Essential Vocabulary

We had another visitor last night. When I told the story before about how we bumped into the guy in a restaurant that we’d met the night that we arrived. I was suprised at how small Kunming is. Actually it turns out that China is pretty small too. When Cathryn lived here in 2006, she lived in a city called Xining (Click to see a map).

At that time she met a Chinese university student called Abigail, became her friend, shared with her and Abby was saved. Since that time, Cathryn and Abigail have kept in contact occasionally by email and maybe a phone once a year or so.

Fast forward 4 and a half years and we found out last week that after moving around China a bit, Abby now lives in Kunming.

Not only does she live in Kunming, she only lives about 15 mins walk from our house!

So last night Abby came over to our house and she and Cathryn had a great catch-up.

Cathryn prepared some pizza pocket type things for dinner which were delicious.

From China – Guests

Abby was impressed with them after they came out of the oven!

From China – Guests

After dinner, Cathryn prepared some pancakes, cream, strawberries and maple syrup for dessert. While she was preparing, I gave Abby a quick introduction to Carcassonne, and got beaten! Beginners luck I’m sure!

When dessert was ready, we all sat down and had another game together, including both expansions. The game was long and in the end Cathryn won by 7 points, Abby came second and I was a long way in the rear. Most imporantly, everyone had a great time.

This brings me to the main subject of this post – vocabulary. Using board games is a great way to pick up different parts of a language. Here are some essential words and phrases for Chinese Carcassonne: