Today was a bit more lively. It involved not being frustrated by the lack of internet. We still don’t have any in our rooms but hopefully that will change soon, otherwise the Chinese people might have a riot on their hands. I am feeling much better so I was actually able to go out and be social. Today it was decided that we would have a bit of a group dinner using one of the recipes from the cooking class (I will be taking that next semester). Sweet and sour chicken with rice and potatoes. So first things first we had to go shopping. Shopping on Sunday in China is generally a hectic thing, Sunday is Chinese Shopping day. It’s the one day a week everyone generally has off so everyone is out ad about in the shops. Even in our University area it was no different. We were also a large group so everyone was also buying things for themselves. We were in the shop of a good two hours, but everything was acquired.
When we (myself, Jesse, Corey, Raphi, Eric) arrived home, Jesse and I got to chopping up the food. We essentially split all of the tasks in hopes that everything would run smoother and that there wouldn’t be too many cooks in the kitchen at one time. Once prep was done, Raphi was our master chef in this devour as she is actually in the cooking class, I was acting sous chef. We actually cooked everything really well. Dinner was amazing. my favorite line from the whole endeavor was Jesse. He and Corey were arguing about who would get the cooked rice from the market (our rice cooker is currently MIA). Corey offered to cook the potatoes in lieu of retrieving the rice, but Jesse, who had cut himself chopping, exclaimed “I have literally bled for these potatoes, I will cook them.” And that was the end of that. The rest of the evening was spent wandering around chatting and studying. I really hope the internet comes back tomorrow. I would like to be able to communicate with people outside of China.
Nov. 3, 2014
A true miracle occurred this morning, the internet was back in full. Well at least for a short while, enough to get a blog post done and answer some emails. It’s nice, but during the middle of the day there is still no internet. So after class I headed down to the second floor and skyped for a bit. I chatted with quite a few people, I have been missing the people from home. I wish I could talk to them more but with the unreliable internet there is no way of knowing. There has been a though amongst some of us year longs about renting an apartment for the upcoming semester. As of right now this is merely a pipe dream, we have no idea if it is anyway feasible financially, as this plot unfolds I will keep you posted. I am almost certain that if my working schedule stays the way it does then it would be possible for me to pay rent with the money I am making.
The next part of the day involved the real life struggle of trying to learn Chinese. I don’t know what it was about today but I was not doing to good in the homework area. I was able to figure most of it out but there was a section of translation I needed step by step help with. Translating from my native language into a secondary language is perhaps the hardest thing I’ve ever really had to do. Also on a school note our test is Wednesday. To make up for the day we will be missing on Monday we are having class on Wednesday, which is typically my free day. To be honest I am not thrilled about it. Which means tomorrow we will start a new lesson instead of reviewing, which is a bit frustrating but I will take the extra day for study. I feel alright about this test, we shall see what happens.
The rest of the day was mostly milling about and helping Corey make dinner, I have become quite proficient at cutting chicken for whatever we are having as well as acting sous chef. It’s fun cooking out own meals and defiantly adds just one more layer of flavor to our lives. Today was chicken fingers and potatoes, not ketchup though, we were most definitely out. Over all the food was delicious, way more meat than is typically served, but that is ok. I finally refiled my 饭卡 (food card) and can once again traverse with ease to the cafeteria. I am pretty sure the rest go the night will be laundry, socialization and study. Tomorrow I have work, so that’ll be an adventure all on it’s own. Good night!
Nov. 4, 2014
Day before the exam and we had a new lesson, it won’t be on the exam but lord knows that I won’t remember how to do anything until after we get back from Xian. Tomorrow night we leave for Xian, the Tang Dynasty capital and the home of the Terra Cotta warriors. It will be a 17ish hour train ride over night, so we hopefully sleep through most of the ride. It should be fun either way. It’s the last real trip with USAC for the semester, and we will be meeting up with the Shanghai students again! All in all it should be a really historically interesting trip.After class I met up with Meiling, who need help with English pronunciation. She would be reciting a poem. We spent a good hour saying the poem over and over again. The word rose gave her the most trouble, but we managed through it. Raphi appeared shortly after that and we spent the rest of the time studying for our exam tomorrow. I think I will do better on this test as I have put more study time into it. We shall see, I am looking forward to the shorter class tomorrow. It will give me time to pack for Xian.
I left for work like I usually do but I guess I got out later than normal because I hit a the start of rush hour traffic. I spent the next twenty minutes playing sardines on a moving vehicle. Class itself was weird, there were only two kids instead of the usual five. It was more low key which was kinda of nice, it gave my voice a chance to rest. Class was over quick enough and then it was back to the dorms for more study. On a completely separate note, Jesse and I have acquired a french press thanks to our lovely USAC director Wentao. He and I discovered that we both have a severe addiction to coffee. He had been drinking nasty instant and I had been buying milky coffee. But now we may bask in the glory of black french press coffee. Essentially tomorrow morning we will become coffee gremlins and it will be pure magic. That’s all I have for now, tomorrow will be a new adventure to the train station!
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