Chinese Gardens

The weekend that followed the EAP placement week, my friends Delia, Gabi, Marie, and I, went to Kananaskis Village to walk and take pictures. I had just bought my new digital camera Canon Rebel XTI and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to practice my conversation skills in English as well as my ability to take pictures. Since Gabi and Delia are from Bucharest, Romania, and Marie is from Shanghai, China, there was no chance for me to speak French at all. From Calgary, it took us about one hour to get there so we talked a lot in the car during the trip. Marie and I talked about Chinese gardens because I’m fascinated by these magical and mysterious places. She mentioned the word “horticulture” which is the study of growing things, or more simply, gardening. Marie told me that if I was to go to China, I should visit Suzhou because there is a lot of a wonderful traditional garden in that town located west of Shanghai and most of them are recognized as “United Nations World Heritage” sites. I told her that when I will have a house, I’m going to build a small replica of a Chinese garden with a pond with fish in it. I really learned a lot on the Chinese culture by speaking with her because she told me that every plant has a symbolism in these gardens. She also invited me to celebrate Chinese New Year at her place to cook and eat real Chinese food. There are some words that I don’t know what they mean such as “feng shui” or “dumplings” but in general this exercise was benefic for me because I learned new vocabulary from Marie such as “horticulture” and “perennial”. In my opinion, every time I speak to someone in English, I learn something new like new culture, new vocabulary, or developing new interests.