On a typical day, which is technically everyday because we
have class seven days a week, we follow a relatively similar schedule. Until
today, our wake-up time was governed by our mandatory pre-breakfast gathering
in the lobby at our dorm tower at 8 AM. From now on, we can go to breakfast at
our leisure as long as we arrive to class on time (9 o'clock). I always wake up
at around seven so I have time to get out of bed slowly. My roommate, Kelby, takes
his shower first, followed by me, then we both generally leave at the same
time. All of our meals are at the university's cafeteria. There are three
levels of Chinese taught on this trip: intermediate low (we are still not sure why it's not just called
beginner), intermediate high (my level) and advanced low. In a typical class,
we warm up with some call and response with our teacher, 刘老师
(liu laoshi), reviewing the new words and vocab from the day before. She also
puts all the new content on a document so we can keep it all organized and
study it easily. I have found that I know at least 90% of the words we cover in
class, but there are a lot of grammar concepts that I have picked quickly, but
need to use them in everyday conversation in order to really drill them into my
head. Today, my teacher told me that she thinks my teacher at school has done a
really great job because I already know more vocab than most of the class and I
am able to acquire the new
words and grammar so rapidly. However, I have a lot of work to do because I
don't know how to handwrite characters as well as I would like.
After class, we go to lunch in the canteen (餐厅, cān tīng) and eat lunch
together. Then, we head back to the academic building for a lesson on Chinese
culture from Dr. Chen. This usually lasts an hour and is always very
intriguing. Next, we have our interest groups, where we take a class (of our
choice) to learn some component of Chinese culture (中国文化). This week, I took a calligraphy class and (with a pen, not a brush) used the
more modern style calligraphy to write a Chinese song on a hand fan. Finally,
we have our tutoring session with the other members of our Chinese level. This
last week, I have been working with Samara and Catherine in a small group, and
our tutor's name is also Catherine. She is from Hong Kong, so her Mandarin Chinese
has a unique sound to it since it's not her mother tongue. However, Chinese is
all written the same disregarding the dialect, so she was able to really help
us understand everything from the class that day. At the end of the day, we
have dinner followed by about two hours of free time. It's funny to call it
free time because we have so much homework (along with other things we need to
get done), so the amount of time we have to relax is limited. I try to get to
bed by 11 or 11:30, but my roommate usually goes to bed at around 9:45. Kelby
is a deep sleeper, so I can type, walk around the room, and even leave the
lights on and he doesn't wake up. There are some things, like the shower in our
bathroom without a curtain or anything that looks like a shower other than the
head, that I really miss about back home. But to be honest, I am having such a
great time here, have made some incredibly close friends, and stay very busy
that I rarely even think about the things I miss at home. I do love hearing
from my parents, of course. There have been some very saddening events taking
place in the United States over the last two weeks. I have been staying up to
date, but am glad that I am far away from all of the violence and tragedy.
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