My Chinese Name

When i started dating my first Chinese boyfriend it really bothered me that every Chinese person who comes to Ireland is required to choose a "new" English name. So I felt it was only right that i should get a "new" Chinese name. My ex boyfriend made a huge heap of excuses as to why he couldn't give me a Chinese name

Firstly you don't have a Chinese surname.
Therefore it's impossible for me to even contemplate giving you a Chinese name. End of story. I was a bit disappointed I wanted a Chinese name I hated that new names were only suitable for Chinese people but not for Irish or any foreigner for that matter. So in the end i gave up.

Then when we went to China to meet his family, All his family found it impossible to remember my name because it was so different and foreign. So i tried to suggest that maybe he could put his thinking cap on and give me some sort of Chinese name... I assured him that i would be OK with even just one word.... Then he met me half way and gave me a Direct translation of my name "Sailia" he found it on a Chinese book that had been directly translated from English into Chinese.

I know i said I would be happy with any Chinese name... I quickly explained to him i didn't actually mean any... I want a real name not some made up direct translation name.... He refused to accept it and said its this or nothing. So i decided to stick with nothing.

Finally when we came back from China and I pursued the Chinese name one final time. He asked his Mom to pick up a Chinese name for me! Then i got the name Tian Tian. meaning  Sweetie.

I was really touched. His mom was really kind and nice at the beginning she always tried to make me feel comfortable whenever we visited. She believed western girls would never sleep on the hard cold ground so she paid for me and my boyfriend to stay at a hotel. When we went to China she rang my boyfriend everyday and instructed him to take care of me and make sure i eat good food and make sure he brings me to the right places and watches my bag on the street. His mom lived in Ireland but the rest of his family lived in China.

Sadly when she heard me and my boyfriend were talking about marriage she forced my ex boyfriend to break up. :(

So after that my "sweet" Chinese name was no longer as sweet as I thought. So I reverted back to Sarah period  I used Sarah as my screen name on QQ and a Chinese girl told me that no one uses there real names on QQ in China. So she helped me create a new Chinese name and I then became Zhi Han and she even gave me a Chinese Surname which was inspired by my Surname. Lin

Since that day my Chinese name has been Lin Zhi Han. However no one actually calls me that... Although when my boyfriend saved my number on his phone he saved it as Zhi Han. :) and I saved his as Michael lol!

Sometimes my boyfriend calls me Sarah Chen! So it makes me wonder will i ever actually change my name to Sarah Chen? I don't know if the shoe fits?

The I word

The I word- Illegal cropped up yesterday, I don't know why but Ireland and Irish people are absolutely obsessed with labels, Everyone has to fit into some nice little category. Why can't someone just be a person and not labeled by the various stamps they have attained?

 

Yesterday I was in the sitting room and my Mom suddenly said "There seems to be a lot of Chinese men around the town these days, I take it he (My boyfriend) is Illegal?" It wasn't a question it was a statement. Anyway I quickly explained in fact he isn't illegal, Which in fact is not entirely true... I like to say he is in the Limbo position He is neither illegal or Legal a such he is just here. My Mom just doesn't get it, Immigration is complicated stuff. 

Our A word the Application requires a lot of tedious work. We keep coming across blockages on the way. Currently we are looking for a snooker club for him to join and there is none in Bray so we had to give that up. Our next option is a badminton club, which also isn't looking good. As my dad is in a badminton club and my boyfriend doesn't want to join the same one as him. So that requires more research. Another option is a basketball club, if we can't find one of them then we will have to widen the search again.

Another aspect of the application is the money transfer from China which proves my boyfriend is being supported by his family. Everything requires some sort of proof.

It's a really good thing that i am such a good secret keeper!

Hui Guo Ruo.. Success

Sounds like gobbled gook right? Haha this was my first excursion with the chinese language for about a 2 years? Well since I went to Nanjing with my first boyfriend. Which wasn’t very successful, not because my Chinese was so hopeless though… Just the shop was busy =.=;; I still remember what I had to say si lian, 4 portions lol!

Anyway last night me and my boyfriend were feeling quite peckish and didn’t want to cook. So he sent me out to the local Chinese take away, literally across the road. I knew what he wanted but neither of us could remember what the dish was called.  It consisted of Pork belly and chilli sauce. In fact I had ordered it by accident when I was ordering for my family.

So before venturing out my boyfriend trained me to say Hui Guo Rou… So off i went and explained to the Chinese man at the counter that I wanted something that I only knew how to say in Chinese. I think he must of thought I was mental @.@ so I had a try and said it and he understood ! Mission accomplished! He praised me on my Chinese and had a laugh. Then kindly told me the English name “Re-fried Pork”  (回鍋肉 Hui Guo Rou)

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Update:

It suddenly occured to me looking back at this post that I should of given a recipe for how to make Hui Guo Ruo

Recipe:

Serves 4 as part of multi-course meal

1 pound pork belly or unsmoked bacon (if using sliced bacon skip first step)
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon fermented black beans
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili bean sauce
2 teaspoons sweet chili paste
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 leeks, white parts thinly sliced

1. Place pork belly in a medium pot of salted water and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer, skimming the water as necessary, until pork is fully cooked through, about 45 to 60 minutes. Drain and let cool. When cool enough to handle, pat dry and slice into 1/4-cm thick pieces.

2. In a small bowl, mix together black beans, rice wine, soy sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet chili paste, and sesame oil. 

3. In a wok, heat peanut oil until just beginning to smoke. Working in small batches, cook until golden brown on each side. Transfer pork to a separate plate and continue with the next batch. (Drain oil/pork fat after each batch, leaving just 1 tablespoon in the wok.)

4. Stir-fry ginger until just fragrant, about 30 seconds, then add sauce. Add leeks and stir-fry until cooked through, about 1 minute. Return pork to the wok and stir to coat with sauce and cooked leeks. Transfer to plate and serve.

Just Given birth to a lovely Panda family….

Haha not quite, I know Christmas is well over, But I only just transferred our Christmas photos to the computer. This was my family’s Christmas party. All my relatives came over for eating, drinking and being merry!! Actually I spent almost the whole time sitting down watching others play the Nintendo Wii, Super Mario never fails!! We have the Super Mario Kart’s game and we have had it for over a year and we are still finding new things to do with it, On Christmas eve one friend told me how to connect the wii to the internet and since then we have become crazy about improving our rating ^^ 

Not to sound like a Super, Super Mario fan,  Me and my boyfriend started playing “Super Mario Forever”  recently and lets just say its super tough and super addictive! My boyfriend’s very good at it. I’m rather impatient and not as skilled… I can only get to level 3 of the first world =.=;;; not a very good start. Anyway up until today, my boyfriend couldn’t pass the final level of world 1 so I searched on Youtube for a walkthrough… I know pretty pathetic… especially on world 1 but hey… it actually didn’t help us (him) at all.. He figured out himself hehe! So now we are on World 2 and stuck again!!. Ahhh!!! At 21 (me) and 27 (him) video games are still fun!

Another game we have played and practically completed is Chicken Invaders 3… We haven’t gotten all the medals but that doesn’t matter we have beaten all the bosses… several times.. When I say we, I mean a conbined effort from me and my boyfriend ^^

I think I may grow to really regret going to Powerscourt on Saturday… I am so so so stupid, Not only would it greatly displease my boyfriend if he found out but even now its greatly displeasing me..  Makes me cringe to be honest,

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As far as our application is concerned we searched the town for the Pepper Snooker club and couldn’t find it so we rang the phone number… tada closed down several years ago so we are back to square one…. But on a brighter note we have had sorted out a second job offer.