in Chinese (which would've been mostly true 3 months ago) and they super impressed that I sound sort of not like a foreigner. And they called me a "pistachio", because when translated literally "pistachio" means "happiness fruit" or "open heart fruit". So a "pistachio" is a person that always makes you happy. I feel like with these super adorable teachers, I am treated like royalty.
如果我可以经常跟我姨妈的同事见面，那就会永远有人爱慕我。上个周末我回到靖江，跟我姨妈的两个同事吃一顿饭。其中一个阿姨本来想请一个英语老师一起来。我姨妈认为她是想让那个英语老师作翻译。她们以为我一点汉语也不会。（当然，如果是三个月以前，那还真是如此。）他们很惊讶地说我的发音还是挺标准的。他们说我是一个开心果，她们对我特别热情，让我觉得我就像公主一样。
The interesting thing about the restaurant we ate at is that you pick your meat and vegetables based on plastic wrapped food displays, and then you pick the seafood and fish you want by pointing at it while it's alive and then they take it out of the tank and cook it.
我还没看过这样的饭店。我们根据这个陈历的样品，然后选要吃什么。
Street market 庙会
I also went to a street fair that happens every year just outside my grandma's house. They had everything there: furniture, clothes, pets, farming tools, and food. My aunt was very excited for me to try on this hat, so she put it on my head, and said she bet America didn't have these hats.
My uncle bought a shirt that had random English words on it. I'm a native speaker and I couldn't even understand the meaning, so I asked him why he bought a shirt if he didn't understand the words on it. My aunt shrugged and said, "that's how it is in China. We buy shirts with Chinese English on it. Just like Americans like to eat bread. That's just how the culture is." Fair enough, I guess.
我还去了一趟庙会，紧靠我奶奶家。那里什么都有：家具，衣服，动物，食物等等。 我姑姑让我试试这个帽子，说美国肯定没有。我姑父买了一件T恤衫，T恤衫上有很多英语字。虽然我的母语是英语，但是我也看不懂上面的意思。我姑姑耸耸肩，说在国内中国人就喜欢买这样的衣服，就像美国人喜欢吃面包一样！这就是所谓的文化吧！
Thanks for reading! 谢谢你读我的博客
Wish me luck as I take the HSKK Exam on Saturday afternoon! It's apparently a 20 minute speaking exam that I have to take as a part of my scholarship from the Chinese government. I'm just super glad it's an oral exam, so I still have a month left to prepare for the written exam.
Thanks for reading, and see you next Thursday!
我这个星期六要参加HSKK考试。就是一个二十分钟的考试，为了中国政府的奖学金，所以我要参加。我很开心这次是口语考试，还有一个月的时间准备笔试。谢谢你读我的博客，下个星期四见！