(5+5) Things About Me
A couple of months ago, my buddy Graham set an interesting challenge: an “about me” photography hunt.
The goal was to “take 10 photographs that represent you / things about you / your personality / likes / dislikes… I think ya catch my drift. Against each one, you need to write a comment to explain what is says about you.”
I loved the idea but I was traveling, so I didn’t have the time. So, here I am, a but late, but with my ten pictures! I will publish five today, five Wednesday (I love suspense…).
 Parisian Souvenirs |
I was born and I grew up in France, in the city of Nantes.I don’t miss France much though, except for my family and friends. I like my life in Canada and I’m proud that I did all the immigration paperwork by myself when I was 22.
I don’t believe in destiny and I like the idea of choosing where I want to live. So far, Canada is for me! Minus the winters, that goes without saying. |
 My Junior High/ High School In Nantes |
This is where I spent my life between 12 and 18 years old! It was a relatively small (about 1,000 students) junior high/ high school. Public school, of course.I wasn’t especially popular but I wasn’t bullied either. I was a good student but a bit rebel — not sure I would be invited if we had a school reunion!
Mostly, I couldn’t wait to finish school and discover the real world which was bound to be, without doubt, much more interesting. |
 Ottawa, The Business District |
I now call Ottawa home. I first came there in 2002, lived part-time until 2004 and eventually more or less settled there.A lot of people (mostly from Toronto and Montreal, our two big neighbors!) find the city boring. I don’t.
Sure, Ottawa is relatively small (about one million inhabitants). But it’s affordable, quite steady (the crisis hasn’t affected the city much for example) and both French and English are widely spoken. Plus, it’s pretty! |
 Self Portrait In A Café, Nantes |
I can hang out in coffee for hours. Note that I don’t actually like coffee.When it comes to drinks, I’m quite picky. I don’t drink alcohol and coffee is… meh. I like Coke Zero, grapefruit juice and Chinese teas in general. Oh, and the occasional Vanilla Latte.
Give me a book or a newspaper, and I can hang out there forever… |
 All My Chinese Books |
I studied Chinese in junior high, high school, and then full-time at university.Everybody always asks me why I choose to study Chinese. The truth is, I don’t know. I had to sign up for a foreign language (compulsory at school in France) and I had no interest in English culture at the time. I figured I could always learn Spanish later on, so I picked Chinese.
I ended up being the only true Westerner in our small class. Most students were Chinese-French and even though they couldn’t write Chinese, they all spoke a dialect (Cantonese, Teochew etc.). It was tough at first but I eventually caught up! |
(to be followed…)
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Thank you for sharing this, Zhu! A Frenchwoman who doesn’t drink wine and is fluent in Chinese! There can’t be many who fit that description.
It’s been good knowing you through your blog.
Ohhhh, you don’t like coffee???!!! Well, I do have to admit that grapefruit juice is great, but coffee is my favorite
i notice you took your photo of ottawa after>/i> the ice melted. that’s the sneaky thing about canadians. they get only two hours of daylight (if they are lucky) and so they all go outside when it happens and snap pictures. triky, tricky.
I adore your pictures! Those little Eiffel tower statues are really cute. And ditto on the ‘not liking coffee’ bit.
A good post. Now we know more about you…
It is often said that French are proud of their language, but you somehow learn three foreign languages.