Day 23: Finals and Rock Climbing

Thursday, May 29

Photo 1: The rock wall at Nanjing Normal University

Photo 2: Late-night study session

Once again, like the day before, we woke up to China's high humidity and sweltering 35 degrees Celsius heat. Fortunately that was only outside, because inside, Tim and I kept the room at a very comfortable 16 degrees. As usual, Judy and I went to class together in the morning. Given that I'm a heritage speaker (but highly illiterate) and Judy's high level of reading and writing, the two of us were placed in the standard Nanjing University classes, alongside other international students, many of whom have been in the country for nearly a year. Our classmates included predominantly Italians, French, and Koreans. It was very interesting to learn about the culture and social norms of our classmates in addition to the lesson plan. Despite the fact that class had already been in session for a few months, I found joining the regular classes to be very rewarding in the sense that it gave me a first hand perspective of what being an international student in China may be like.

Following morning classes, we took a group portrait with the assistant dean and several faculty members.  Shortly after, well all had lunch at our hotel's restaurant.  There were quite a few dishes including a large plate of shrimp.  Most of the students didn't care for the shrimp. Perhaps it was due to them having the shell on, or most people just don't like shrimp, but whatever the case, I pretty much had the whole plate to my self, which led to eating over 30 shrimp.

After lunch, Judy and I took our final exam administered by Alex. I'm sure Judy did fine on her test, though I can't say the same about myself.  The rest of the students spent the majority of their afternoon preparing for their exams, which are to take place on Friday.  Deciding to take a break, Jimmy and Tim accompanied me to go rock climbing. Unlike in America where rock climbing has seen exponential growth in recent years, China's rock climbing is still in its infant stages.  Recreational fitness (as we know it) is generally still a foreign concept in China. This may be a result of being a developing country, where energy produced by consuming food should be used towards labor and work, instead of needlessly burning calories. Or perhaps as a result of a high vegetable diet and an obesity rate of less than 4%, most people don't find it necessary to exercise. Though if you looked carefully, you would see the occasional lycra-clad bicyclist or jogger.    

Walking back from the rock climbing gym, we noticed Alvin, Molly, Tyler and many others still studying at Skyways, a nearby German bakery.  Having already finished my exams, I decided to take a nap.  I got back up around 11PM and decided to see what everyone else was up to.  Across the hall from hall was Judy and Seong's room, and inside I found Kimberly and Conley sprawled out on the floor with papers and textbooks all around them.  I sure hope everyone does well on tomorrow's exam, especially after all the hard work they've put in.  

- Hochiang

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Day 22: Fashion Lady, Hot Pot, Massage

Wednesday, May 28

Dialog Blog (DiaBlog?)

Photo 1: Fashion Lady

Photo 2: Hot Pot lunch

Photo 3: Worrisome menu

This Wednesday morning commenced what would be another ordinary day in Nanj-… Hold on… If I've learned anything from this dialog so far, it's that there is no such thing as an "ordinary day" in Nanjing, Beijing or any other town, city or village in this country. No matter how routine our class lives try to be, I am constantly amazed by the unpredictable pleasant surprises惊喜that run that are so prevalent in this country. Below is the story of the most "normal" day possible in Nanjing, and, if you ask me, it is not all that ordinary. 

I woke up in my room next to a sleeping Alvin. Occasionally I will hear his unique 特殊 laugh ring out through the night. It's pretty disconcerting. After showering and getting ready for the day, we set out for class. We no longer had dictation quizzes 听写's in class as Tuesday was our last one. This gave everybody in the class a sigh of relief, but, with the final looming overhead, nobody could really relax just yet. 

After class began, our teachers decided to shake up the curriculum. We were learning lesson 5 from the textbook. This didn't really make any sense considering the fact that it wouldn't even be on our final. Nonetheless, we made the most of it. 包老师 (Bao Laoshi) assigned each of us a passage from the textbook to teach the class about. I think she was just tired of teaching herself, so she found a creative way to make us do her job. 很巧妙. I've never been too great at just reading the passages, let alone understanding and then explaining them. So, needless to say, when it was my turn I walked to the front of the room. Turned to the class, and, as the impromptu professor for the short time, made the class read the passage I was assigned. Two can play this game 包老师. After all, I learned from the best (包老师) who always made me read the passages that I didn't know. 不好意思. Class wrapped up in the next couple of hours and we made our way to lunch.

We went to Bird Flu Alley. Sooner or later, I believe that I will find out why they call it "Bird Flu" alley. I can only hope that it doesn't live up to its name… 担心. After a bowl of FDA approved and sanitary beef noodles and a tray of 饺子, we headed back to the hotel. We usually meet with our 辅导's Language partners at this time, but they were all busy with a graduation ceremony. We had time to study! 

To make the most of this rare study opportunity, I went with people to 新街口 XinJieKo. This section of the city is commercialized, has a ton of stores and vaguely reminds me of a Manhattan with an obvious Chinese flare.  After leaving the hotel with Alvin and Johnny we tried to hail a cab. 

Hailing a cab in this country has proven to be the most difficult aspect of this dialog. There seem to be endless cabs up and down every road, but none of them will pick you up. They have this sign on the top that lights up green when there is a passenger inside, orange when they are en route to a passenger (and thus cannot pick up others) and red when they are FREE. Red is supposed to mean that they will pick me up! As green after green after yellow after green cab speeds by, I finally spotted a red cab. As he drew closer, I saw that the cabin was empty! SUCCESS. We made eye contact, he knew I wanted him to stop and then he just sped away. I'm talking direct eye contact and no passengers, but the man just hit the gas and left! Frustrated as ever, we decided take the subway.

After finally arriving in XinJieKou, we ate iced cream at cold stone. 好吃. Then we finally met up with the others at XinJieKou who were all shopping in a very feminine part of the city called "Fashion Lady". Needless to say, I was not a fan although they did have some fabulous sunglasses 极好.

Luther，Johnny, Alvin and I soon left and ate dinner at Shabu Shabu 呷哺呷哺 Hot Pot. 很好吃. Very delicious, but some of the dishes were rather disconcerting and/or worrisome. 

A week and half earlier, Bobo, Mika, Johnny and myself all won Mystery Nanjing. That meant that we were entitled to one free, full body massage by blind masseuses. We cashed in on this today along with Luther, Jimmy and Dong Laoshi! The massage was, for the most part, amazing. At some points it just simply hurt. A lot. But it was, after all, 非常好. 9/10 would do again. 

So this was our normal day in Nanjing. I managed to write a decent amount here. Pretty surprising considering that we all have a final in a couple of days. I guess I see where my priorities are at now. All in all, China is amazing. I'm still discovering this city and I don't want to 舍不得 leave in a week and a half QQ. 

- Tyler

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Day 21: Class, Jiangsu Province Environmental Protection

Tuesday, May 27

Photo 1: Dinner

Photo 2: Free kites for the advanced class

After a long weekend in a somewhat surreal environment, returning to Nanjing was something of a shock, but it didn't take long for everyone to get back in the swing of things. Today was a fairly typical class day consisting of four hours of language classes, two hours with language partners, and an evening guest speaker. The morning started out with an odd experience at Momentum, the only place near our hotel with affordable hot coffee open before 10 am. I had run out of small bills and needed to get change for 100 yuan when I bought my morning coffee, but the cashier couldn't open the cash register. Thankfully, Rebecca, Molly, and Jonny were able to translate enough to let me know they had made me coffee anyway so I didn't have to borrow money. I'll try to pay for it tomorrow even though I know they won't accept because I felt guilty accepting the coffee without paying.

While most of the other students are in classes with other Northeastern students who are all required to participate in the language pledge, I am in an international class with students from many different countries including South Korea, Australia, Germany, and Sweden. While they are not supposed to speak to me in English, they do sometimes translate words I don't know – their class started two months before I joined and made more progress than I had in my previous class at Northeastern – and one student in particular enjoys teasing everyone. And especially me on days when I can't speak English to come up with a good retort. I had to learn some new phrases to be able to reply, so I think he's actually helping me learn.

During the language partner session today, the Intermediate and Advanced groups went to visit Nanda's hospital clinic and to fly kites respectively. As one of the two in the beginner class, I stayed behind to work with my language partner. As part of the lesson, he asked us to explain the worst illness or injury we have ever had, which involved much cell-phone dictionary consulting on our parts and surprise on his part as to why the other student couldn't remember his injury and why I was indoor rock climbing at the age of six. I think he was more shocked that my parents let me rock climb at that age than that I almost broke my back doing so.

While waiting for my dinner at my favorite Bird Flu Alley shop, I actually had a conversation with the owner, who always insists I take a chair, even when I'm only taking food to go. It was a very simple conversation that consisted mainly of her asking me simple questions, but it was the first time I managed to understand someone with a regional accent at all, which hopefully indicates progress in my Chinese. She's a very nice women who, it turns out, has a daughter a few years older than me who is currently studying at Nanda.

Tonight's guest speaker was probably the most interesting for me so far. Ms. Zhu Mei works for one of the government's water quality control offices, which is attempting to clean up Taihu Lake. As someone who has done environmental work before, I was very interested in what she had to say and received answers to several questions that I have been wondering about for some time. Many of the other students were less interested, but environmental protection is an important issue for China and it was important information for the cultural aspect of our Dialogue to learn about how China is attempting to clean up its pollution and make the environment safer for its population.

- Mika Brown

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Day 20: Descending Huang Shan, Leaving Anhui

Monday, May 26

Photo 1: The twisted railing that was unsettlingly close to the edge of the stairs wherever we went

Photo 2: Going to a lookout point via a narrow pathway

Photo 3: Group photo of the morning hikers

Photo 4: Dong Laoshi looking good with her unrivaled stamina

Photo 5: Part of the extremely long descent to the bottom of Huang Shan

Photo 6: A cute baby monkey that distracted visitors as the rest of the monkey family swarmed for food

Bonus Photo: A bunch of us being able to use our legs before we went to Huang Shan

I woke up this morning only to find myself unable to do anything besides blinking. The soreness of yesterday's hikes finally caught up to me as I found myself unable to leave the top bunk until Dong Laoshi, who slept in the bed underneath, rose up. I had to pathetically slither down the bed because my legs refused to move properly. Seeing the weather conditions outside, Dong Laoshi made the morning hike optional. For the person writing the blog though, optional activities are clearly mandatory and the sheer willpower to write a good blog was the only thing that kept me going strong enough to wobble out to the hotel lobby. A tasty and slightly satisfying breakfast of Orion Chocolate pies may have also helped me regain my energy for the long hike ahead.

It was only a small group that set off this morning (Tyler, Tim, Jimmy, Luther, Jon, Alex, and Dong Laoshi) and I'm not surprised that the only girls on this hike happened to be the two girls (Me and Mika) that shared the room with Dong Laoshi. We were headed to Xihai Grand Canyon…which is a really strange name because I don't think it's anything like the Grand Canyon in the States. But eh, what do I know, I'm just a city girl.

Our time in China has taught me to never trust weather reports as we all looked silly with coats and yellow rain ponchos for the first few minutes of the hike before realizing that the rain was simply morning mist. I'm just glad that there is a lot less fog compared to yesterday as we were able to see past five feet of what was ahead of us. I finally got to see peaks and mountain ridges without the annoyance of rain sticking onto my glasses. Honestly, words will not do Huang Shan justice so I'll just let the pictures do the talking. 

Huang Shan may not have been an actual mountain hiking experience but without the aid of bridges and stairs, we would have never been able to take some crazy photos on some pretty crazy rock formations. The fences here seem sturdy enough to hold onto but then again, they were made in China…

Around noon, we came back to the hotel to gather everyone up for the descent. Huang Shan, it was nice sightseeing but it was time to get off this mountain. At first I was really confused when we had to climb up stairs to start descending but we eventually reached the steep set of stairs that would bring us seven kilometers down to the bottom. Normally, going down is way more desirable than climbing up but when you're descending wet, uneven, and small stairs with no railing to save you from slipping, going down becomes a formidable challenge. I had to repeatedly chant "mountain goat" to get into a zone because it was not fun going down sore. We did see some awesome views on the way down, including a scene where a family of monkeys terrorized a Chinese family for their food. Tyler even recorded one stealing cucumbers out of their bags, heh heh.

I'm glad to say that everyone made it down the mountain without copping out for the cable car. We all deserved our group lunch, which happened to be the first time we had actual food since our last meal in the village. The coach bus ride to Nanjing lulled many of us to sleep, while others stayed up writing journals and blogs and whatnot. I think it's safe to assume that many of us were happy to return to civilization. Well, except for the chance of getting hit by a Nanjing cycler the moment I stepped off the bus. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that!

- Bobo

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Day 19: Hiking

Sunday, May 25

Photo 1: Chickens on a motorcycle

Photo 2: Out of the village, into the hills

Photo 3: Me, Bobo, and our favorite teacher

Photo 4: Hochiang, Jonny, Tyler, and Luther being majestic on Brightness Summit.

Photo 5: What it looked like the next day

For my first blog, I thought I had to be more professional and informative instead of writing whatever I felt like. But now I'm feeling more liberal, so there will be none of that this time.

My alarm went off at 6:30, and I managed to shut it off within a couple seconds, thereby beating Hochiang to it. It made me feel better about having him and Jonny make me look like I have no reflexes to speak of while playing Egyptian Ratscrew. Dong Laoshi said she couldn't get to sleep last night because of our banging on the table. 对不起。

We had no water in the hotel this morning, which I only learned after trying to flush the toilet. Luckily it wasn't a heavy load. Please appreciate my euphemism. I don't know why I'm telling you this.

I met up with Alex and Bobo outside to do our early morning hike, then we set out when Dong Laoshi arrived. We crossed over some farmland and over the 500 year old bridge that we'd already been on several times. This time we bore left off the bridge up a paved road and walked through a village. We saw a couple of chickens on a motorcycle, and passed by the man Dong Laoshi met yesterday, who runs a shop from his bed because he suffered an injury 5 years ago and can't move. It's an unfortunate situation, but I admire how he's still able to make a bit of a living on his own. 

Soon we broke out of the village and into the hills. All of the paths were generally only wide enough for one person, used by farmers to access their crops. And a lot of the time we had to make our own way to get around, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After about an hour we reached our highest point, and could see the outline of even taller hills in the mist and the farm plots below. Alex told us, "When you guys remember China I want you to think of this, not Beijing, Nanjing, or any of the big cities." That quote might not be word for word but it's the best I can remember. I think he said that because this is what China is really like in most places, and the cities are more like hotspots. We could only take pictures with 3 of us in them, and Alex told me to use a picture with my favorite teacher. So here's a picture with Dong Laoshi (and Bobo and me). 

Our journey back down was certainly more entertaining, mostly thanks to Bobo slipping and falling. It's funny because no one got hurt. One of those times, Bobo said both her feet came off the ground and she grabbed on to some bamboo to save herself. Alex saw it, and he was dying. Since I didn't see it, I'm going to imagine that after she slipped she swung full circle around the tree, launched off with a backflip or two, and landed gracefully. And that's what really happened, actually. I also fell a couple times, and Alex nearly fell into the stream. 好玩。I've never done this kind of hiking before, and it was really fun. I wish I could find a more creative way to describe it.

Jumping through the next few hours now, we returned to the hotel, ate breakfast, packed to leave for Huangshan, and took a bus to a place to store unneeded luggage. Tyler bought a walking stick that would turn out to be his best purchase in the 24 hours I'm writing about. I could argue that's it's the best purchase of his entire life, but I shan't.

We took another bus on a winding road up the mountain. Throughout today there was a fairly thick white mist that limited vision in any direction. It made me feel like being on an island in the clouds. After the bus, we took cable cars further up. It was very wet, so many of us donned our freshly purchased ponchos. I ripped mine almost instantly. I feel like 'hiking' doesn't describe this well, since it was all on manmade stairs and paths of stone, and that's not my idea of hiking. But for the rest of this blog, hiking = climbing up and down stairs and falling up and down stairs… So we hiked around for 20-30 minutes to the Beihai hotel. I sat in front of a fan in the lobby to dry off a bit. 

Then we went hiking some more. Dong Laoshi took some people on a short walk around, and Alex led the rest of us on a long route to Brightness Summit, the highest accessible/second highest peak on Huangshan. On the way, we spotted a wild fire hydrant. Tyler boasted that he would touch it, but didn't actually go near it. I was very disappointed. Bobo eventually slipped again, and Alex missed a step. I probably did too but I don't remember. Our coordination is 非常好。

We had an enlightening group discussion during the evening. Details, however, are confidential. But honestly I just want to finish up this blog.

After the discussion, we played mafia. To those reading who don't know what that it: I'm sorry, I can't help you. I think Tyler was the best storyteller. Also, when Kim was god her Texas accent seemed more prominent. It was all very entertaining.

- Jimmy

Day 18: Tofu and Tea

Saturday, May 24

 

Photo 1: Instamodel Molly

Photo 2: Tofu-making

Photo 3: Homemade Tofu

Photo 4: Outside our hotel, Chengkan Village

Photo 5: Going to pick tea

Photo 6: In the pond

Photo 7: Lunch

Photo 8: Picking Tea

 

Today was our first real day of Anhui after arriving really late yesterday evening. The hotel we are staying at is especially beautiful and super cool. But then Steven and Tim discovered spiders, so Conley and I (roommates once again) freaked out. We were so scared we slept in the same bed, and forced Luther to sleep in the other bed. Well actually his bed had bed bugs so he didn’t really have a choice and he probably wouldn’t willingly choose to be around the freaked out Kim and Conley. So today I got the privilege of waking up to Conley’s face and a coffee-mug-sized-demon spider looking at me from the ceiling. It was super fantastic y’all. Even thinking about the spider gives me the pee-pee-shivers. Conley and I probably overreacted but at the same time we don’t plan on changing our sleeping arrangements.

           

We met everyone else at 5:30 (a.m. y’all) and went to go see how tofu was made by scratch (the tofu factory). While walking there I realized the beauty of the area we are in. It was really nice ^.^ I took a bajillion pictures and Molly became my instamodel for approximately a minute before I decided she wasn’t worthy. JK y’all, Molly is fabulous.

 

The man making the tofu makes tofu by hand rather than how most people nowadays who use a machine. The equipment he uses was passed down for generations and generations and it was very interesting to see how he didn’t waste anything in the tofu making process. After that we ate a bunch of tofu (that was very good). Dong Laoshi apparently mentioned tofu can have a laxative effect (as Conley told me) but I didn’t really take it too seriously. Things got crazy later and I can confirm that at least this tofu has some sort of this effect. Conley and I did a survey to confirm it y’all cause we are super scientific. The tofu effect is real.

Next was breakfast (what a happy time) before picking tea leaves. We had to climb up this hill thing that was pretty muddy and our shoes got a little crazy. It was fun to pick the tea leaves but people kept trying to give me bugs as presents. That was no bueno. Also Alvin said he wanted to marry a ladybug. I wasn’t sure how to take that. Afterwards we went back to the house of the lady helping us pick tea and we watched her prepare the tea.

           

After tea picking we went back to eat lunch. It was so delicious. We had a short break (during which I attempted to clean my shoes) before we went to talk to Mr. Luo, a man whose ancestors had lived in Anhui for 33 generations I believe. He talked to us about Anhui I think and his family. It was a bit hard to follow what he was saying although he was a very enthusiastic man.

 

Later that night after dinner, Dong Laoshi and Alex told us to go wait by the bridge for a surprise. It turned out the surprise was fireworks. It was a pretty good ending to a pretty good day.

- Kimberly 

Day 17: To Anhui

Friday, May 23

Photo 1: Cards on the train
Photos 2 & 3: Out the train window

Our week got a lot more interesting this Friday, as we got to break free from our typical routine to venture out into the rural lands of China.

But that would have to wait until the afternoon. So once again, we woke up for our 8:00am classes to continue our studies, anxiously waiting for our adventure. Luckily, my class had a nice surprise; since there was a confusion between teachers, one teacher never came to class and we only had a half day. WHOO! It brought me back to the middle/high school days when we could enjoy a nice afternoon, but for us, it was filled with studying for our quiz in a few hours…

After our class, our student teacher, mid-twenties, took us out to a jiao zi fan guan (dumpling restaurant). While I do love my Muslim noodle place, it was refreshing to try some new dishes and this dumpling haven will definitely become a new favorite among my classmates. It is probably best to go with someone who knows the area because they really know the best food places in the city. She took us down a street to a dumpling store way at the end; I would’ve never even thought to go down this street in the first place! We all agreed that these were the best dumplings we ever had and for about $3.00 per person…there is no beating that.

It was finally time for us to leave our comfortable, Western hotel and journey off to Anhui for our mini-vacation. But first we had to get to the train station… We were carrying our backpacks and other luggage for the weekend in humid, 90 degree weather to first walk to the nearest subway station. Luckily it is under a mile away but still we worked up a good sweat and tried to find any cool air in the subway. Of course though, we were only met with more and more people on the subway and at Nanjing Railway Station, so we continued sweating. We were, though, lucky enough to wait for our train in a special section designated for military members, pregnant women, and families with small kids, but I guess it applies for wai guo ren (foreigners) too.

Our train ride was a lot more comfortable and enjoyable than our one from Beijing to Nanjing. This time we actually got seats! As soon as the train took off, people started playing cards, doing magic tricks, and getting some work down (which all of us probably should’ve done…). Train rides, especially in China, are great because you get to see what life might be like outside of the hustle and bustle of Chinese cities. The sky starts to clear up, the land becomes flatter and more open, and you see beautiful landscape. It is interesting to see how the Chinese use their land; from what I can tell, the land is either a big city or it is being used for farming, and there are infrastructure projects everywhere. The Chinese really utilize all usable land for farming outside of the cities; it is actually really beautiful to see an open landscape with lush green farms. It also weird though to see all of this farming and then industrial parks or high rise construction projects right next door. It really shows that China may still be a heavily agrarian society, but it is on a fast track to development.

Our train was a quick five hours but weren’t done yet. We then had to catch a bus for some amount of time (I fell asleep as soon as I got on) before we could reach our destination. We arrived in a pitch dark area but our “hostel” was much nicer than any of us expected. It had a traditional open court yard and very classic looking architecture. But things can only be so nice; most rooms had some “big friends” (very large spiders) in them so we had to get over our fear of spiders if we wanted to get some rest before our exciting weekend ahead!

-Jon Laks

Day 16: A Day in the Life

Thursday, May 22

Photo: Grabbed a late afternoon bite with our language partners! Across from me is my fudao (tutor).

It was the final question of Jeopardy, with one question that needed to be answered… in Chinese. I was on the verge to being set for life. I mumbled some gibberish Chinese, using words I had just learned in class, and somehow I managed to score the jackpot. Hooray! My friends and family ran up to me cheering for my victory, and we all took pictures holding up peace signs afterwards.

In the midst of all that cheering is the faint sound of an alarm growing louder and louder, and that’s when I realize it is just a dream and that I have to wake up to finish my essay and prepare for my presentation. 7:00 AM. My eyes are droopy, I only slept for around five hours because I stayed up studying and writing my essay, but I manage to muster up the strength to get up and get to work. Through the aggravatingly sluggish internet I manage to email the essay to my professor five minutes before class begins.

The clock ticks to 8 o’clock. That’s the sign for not only the start of class, but also the start of our language pledge today that lasts until 6 PM. It hasn’t really been a big deal since the first day though, after all, I am in the advanced Chinese class… -end sarcasm-. I still communicate perfectly fine (I get by somehow with a mix of body language) but I feel pretty immersed with China as a result of speaking Chinese so often, more often than I speak in English even. Yeah, it’s gotten to the point where I even dream in Chinese half the time.

Anyways, in my class of five students we start off by presenting what we wrote in our essays. The first two hour block of classes is led by Bao Laoshi, a graduate student who is our student-teacher. In the 10 minute break my class got in the middle of her class, we spend the entirety of the break talking to the teacher and even asking her personal questions, like her relationship status. I think it’s really cute how the Chinese females here get embarrassed so easily whenever you bring up the topic of romance. The dating culture here feels much more innocent than it does in America.

At the end of Bao Laoshi’s classes, we get a twenty minute break. My classmates and I spend the time available grabbing breakfast at Skyway Bakery, a German-owned and operated bakery in China. I go on what’s considered a splurged in Nanjing: 17 RMB for a chocolate croissant and a mini chocolate chip cookie. That’s enough for two huge bowls of chao mian (fried noodles)… but I am in a hurry to grab some easy breakfast. On the way back to class I stop by the convenience store and got a bag of chips too. Ever since coming to China I’ve been eating junk food all day long…

Back to class, this time with Yu Laoshi leading, I’m extremely tired but my magical bag of chips manages to get me through the day. Listening to the professor speak Chinese already required adequate effort to process everything in my head, and then it became a little harder with the sounds of the chips crunching…. It was worth it though.

Class ends at 12 PM and I go back to my dorm to take a quick nap and study a bit. The rest of my classmates as well as a few others on the trip decide to venture to McDonalds for some odd reason… Later on, according to them, it tastes practically the same as it does back in America. But now that they think about it, what reason was there for them to go to McDonalds when there is this plethora of delicious, shiny, and equally oily Chinese food in the nearby streets?

At 2 PM it’s time to meet with our Chinese language partners. My language partner is this really nice girl who’s going to be studying at Wisconsin for graduate school. I sit down and she surprises with me with pastries (dianxin) from a bakery!!! I am practically in love with her at this point… I told her yesterday I’ve been eating dianxin twice a day ever since coming to China (seriously) so I guess she wanted to do something nice… oh man I feel like Chinese people have been so good to me ever since coming here. Anyways, she helps me with my homework for the next two hours, and then we go to a café afterwards with the rest of the classmates and language partners. We have a good time and talk about random stuff.  My language partner and I are already pretty close after a week and we’ve been talking a variety of things: differences in culture between America and China, plans for the future, how we spent our lives in the past, favorite television shows, etc. Yes, all in Chinese! I think that my colloquial skills have improved quite a bit. And to think that coming into China, I thought I would say “Wo bu hui shuo zhongwen” (I don’t speak Chinese) half the time. 

My classmates and I ordered a bunch of food at the café thinking we were treating our tutors. When it was time for the tutors to go, my classmates and I decided to stay there to do our homework. Five minutes later, the tutors pop out of nowhere and say that our bill has been taken care of… and then they go. I think we all forgot about how slick the Chinese are when it comes to paying for the bill. We feel a little bad, but hopefully next time we will win the battle for the bill. I come up with plans in preparation for the future battles, like saying that I need to use the restroom… -evil laugh-.

We do our homework and then at 7 PM we have a speaker presentation by a lawyer that works for an NGO. He advocates freedom of speech and talks about issues his organization is working on solving, like food safety, anti-discrimination, and public interest law. It was interesting hearing from him and he gave me more insight on predominant issues in China. After this presentation, I go back to work on that pile of homework and I also study for a dictation tomorrow. I don’t think I am going to get much sleep tonight either, but tomorrow we will be embarking on a trip to Anhui, so there’s something to look forward to!

 

Day 15: Gruel, Calligraphy, Coconuts

May 21, 2014

Photo 1: Kim, Conley, Steven, me, Hochiang at Sculpting In Time Café for lunch!

Photo 2: Johnny working his calligraphy J

Photo 3: Steven, Conley, Molly, Luther, Jimmy, Kim at the Korean Restaurant for dinner!

Photo 4: Post-dinner hangout: ripping apart coconuts!

This morning when I came down to the lobby of Xiyuan, I was sad to see that there was no one sitting at Momentum before class. It was such a popular spot for us the first week of class. Oh well L. After buying water and banana chips (my new favorite snack for class), I had a cup of rice gruel for 1 块 from the Xiyuan cafeteria. I love having this for breakfast because it helps clean out my system, but it doesn’t quite fill me up. Next thing you know, Bobo comes in with two cups of rice gruel in her hand. She probably loves it more than I do.

Today marks the midpoint of taking classes here at Nanjing University. One of the classes I had was 汉语口语 (han yu kou yu), in which each lesson is broken into four sections; today we were doing a 讨论 (tao lun) about illnesses. My professor made a funny observation: there are always fewer students when it came time for the discussions for each lesson. Nevertheless, my class of eleven students had a discussion about our personal experiences with sicknesses and treatment, as well as, SARS and 禽流感 (qin liu gan, “bird flu”), two illnesses that greatly affected China in the past.

For lunch, some of us headed to Sculpting In Time Café (pictured), the same place we had ended our scavenger hunt, Mystery Nanjing, this past Saturday. I’m not quite sure how others felt about their food, but I ordered a club sandwich and it tasted so yummy. It was expensive compared to our usual lunches for less than 10 块, but I thought it was worth it for 40 块 (roughly $6.50)! Steven and Conley also ordered Coke floats, which looked amazing!

Hochiang and I left to attend our 1:30pm HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) 5 Comprehension class, but once again it was cancelled. Last week it was because there was a competition, but this time it was because the professor wanted to give the students a break since they had just taken the HSK. I usually never take naps, but I decided to because I caught onto 帅哥’s (shuai ge, a.k.a. Steven) mild sickness from the previous week.

I woke up just in time to attend my 3:40pm HSK 5 Listening class and I even had enough time to purchase an ice cream cone from the convenience store! J It was Hochiang, me, and one other student in class. Again, the professor gave us the option to cancel class because it was just the three of us. However, we decided to take the class and do some practice listening, which was very helpful to me since I’m contemplating taking the HSK when I return to the States.

Bobo, Hochiang, Luther, Molly, and I played some Frisbee and soccer for a while before the optional calligraphy class at 7pm. The calligraphy teacher taught us one major technique of writing, which consisted of rounded corners with the same width of the strokes. We practiced on brown paper and when we felt we were ready, we wrote our characters on rice paper. I wrote the characters 玉兰 (yu lan), which is “magnolia” in English. The magnolia flower is symbolic of some valuable memories I have had during my past two years at Northeastern. Jimmy and Rebecca were especially good with their techniques and Molly was quite creative with the characters she wrote.

 

Some of us went for a short run on the track and for dinner, we decided to try the Korean restaurant in an alley that Alex had recommended the previous night. It was authentic in a way that we got to sit on the floor to eat, but the food itself wasn’t exactly authentic. The kimchi pancakes tasted like heaven though. Molly and Conley decided to purchase coconuts at the fruit stand around the restaurant. Molly’s coconut tasted bland, but Conley’s tasted sweet. After telling the fruit stand owner that her coconut wasn’t sweet for a few minutes, Molly received a free coconut! They had a great time trying to tear apart the coconut for the inside.

 

Have a good night J
- Judy

Day 14: Reflection

20 May 2014
 
To me, it does not even feel like we have been in China for the past three weeks. Every day, we have something to occupy our time – at least getting our money's worth! Even if there is nothing scheduled in the course for our group, we always have something – we’re in Nanjing! Therefore, it seems as if we have been here for much longer than reality. Even more so, we still have another three weeks to go…Mind blown! One reason in particular the time elapses so slowly though: no television station choices for down time! There is plenty to do, plenty to see, plenty of news reports, plenty to learn, but I am feeling nostalgic for my Americano still (no “dunks” either).

Tuesday – unlike most days – was very lax, and I have the pleasure of recording the accounts – what little they may be. Compared to other days, Tuesday was rather boring for me. We attended class, 8:00 – 12:00, and then visited with our language partners from 14:00 – 16:00. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Later in the evening I mostly studied, did homework, prepared for Friday’s presentation, and…oh yeah…wrote this blog entry. Not having explored too much of the city just yet, we will however be making our way to Anhui this weekend. After our return from Anhui though, I must explore as much of Nanjing as possible before our departure.

Due to censorship and possible lack of better cable opportunities, the only television programs we have to watch are Chinese CCTV regulated news, reality, drama, etc., shows. Oh, and of course my favourite, BBC World News channel. However, television is not the only source of entertainment in the world. So in a way always having the same channel options persuades us to go out into Nanjing. But, if you need know anything or help catching up on any news, no need to worry! I can fill you in, in a jiffy! Although everything seems wonderful here in Nanjing, watching all the news and reading it on my cell phone’s BBC app and New York Times app, places such as Ukraine are still in turmoil and continuing to rise. Whereas Thailand has now undergone martial law, and just released from the Times it was a coup.

Although our access to most social media is limited (although there are ways, i.e. obtaining a VPN), it is nice to have the ability not to be surrounded by the social networking. I am a bit ready to go back to America because of my luxury goods I miss, but even more so I love being in China. Not having many online options encourages self-reflection, outdoor participation, and socializing with other students here. Being here provides a more fulfilling sense of ancient China growing in a modern community.

-Tim

Day 13: Factory Visit

Note: We apologize for the delay in posting. The Internet here has
been rather uncooperative, especially when using Gmail and other
Google services (like this blog).

Monday, May 19th

Photo: NEU students walk between piles of fabric at a slipper factory
outside of Nanjing.

Woo Monday! It looks like it's going to be another busy week with language
class, but we have one week down so I think we can do it!

Today was a pretty average day with classes. However, in the afternoon we
went to visit the Jiangsu Sainty, Runlong Trade Company Ltd where we met
Mr. Yong Zhang. I have a strong interest in international business and
especially how state-owned businesses are run in China after the
dissolution of many state controls after the country's opening in the
1980's and 90's, so having an opportunity to hear about exactly that from
Mr. Zhang, a manager at Sainty, was very enlightening.

I for one didn't realize that in the present day, the Chinese government
mainly acts only as a loan guarantor for state-owned companies and does not
exert much more influence than that. Getting business loans from Chinese
banks is apparently rather difficult, so having an entire country as your
guarantor means that these companies do not ever have issues getting loans,
giving them a significant advantage over non-state owned companies.

After speaking with Mr. Zhang at his office, he brought us over to one of
his factories to look around. This particular factory makes slippers. My
first impression was more or less as I expected: run-down, white washed
walls cracked and graying. We got an inside look at the way they turn the
designs clients provide into slippers, and they talked a lot about how
getting their supply chain together can be an issue because of the
spontaneity of orders. They put a lot of emphasis on price.

I felt a bit uncomfortable the entire time I was in the factory. Walking
around and looking at the (exclusively, except for the male manager) women
in the factory putting together these slippers, I understood in a way I
hadn't before that almost everything I own was made, in China, by human
beings in a situation similar to or worse than the people I was seeing.

I thought it was very interesting to hear from Mr. Zhang and Mr. Pu, the
factory manager, over and over again how little money they made from each
slipper, about $1.50 out of its ~$25 sale price. They used this small
profit margin as an excuse for not renovating the aging factory, as well as
to deflect any other criticisms of their business. They blamed American
companies for demanding ever-lower prices for their products, but I don't
really know if this is the real reason their profit margin keeps shrinking,
and I wasn't sure if I really buy this as an excuse.

I am conflicted about it. As China modernizes, much of the cheap
manufacturing that was profitable because of low labor prices is going to
lose profitability as median wage increases. I think that this is going to
be a larger and larger issue. Where are all of the people going to find
work? And does it make me a morally bad person to help feed the system that
prevents these people from making better wages, so that factory owners and
American companies can make greater profits at the cost of worse worker
conditions?

If the business isn't profitable enough to provide more comfortable working
conditions for its workers, then in my mind it shouldn't exist. However,
this factory is perhaps the only thing keeping the people in nearby
villages from moving into the city and to potentially even more hardship to
find jobs. I don't know if it's better for them to have a less desirable
job and keep their homes and families together or move to the city and have
a potentially higher-paying job but lose their home and family. All in all,
this trip left me with many more questions than answers; ones that I hope
to find some sort of answer to.

- Luther

Day 12: Exploring Nanjing

5/18/2014

Photo 1: Swimming under Purple Mountain

Photo 2: The garden near the Confucius Temple

Photo 3: Stamp

Photo 4: Ramen

Today many of us went on a bike ride to Purple mountain, however this was optional. In case y'all read from the last blog, Conley, my roommate, had major food poisoning which I had the pleasure of waking up to. Thank goodness she got better and could go on the bike trip. I decided not to go because I heard it was super intense and I cannot handle super intense, y'all. I think they basically rode around Nanjing and they went swimming in a lake. Conley says they watched old people play cards and she got attacked by a five pound dog. She says she got caught a lot of minnows (with her bare hands!). The funniest story I heard though was that everyone convinced Bobo to put sunscreen in her hair. That made me LOL. They got ice cream too… From what I heard it was a super fun time, except I've had a couple people tell me their butts really hurt now.

Instead, Rebecca and I wanted to go to the Confucius temple (夫子庙) so we set out a bit after 9 to take the subway there. The temple was constructed in the Song dynasty in 1304. We had to walk around for quite a bit and honestly I pretty much blindly followed Rebecca. While looking for the temple one of those trucks that spray the ground attacked me (kind of) and my leg was all black from wet dirt it flung at me. That's not a very good explanation, but for future reference I am going to avoid trucks that play ice-cream-truck music and violently spray water at the ground. We found a place that we thought was a temple but it turned out to be a garden. It was really beautiful so I took tons of pictures. There were lots of really really old people and really tiny kids there and they were all better at climbing up the rocks than me. We also saw the Qinhuai river which I think was supposed to be in front of the temple.

Later we walked around and bought stuff and I bought a stamp with my name on it. It was pretty exciting. Actually I think the most exciting part was using Chinese to speak to random people and having them understand me. Even though it wasn't a language pledge day it made speaking Chinese a rewarding and exciting thing ^.^

We never even ended up going to the Confucius temple. Instead we found a place called Aqua City and decided to eat there. We ate at a Japanese restaurant that had really good ramen. After eating massive quantities of food, we were pretty exhausted and went back to our dorm to work on journals. I needed a nap.

Later we had our weekly discussion which makes me wanna pee myself but I did my best. Many of us later went out to eat and there was a crazy lady there dancing with everyone. It was the weirdest and most funny thing I think I have ever seen.

-Kimberly

Day 11: Nanjing Massacre Museum, Mystery Nanjing

5/17/2014

Photo 1: Mystery Nanjing task #13: Take a picture of one or more of your group holding a baby (10 points)

Photo 2: Mystery Nanjing task #4: Take a picture of one or more of your group sitting in the driver's seat of a public bus (20 points)

Photo 3: Swimming under Purple Mountain (5/18)

We started our day very solemnly by visiting the Nanjing Massacre Museum. For those of you who don’t know, the Nanjing Massacre Museum is a government-sponsored museum that commemorates the Rape of Nanking where Japanese soldiers invaded the city and killed 300,000 people approximately (according to museum). It was very interesting and filled with a lot of apparent propaganda but it was good to experience to help understand a piece of the feeling that the Chinese have about the 100 years of humiliation.

 

At twelve we started “Mystery Nanjing”, an Amazing Race-style scavenger hunt that had us running throughout the city and completing various tasks, and obtaining photographic evidence, of course. Some of the challenges were easy, like eating stinky tofu and finding a man with a beard, and others were a bit more difficult, like finding twin babies to hold. Kim, Hochang, Rebecca, and Jimmy tried to convince Dong Laoshi that twin puppies count as twin babies but that was a stretch and luckily they didn’t get those points. My group (Molly, Alvin, Judy, and I) was the first group ever in Dong Laoshi’s eight years on this dialogue to get a picture with someone in the driver’s seat of a public bus. We got onto the bus while the driver was sleeping and Alvin sat in the drivers seat. Then the driver woke up, looked at us and went right back to sleep. My group was also the only group on this dialogue to get a picture in the driver’s seat of a taxi, and this time was even with the driver’s permission.

 

Later, a group of us went to a hole in the wall restaurant with Dong Laoshi and Alex for dinner. You had to walk up this alley into what appeared from the outside to be a residential area, but actually had a few small restaurants. We had some great food and got to hear a lot of stories. Dong Laoshi told us this one story about when she was in college one of her favorite teachers was sick and a group of students decided to bring her home-made chicken soup so they went to the store and bought a live chicken. Dong Laoshi got the honor of actually killing the chicken and made a delicious soup, she even offered to give us more tips later.

 

We then went to a fruit market that smelled delicious and the food tasted even better. If you bought a pineapple there they would cut it up for you in a cool spiral shape. I was going to get one but the guys cutting them were super talkative and they intimidated me and my limited Chinese skills, so I ended up just getting an apple, dragon fruit, a melon, and grapes. I then learned to wash your grapes before eating them or else deal with the consequences the next morning when you want to go on a bike ride to Purple Mountain (update: I went anyways and it was awesome. Definitely one of my favorite memories from China so far)

Conley Rozek 

Day 10: Chinese Cooking Class

Photo: Dialogue students in full regalia at the Nanjing Secondary Vocational School of Tourism and Nutrition

Happy Friday!! This week has been very long for all of us having started our first week of classes and three days of language pledge. We were finally allowed to speak English all day, which was nice because we could now clearly express ourselves. This morning was a stressful day for my class � Chinese Intermediate 1. We had to speak in Chinese in front of the class about each of our hometowns, we had a dictation on the last lesson we learned (writing the characters for words and sentences), we had a quiz on the past two lessons combined, and then we started the next lesson. To say it was a long four hours is an understatement.

The presentation was fun because it was interesting to hear about everyone's hometown. Conley and I had a little feud over which of our home states is better � my home state of Maine or her home state of Colorado. The dictation and quiz were kind of hard, but I think that was just because a lot of us felt unprepared having just learned the material this week. The teacher's assistant, Cao Laoshi, taught the class for the day, so it was nice to get to know him a little more. He told us about his hometown of Anhui which we will actually be visiting next weekend!

After class, Dong Laoshi treated my class and a few other students to lunch at a restaurant near the hotel. It was the best meal I have had in China so far. The 红烧牛肉 (beef braised in soy sauce) was amazing and came with fried buns on the side. It was nice to finally have a variety of food to eat compared to searching for my own food in Bird Flu Alley. I always end up choosing fried rice to eat because it's cheap and filling.

Today we had our first Chinese cooking class! At 2pm everyone boarded a bus to go to Nanjing Secondary Vocational School of Tourism and Nutrition. We were first greeted by a teacher at the school whose name is my Chinese name 小贝(Xiao Bei). Dong Laoshi apparently named me after her. I felt flattered.

We were shown a video about the school and then given awesome uniforms to wear! (see picture\) Before going to the kitchen, we went into a room that the students use to practice their food flipping skills in the big cast iron woks. A girl needs to be able to flip food 300 times in a row before passing the class. In the kitchen we were greeted by the students and teacher. A lot of the students were younger than we expected, only 18 years old, but their cooking skills surely surpassed ours.

We were shown how to make two awesome dishes� Beef Wonton and Dough Slices in soup. The beef wonton was delicious, but kind of bland. I thought the dough slices in soup was better because of its tomato-vegetable based broth. Even though the students did not speak English, or little if any, I did not feel that much of a language barrier because they were able to show us what we needed to do. It was a really awesome experience and I can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks to learn how to make some more authentic Chinese food!

We boarded the bus with our stomachs full and our bodies' hot and exhausted. It was nice to finally be on a bus driving through Nanjing. While it was rush hour and the drivers were a bit crazy, I enjoyed seeing the city and all its shops and restaurants after having just seen what is around Nanjing University's campus this whole week. I can't wait to explore Nanjing more this weekend before our next week of intensive classes begin.

- Rebecca

Day 9: Getting Into a Routine

Photo: no further explanation needed

Today was a pretty busy day, but I think many of us are finally getting into a routine here at Nan Da: we wake up, get breakfast from a stand, go to class from 8:00 to 12:00, eat lunch, try and squeeze in a nap, then class again from 2:00 to 4:00, and finally, free time at the end of the day (during which I am currently writing this blog). The classes here are going at a pretty fast pace, which is understandable given the amount of material we have to cover in such a short time. Because of this, a lot of our free time is taken up by things like preparing for presentations, doing homework, practicing writing characters, and previewing the next day's lesson.

We have been here for almost seven days now, and the fatty, oily food is finally catching up to me. Last night, I went to Bird Flu Alley to get some dinner, and even the smell of the fried food made me a little queasy. So today, instead of the usual steamed buns and fried rice, I had a bagel for breakfast, and some fruit later in the day.

Today in between our morning and afternoon classes, Dong Laoshi took us to a nice restaurant right across from our hotel (Xiyuan). We ordered braised beef (hong shao niu rou), chinese vegetables (xian cai), Japanese style tofu (ri ben dou fu), and fried rice (chao mian). It was nice to eat at a restaurant for a change instead of a small stand in Bird Flu Alley!

When I was little, my two sisters and I would always do an “Edamame Challenge” when we went out to eat at Japanese restaurants. This challenge involved seeing who could pick up the most edamame beans with their chopsticks, of course without letting the beans fall. Today at lunch was a fitting time to practice these edamame chopstick skills (attached is a picture).

After lunch, we met with our Nan Da Peng You (language partners), as we do every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They were extremely helpful today in terms of going over vocabulary and helping us with our presentations. We had learned so much new material in class that we had to review with them, that we didn't even have time to do our field work today!

Today was of course also the language pledge day. I think it keeps getting easier each day, but today I got especially frustrated during class when I could not understand what the teacher was trying to say. It is hard when you are so eager to learn, but not able to communicate clearly. I am sure this will get better each day as my language skills improve, but today, this was definitely a barrier.

Oh, and one more thing that happened today that I really enjoyed. As I was in the elevator going up to my room, I suddenly heard a very familiar language being spoken – German! This really delighted me, since I had been speaking Chinese all day (my German is just as good as my English), so of course I began talking to the two students, who happened to be from Austria. It can sometimes be surprisingly comforting to find familiar things in a foreign place.

Tonight we have a speaker from 7:00 to 8:00, which I am really looking forward to. The speakers we have are so interesting and always have such unique stories to tell (well, most of them).

I am also really looking forward to the weekend. This weekend will finally give me the free time I need to explore Nanjing and its surroundings, instead of staying so close to the school all the time (which is somewhat inevitable during the week because of our busy class schedule). We also might go on a bike ride, so this weekend should be really fun.

Overall, today and this week in general I have just been settling into the routine here at Nan Da, and have been trying to become more comfortable and familiar with Nanjing in and outside of the classroom.

- Molly

Day 8: Classes, etc.

Wednesday, May 14th

Photo: Rebecca and I with our language partners outside of Zeng Xian Zi (the classroom building), taken after we completed our field work today.

Today was our second day of language pledge, so it goes without saying that it was a somewhat strenuous day. This morning for breakfast I went to a small stand right outside of our hotel (Xiyuan). There are usually two stands: one stand has all kinds of steamed buns (baozi): red bean buns (hongdou baozi), vegetarian buns (shucai baozi), and meat buns (rou baozi); while the other stand has Chinese pancakes that you can fill with cucumber, tofu strips, potato strips, and so on. Many of us have discovered that eating breakfast at these little stands is not only more convenient, but incredibly inexpensive. Each bun is 1.50 yuan (about $0.24), and the pancakes are 4 yuan each (about $0.65).

After breakfast, we all headed to our respective language classes. My language class happens to be Intermediate Chinese 1, so I headed to room 308 with my classmates. Our class building, called Zeng Xian Zi, happens to be so close to Xiyuan, they are practically connected. First, we had our four-hour block class from 8:00 – 12:00. The first half of the class was taught by Zhang Laoshi, while the last two hours were taught by her grad student, Cao Laoshi. After class, we headed over to Bird Flu Alley for lunch. Bird Flu Alley is a small side street with a variety of cheap Chinese street food. Since I am a vegetarian, some of my favorite dishes to get there are egg fried rice, egg fried noodles, vegetarian dumplings, and steamed buns, but they also have a great variety of meat dishes. Last night, two of my friends tried some Chinese specialties there – noodle soup with duck liver and duck intestines!

Eating together on language pledge days is always an experience. In the classroom (from 8:00 - 12:00), speaking only Chinese is not that hard. But as soon as you leave the classroom and are only with your peers, you have to strain yourself much more to avoid letting an English word slip out. Despite this obstacle, I really think all of us did a great job today. We were not merely silent all day, which probably would have been easier, but rather were having actual conversations in Chinese. (Even writing this blog in English right now feels somewhat unnatural after speaking Chinese all day). Maybe our grammar was similar to that of a three-year old – but so be it! We were navigating streets, having conversations, and ordering food all in a foreign language.

As I went to order my three vegetarian steamed buns today, the vendor told me my Chinese was pretty good. I guess a “wai guo ren” (foreigner) speaking Chinese will always surprise them, but nonetheless, I was flattered by his compliment, and glad that yesterday's language pledge was already paying off.

After lunch, from 2:00 – 2:30, we had our first dictation, for which we had to memorize 50 different Chinese characters! I think it went pretty well, but boy did that take a lot of studying. After this short test, it was time for language partners. I really look forward to language partners. Not only are they closer to our age, so they can sometimes clarify things that we didn't understand in class, but they are so eager to help us learn. In between going over homework and reviewing grammar and so on, we can also talk about our days and experiences in China with them. They are not just our study partners, but our friends who can give us advice and help us navigate this foreign country that they know so well.

Since today's lesson was about giving and asking for directions, we reviewed that vocabulary with them, and then went out for an hour asking for directions and using the vocabulary we learned in class. I get along very well with my language partner, so the outside fieldwork is always fun, while at the same time, we are able to use the new language skills we were taught that day in class.

Along with studying every night for quizzes and dictations, we are assigned daily homework in the workbook, so our schedule is packed. Between eating, sleeping, and our course work, there is little free time, but I have made sure to make the most of the these rare occasions. For the past two nights, I, along with other classmates, have been using the outside track here at Nan Da. Although you can physically feel the pollution in your lungs after just a mile, this definitely helps me sleep better at night, and is just a fun activity to do with friends. Lots of people here exercise at night, since it is so hot during the day.

Tomorrow is our last day of language pledge for this week (we have it every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). I'm not going to lie – I can't wait to be able to speak English again during the day and express myself clearly! But at the same time, I can already feel my Chinese improving tremendously. Although there are many obstacles and sometimes it can be almost impossible to get a point across with inadequate vocabulary, I am enjoying this program so much, and can't wait for what the rest of this week has to offer.

Zai jian!

Molly