I decided that today I would go find the the breakfast joint I had seen the night before. I have been craving a good hearty breakfast since I got here. Breakfast is usually a hodgepodge of things, so it’s hard to find some scrambled eggs with pancakes. It’s also hard to find food places open before 11:30. I walked over to Shark Bites and sat down. The waitress didn’t speak and English and was embarrassed by it. I really need to learn to say “speak slowly, I will try to understand”. I ordered an omelet, which was actually more a eggs sandwich, but close enough. It was very good! It was what I needed, I then headed back to the dorms to study before class. I took the bus over to Shida.
Class was enjoyable though a bit difficult. Today was the first day where my Japanese knowledge was interfering with my ability to learn Mandarin. I will just need to memorize characters for a now and muddle through. Hopefully it will get easier. I was given a ton of homework that evening so ended up just staying in. Except for a short jaunt for ice cream and a whimsical purchase of a new purse. Something I am very happy about, I finally got my Taiwanese flag. I essentially then holed myself up at my desk and stayed there until I went to sleep. Not a super exciting day, but these things happen.
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| Student food! |
So June 26 rolls around I ended up just sleep in. I had done so much studying the night before I just needed a morning to sleep. I finally managed to get myself out of my dorm around 12:30, I would be meeting the group for a goodbye lunch for our French friend Claire. We went to the green restaurant had some awesome food and good company. It makes me sad that I only had a short time with Claire, Alex, and Mikey. All of them are leaving soon, but such is the life of an exchange student. We have to come and go, but I feel like the connections I make here with be long lasting.
After that I dashed over to class. Class was difficult but fun. I keep getting hungry right in the middle, I am going to go find me some kind of snack I can pack away. Maybe a nutrition bar or something. On one of the breaks I ran onto another Teacher, the one that taught my pronunciation class, she has instructed me to show up tomorrow for her conversation class. I will probably go as I need to really get speaking down. I think Laoshi has assigned us a group project but no one was very clear about it. I hope she will explain tomorrow. The end of class is always very chaotic because she really tries to not hold us over too long. So more on that at a later time.
After class I went to go meet up with Yuzu and Eungyu, who I met at the old dorms. we were going o go for dinner. We decided on a ramen shop and for essentially 6 hours I couldn’t speak English. I had to muddle my way through my other languages. I got to practice my Mandarin a lot. I am incredibly pleased about this, I realize that just throwing myself into situations where I have no choice but to speak Mandarin is really the best way to practice. What was so nice about hanging out with these ladies is that they would speak slow and repeat as many times as I needed them too. The biggest issue I have is people get frustrated and just start speaking English, but here that wasn’t and option. After walking around for a little bit we decided to go see a movie. I have finally seen Superman! It was kinda a trip to see such an American centric movie in a different country. It makes me realize how far globalization has affected this world. Also hearing the English words with the Mandarin subtitles was fun trying to figure out characters now that I understand very basic structure of sentences.
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| Yuzu |
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| Eungyu |
I came back to the dorms, worked on homework. I have my chapter test tomorrow and it’s the first one I am actually concerned about. I will probably be up early to get in so last minute studying. I chatted with Ryan, it’s been a while since we had talked. I really am trying to keep up with everyone back home but goodness gracious a 15 hour time zone difference is frustrating. Well I am off to bed so I will leave you at that. Good night!
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