The Sigh of Relief

I slept in this morning. It was gorgeous. I set my alarm for 5:30, although I am pretty sure that I just turned it off and went back to sleep, and convinced myself that I had just dreamed that my alarm went off. I would not have gotten out of bed if my friend hadn't texted me "good morning" at 6. That dragged me out of bed.

This morning was a beautiful morning. I left home a little later, because I had no homework, and there was no rush. I got on the bus, and gave up my seat for an older lady. It's just the way that things are done here in China. My bus ride was uneventful, although I did catch up to my friend Rebecca right before the stairs to school. It was nice to finally walk upstairs with someone. It is always just me, myself and I in the morning. This morning, I even beat Julia and Chris to school, but like 5 minutes. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Chinese class was mostly uneventful. My friend Nick Sas made one of the greatest "That's what she said" jokes that I have heard in a long time (I forgot a word on my tingxie, and my teacher kept using that as an example for one of our new sentence patterns. So I said "Why don't you just rub it in my face a little bit?" as a joke. To which Nick responded "That's what she said." The rest was history.) My half of the classroom was just about pissing themselves with laughter for 5 minutes. My teacher didn't get the joke (thank god) but we were having problems stopping laughing.

For break, I was extremely pleased with myself. I didn't go downstairs to get a jian bing (the eggs here are apparently contaminated as well. It almost killed me to hear that. And now, the meat is going to be contaminated soon as well. Although that is where I draw the line. I will get kidney stones to keep eating meat. I mean, really.) Instead, I sat in my math classroom with Chris, and hoped that I would do well in math today. I didn't embarrass myself this time, although my teacher got a little rude with me over my "attitude."

After Calculus was history. We had a class presentation today (as we do every Friday now) from
Sterling on Hukou's, which are basically an identification card limiting where you can get an education. They are becoming a little bit of a hindrance in today's world, and it was very interesting to hear about. And it took the whole period, which is always nice. No long circular talks today, although it was a close call.

I was so hungry that I could have started eating someone, so as soon as the bell rang, I basically grabbed my wallet and ran. I went out to lunch with Chris at a restaurant a lot of people frequent, and we ordered one of the only things that we could read, which was some sort of beef dish (it actually turned out to be beef in a soup thing. We figure that if we just keep ordering things, eventually we will get it right. Hopefully.) I had the feeling that I was supposed to be doing something during lunch, but that didn't last long, because I went back downstairs (after walking upstairs to check my emails) to help a friend exchange money. What an adventure. Not really though.

English was a little useless. We just read ghost stories in different accents (the whole class) as a celebration of Halloween. What a way to waste an hour. I was free after that class though. After changing rather quickly (it was still bloody cold today) I tried to figure out what to do with the rest of my Friday afternoon. After weighing my options, I decided to go with Chris, Claire and Warren to the hospital. Only Claire and Chris had appointments (Claire has had a bad cold that won't go away, and Chris has a sinus infection) but Warren and I had nothing better to do. How pathetic is that? We are in Beijing, and all we do is follow our friends to the hospital. It does get better though, just wait.

I was planning on buying a new pair of jeans (I have a hole in an awkward spot in one pair) so after the suggestion of going to XiDan (西单) to go shopping, we all hoped on a bus to get to a subway stop so we could subway it to the shopping mall. This is the same underground mall that I mentioned earlier.

Once we actually got inside XiDan, I was on a mission. I started looking for a place to buy jeans, but quickly decided that I just was not in the mood (I did get some nail polish remover though, which is very important if I am going to be painting my nails now.) The theme for the rest of the night was magic, magic, magic. The next stop was the magic store on the 3rd floor to buy cards (Chris is a total magic enthusiast. It's great.) After buying an expensive (but apparently kick ass) deck of cards, we started looking around for something else to do. Warren told us about another place that we could go to, so off we went.

For the rest of the night, we just walked around different shopping malls, looking for things to buy. I bought a new battery for my phone (I had maybe 4 hours of battery life on the old battery) and a pretty semi sparkly blue scarf that I know realized I got ripped off on. We probably went back to the same magic shop 4 times, as Chris spent more and more money. I learned a stupid rubber band trick, but there is no way I will ever be able to do it fast. It's just going to be a disaster. I only learned it because Chris kept having to go behind the counter and behind a curtain to learn new tricks, so I stood at the front of the store with all the bags. One of the workers kept entertaining me. It was great. Free magic is awesome.

We all grabbed a small dinner of bing in the middle of all this, and finally decided to leave for the subway at about 8. We decided we had been shopping for long enough. We took the subway home, which really didn't take very long. Chris bought flowers, originally intended for his mom, but after second thought, I got one flower, and the other one I was told to give to my sister, because it is her birthday on Sunday. I bought her a nice jade Buddha necklace at one of the shopping malls while we were out. I hope she likes it. I feel bad because I am leaving for our trip on Sunday, and that is her birthday. I will make it up to her when I get back.

Now, I am sitting in bed, typing this, and trying to ignore the ache in my feet. I got through the week though, which is amazing. It was a pretty hard week to get through. I just need a vacation, and now I am getting one. I am so excited. It will be amazing. But for right now, I have to go to bed, before I fall asleep on my computer. Goodnight all.

How to Imitate a Zombie: Get 6 hours of Sleep

5:15. I am growing to hate that time, when my alarm goes off, and I realize that I am up before the sun has even started to think about getting up. It is a rather depressing thought. I woke up before my alarm this morning, and just laid in bed waiting for my alarm to go off, cursing whatever God's might exist and hate me so much. As soon as the ringtone went off on my phone, I dragged myself out of bed (I oh so smartly left my phone on my desk last night so that I had to get out of bed to turn the alarm off) turned on the lights, grabbed the phone, and got back in bed. After sending a rather lovely wake up text, I pulled out my English book, and started reading.

It wasn't nearly as dark as it was yesterday morning, which is a nice change. I like to fool myself into thinking that I can see the sun as I walk to the bus stop (if there isn't a lot of smog...) This morning, there seemed to be smog everywhere, but I really couldn't tell, because everything had that grey haze that come up in the morning in Beijing.

I watched my bus pull out of the bus stop this morning before I even got there. Fortunately, the next one was only a minute behind the first one, and I even got a seat. It was amazing. That never happens to me. I got to school at about 6:45 (I had already been up for an hour and a half, how gross is that) and I wasn't even the first one to school. Chris was already there, and Julia came up the stairs shortly after me. Chris had brought cookies and banana bread for me (his grandparents sent it to him from America, and he was sharing) and that was quite a nice way to wake up.

I finished all of my homework, and was ready

Mid-week Slump

I always get back in the swing of things on Wednesday morning. Monday and Tuesday mornings, are useless, but by Wednesday, I am under control. This morning, my alarm went off at 5:15, and after sending a wake up text to my friend, I was up and studying for my Calculus test by 5:30. Yes. I even did 2 related rate problems, and got them right. Again, it was incredible.

For some reason, this morning was really dark. At 6:30, it still looked like I had just woken up. This kinda threw me off, and I waited longer than normal to leave, because I know that my mom doesn't like it when I leave in the morning before it is light (it doesn't even matter if she isn't here. She will still know...) But at 6:23, I decided to risk my safety, and walk to the bus stop. I didn't miss m bus this morning. In fact, I was 5 minutes early, so I pulled out River Town (our English book) and started reading (I am about 30 pages behind.)

My bus wasn't crowded, but I still didn't get a seat. I was too absorbed in my reading to care though (yeah right...). I was proud of myself for getting to school by 6:45, but Julia and Chris were already there. I'm not liking this thing where they beat me to school every morning. This could be a problem. Chris lent me his notes from Calculus 1 from a year ago (he has already taken it in the US, lucky bastard...) so I tried to absorb his knowledge, before just giving up and accepting my fate.

I got my Chinese homework from Sterling as soon as he showed up, and did my best to do it. Really, I did. And I did get it done, which is the important thing. I turned everything. In Ma Lao Shi's class I felt good, so I could answer questions. Much better than yesterday, if I do say so myself. Shen Lao Shi did not have nearly as fun of a class. We got new books, and then a 30 minute lecture (in Chinese) on how we have to step up our act in class. It would have been much more meaningful if I hadn't had to pee like a racehorse at the time (I have to stop drinking tea in the morning...)

After class was over (and a quick run to the bathroom) it was time to study for Calculus. We (ie, Elle, Chris, Warren and I) gave it a go, but all gave up after 10 minutes and surrendered to whatever grade we were going to get. I went in, and did my best. Of course, because I am an incompetent fool, I forgot how to do one problem entirely, that I definitely should have been able to do. That is 10 points I will never see again. (As soon as the test was over, I went outside and asked my friends how to do it, and then felt bad about myself.)

The last class before lunch was Chinese Culture and Society. Normally, we would have a discussion, but Mr. Bissell secured another guest speaker for us. His name was Kaiser Kuo, and he is extremely funny. He founded a popular metal band named Tang Dynasty in China a while ago, and now he writes a column for the Beijingr, a local paper. He came in to talk to us about the history of rock in China. And he had some pretty good stories as well. He described tour as a vaudeville act, with ballet, dancing, and metal. The mental picture is enough to make you loose your cool. It is for me at least.

I didn't want to spend a lot of time for lunch, because I just wasn't in the mood. So Chris and I walked to the small street stands just by school, and we each got 2 small chicken and cucumber sandwich's, which were pretty good. Especially since it was freezing, and these things were warm. I was so excited. On the way back to school, we passed Mr. Bissell and Kaiser Kuo, and after a quick hello, it was back up 6 flights of stairs.

I almost didn't change my clothes for my music lesson because it was so cold that I didn't want to go through the act of changing. What can I say, I'm a wimp. But I buckled down, and did it extremely quickly, before putting on all my jackets and stealing one of my friends' as well. It was a cold walk to the subway station, never the less. The worst part of the subway is also the best part. It is warm. This is good, because it is warm, but also bad, because where did the heat come from? Yeah, I don't want to think about it either.

I practically ran to the music school, because I was so insanely cold. My lesson today did not go as well as I would have hoped. I felt like I couldn't do anything, and then of course, Ma Lao Shi beat out a melody without even practicing. I felt like beating myself over the head with my cup of tea. And then, of course, after she did a lovely little melody, I had to sit down and do it. I couldn't. So my teacher flipped the page back to the beginners section, and let me just do scales. It was crappy. I got a copy of the melody I am supposed to practice, and ran out the door as soon as I could.

The rest of my day was not interesting. It consisted of homework, homework, and oh, more homework (with a small break for the end of Mamma Mia, which always perks me up.) I have gotten so used to feeling like a failure here that it almost doesn't even bother me any more. Now, I want to go to bed so I can at least pretend not to be a zombie tomorrow morning. Peace.

The End of My Childhood

I did it again. There is something about the beginning to the weeks that make it impossible for me to get out of bed at the right time. This morning, when my alarm went off at 5:20, I thought I was being so smart by getting out of bed and turning the light on. Not smart enough though, because I went back to sleep until 6 even with the light on. Bugger. By some stroke of a miracle, I was still on the bus at 6:30, which was a little later than I had hoped for.

I'm not going to lie, I was rushing. I had Taiji this morning at 7:15, and I still had to finish some of my Chinese homework. I waited with much impatience (you know me) until someone from my class finally got to school so that I could borrow his homework sheet. What resulted was 5 minutes of madness while I tried to write the answer to 4 questions (based on the dialogue) before racing out the door to get to Taiji, which I haven't gone to for a week.

There were only 5 students in Taiji this morning compared to the 25 that started with it at the beginning to the year. The teacher is a really nice guy, and I had a good time, except for the fact that I kept looking at the clock thinking that I had to get back upstairs to finish my homework, before turning it in at 8. That wasn't condusive to a relaxing environment, let me tell you. Neither was the 5 flight (of stairs) dash that I made right after class. Probably not the best thing to do in a city battling pollution. Ah well.

Chinese passed without incident. I got all my homework done, and turned it in on time. I even studied, although there was one minor mishap with a bad question from my teacher. Alls well ends well though, so don't worry your pretty little heads over it. Right after Chinese class, I went downstairs with my friend Elle to buy food. More specifically, a jian bing (followed by drinks and oreos for my friend who was feeling under the weather, so to speak. Sugar is good for you, right?)

First up (after Chinese of course) was history, during which we talked about the Taiping Rebellion, and about another reading that we were supposed to read for class (key word being supposed to.) A lot of people didn't do it though, and I think our teacher was a little frustrated that everyone is a little out of it. What can I say, we are burned out. As far as I am concerned, that is her fault, not mine. If I slept more at night, we wouldn't be having this problem.

Calculus was next, and that proved to be rather enlightening. I did 2 related rate problems, and got them right. It was amazing. He didn't seem overly enthused, but I was pumped. I never get problems right. It was cause for celebration. My lunch (which was only a spring roll and a drink) was not the celebration, but I partied in my head. And my friends made me laugh, which was the rest of the party.

I have a free after lunch every Tuesday, so I have a extra long lunch. I busted out the computer, and called my parents on Skype to talk about my Georgetown essays, which I was determined to send it. After introducing them to Chris and Sterling, and chatting for a while, I abruptly logged off to grab a piece of birthday cake, which had just come into student hands. (I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to kick you off so quickly. But the cake goes fast. I feel bad though.) The cake also proved to be my undoing. I left my computer open to my email, and my friends opened one email to another friend. They (no names, but you know who you are...gr) wrote an response email saying "Unfortunately, I have decided you have no soul. This is the end. Love, Sophie." And pressed send. All while my hands were covered in cake batter, and while I was being restrained as I tried to get to my computer. Bugger that.

During break, I wasted time. Literally, it was horrible. English was last one the agenda, and all we did was read really good descriptive essays, and get ours back. I did pretty well on it, and I am rather proud of myself for it, especially considering that I only wrote it in a day. I practically ran out of that class as soon as it was over. I'm just not a fan of English.

After school was absolutel nerve racking. I sat down in the Fishbowl, opened my computer, turned on iTunes and started working on the Georgetown essay. I also threatened to castrate/gouge out the eyes of anyone who interrupted me. Although I still had to dodge flying fingers that were trying to poke me (ahem.) But it was a successful mission. After 20 minutes over stressing, and paying insane amounts of attention to every detail, I uploaded all the right documents, and pressed send. And then had a panic attack. I swear, if I hadn't been holding Hannah's hand, I wouldn't have been able to do it. For a while, I was sure that I had sent in the wrong essays, and had to sit on the ground until I calmed down. But I am fine now.

I am calling this the end of my childhood. I have officially applied to college now. I am almost an adult (shudder at the thought.) But really, it is a weird feeling. Oh so nice to be done, but still weird. I stil have the feeling that I did something wrong, but I think that is normal. My friend bought me an ice cream as celebration. Kidney stones be damned, there are times when I just deserve a chocolate ice cream bar. I took the rest of the night easy, doing homework, and watching Mamma Mia. I had to get over the stress of applying to college. I only have to wait a month and a half though. Wish me luck.

The Countdown Begins

This morning did not start well. It is the Monday before we alll leave for our trip so I for one am feeling rather burned out, and in need of a vacation. Needless to say, this particular Monday morning was particularly difficult. I set my alarm for 5:15, getting ready for a big morning of studying. That plan was rudely interrupted when I opened my eyes at 6:23, and had to race out of the house in 10 minutes in order to catch my bus. The run that resulted down the streets garned me weird stares especially as I ran past bicycles. Oh yes, I was booking) just so that I could catch my bus. With this sort of morning jog, who needs a gym?

Prepare Yourself

I woke up at the glorious beautiful time of 8:45, and felt like someone had hit me over the head with a sledge hammer. I didn't have much of headache, but I just felt like I wanted to go back to sleep. I definitely don't get enough sleep, that is for sure. I dragged myself out of bed at about 9, but it was big test of wills for me. I showed my family that I was alive, and then crawled back into bed, because I just wasn't feeling up to socializing that early in the morning (my inner teenager is starting to show through...) I turned on the Bourne Supremacy again, as a nice little wake up call for me. My mom came into my room this morning not 10 minutes after I woke up to let me know that the family was going shopping. I waved them good bye, and then closed myself off in my bubble again.

I took advantage of the fact that I was home alone by taking a shower (and washing my hair), and having a nice, leisurely breakfast while watching a movie. My family was only gone for about an hour, maybe a little more, but that was enough for me. Sometimes, it is just nice to be home alone for a change. In a country as populated as China, it is hard to get time to yourself. I take what I can get.

My day was really not very interesting. As soon as I got out of bed and moved to my desk, I started doing homework. First up was college apps, of course, since those are taking over my life until I send the Georgetown application in. I can't even tell you how tired I am of writing college essays. I also did a little bit of Chinese before lunch, but mostly just wasted my time. I called my Yangqin teacher to let him know that I wouldn't be going to the concert that he told me about. I just wasn't in the mood to go out tonight. I wanted to stay in and watch movies. Is that so much to ask?

Lunch was pretty good, although I burned my tongue trying to eat it. We had polenta stuff with sweet potatoes in it, and then fried bing with meat in it. Yum. The bing was so oily though, I burned my tongue. I can still feel it, even now. After lunch I went back to my room, and kept working, with a small break at about 1:30 to clean my room. My friends really are a good influence on me. Maybe I am just too easily influenced. I don't know.

It wasn't until about 3 that I realized I left a book at school. But I wasn't complaining, it was a good excuse to get out of the house I had been couped up all day in. I put a couple jackets on, grabbed my sunglasses (because I wasn't wearing any make up) and hopped onto the bus, getting a seat right away. It was only a short ride to school but we hit traffic. I wasn't in a rush though.

I walked up the 6 flights of stairs to my locker, even though I could have taken the elevator. There is something comforting about walking up the stairs. Don't ask me to explain it, because I can't. After getting my Chinese workbooks out of my locker, and grabbing my Calculus book for the heck of it, I started back to the bus stop. I hit a bit of a speed bump on the way, however. First, I stopped to get another jian bing, because I was craving one, and could tell that I was well on my way to getting hungry again. And then, the worst. I couldn't stop myself from walking to the dvd store. And buying 2 dvds: Ironman, and Mamma Mia (for only 2 dollars total...) I shouldn't have bought them, probably, but they are good movies, and oh so cheap. What can I say, it's a weakness.

The rest of my day was not particularly enthralling. I arrived home, and after waking up the entire house by turning the key in the lock and causing the dog to bark his head off, I went to my room to finish homework. I turned on Batman not too long before dinner, and that got me through most of the rest of the night. Now, I am just writing, and feeling like I should go to bed so that I can get out of bed tomorrow morning. Peace, love and music all.

Wasting the Day Away

I woke up this morning at 8:45, a blissful, late sleep in, with almost 9 hours under my belt. I didn't even get out of bed until 9, and that was only to pop my head out of the door and greet the rest of my family. Then I again opened my computer, and had a 45 minute conversation with my parents halfway across the world. I keep missing my sister on Skype, I think, which is really too bad.

The whole morning, ie before lunch, was rather unremarkable. I had a conversation with my Chinese mother, and then went back to my studies. I watched the Illusionist (what can I say, I'm really good at procrastinating) after working on Georgetown essays, which are due for me on Tuesday (well, really, they are due on Saturday, but I am neurotic and am turning them in on Tuesday.) I felt that that was productive enough for the whole day, and I can tell that I am on the edge of a breakdown. I am taking it easy this weekend.

For lunch we had a surprise. My sister's best friend came over, and although I didn't speak a word to her, it was nice to know who she is. We had a pretty good lunch (and rather large) before my mom had to go leave to be a flight attendant. I swear, she just works all the time. I went back to my room to do more "work" and my sister and her friend went to her room to actually study, I think. I actually have no idea what they worked on.

I didn't think about them again until they turned on their home karaoke set. Seriously, I was surprised that the walls weren't shaking. Karaoke is a big thing here, and my sister actually sings pretty well. It was nice to see that bonding experience. I put on my head phones (my dad was sleeping in the next room, and I didn't want to add to the noise) and started watching the Bourne Supremacy (I have a lot of dvds to watch. They are really cheap here.)

Nothing much happened before dinner. For dinner, we basically just had leftovers from lunch, and a beef dish that my dad has made before that I like (and he knows this.) I was invited to go out after dinner by my friend Chris, but I had to check with my Chinese dad to make sure it was okay. He assured me that I could go out whenever I want. (Actually his exact words were - in chinese, of course - "Sophie, if you want to go out Friday, Saturday, Sunday night, that's fine. Just be back by 11. You are only here for a short amount of time, enjoy the city." I really love my dad sometimes.) So after pulling on 2 jackets, jeans, a hat and gloves (didn't want to get cold) I grabbed some money and a phone, and headed for the bus station.

I ended up walking to Chris's house, and then we caught a cab to get to the martial arts place. At least, what we thought was the martial arts place. We wandered for a bit, looking for it (and asking for directions, getting pointed in every direction) before taking a break in Dairy Queen. Kidney stones be damned, ice cream is just too good. I got a oreo blizzard (yum...) and Chris got a pineapple one. I think mine was better though. :)

Then, the quest began again. We were eventually pointed down a sketch dark alley (the only thing I thought was "Hells no") and to a movie theatre. Seriously, only in China would you find a movie theatre down an alley. That can't be good for business. The martial arts school was a level below the movie theater, so we walked down, only to be greeted with the sight of 10 Chinese kids in the middle of a class. There was one girl who was standing close to the door who (while punching air) gave us death glares. It was a little weird, I'm not going to lie. We secured a business card from guy who, according to Chris, oozed kick your ass. (He did too. You wouldn't want to meet that guy in a dark alley, that is all I'm saying.)

By the time we finished at the martial arts place, it was only about 8 or 8:30, and neither one of us wanted to go home. So we hopped in a taxi and headed to Tian'an Men Square, thinking it would be nice to see it at night. Of course, we got there, and had totally forgotten that there was a government going on, and that the whole of Tian'an Men was closed. So we just walked around. And around and around. It was still pretty to see at night, but it was a little disappointing that we couldn't actually get onto the square.

We hopped back onto the subway at about 10 to 10. There were a surprising amount of people on the subway at night (it was totally packed) but again, I at least got a seat, eventually. We were both exhausted on the walk back, and as soon as I got on my bus, I almost fell asleep in my chair. I got home at quarter to 11 (still inside curfew, Mr. Bissell) and my dad didn't care at all. He asked me where we went, and then went to bed. I followed suit shortly after. It is tough work having fun.

Good night all. Or, as they say here in China, 晚安.

To Go, Or Not To Go...

5 o'clock in the morning is not a time that anyone, no matter the circumstances. It is cruel and unusual. At least, these were the thoughts that were going through my head when my alarm went off at 5, and it was still dark outside. It is the darkness that gets me every time. It really is ridiculous. I would think that it would be nice to at least see the sun. Following this train of thought, I sent wake up text to my friend, and then dozed for 20 minutes, before grabbing my Chinese book, and crawling back into bed to study. It is just so warm and cozy, I can't resist. Who wants to sit in the cold and study? Not me, that's for sure.

I really wasn't very productive. I studied, yes, but at 10 to 6, I was up, and beating my sister to the one big bathroom. I am normally there before she is, but I feel bad if I take too long. I even got out of the house earlier than usual. And didn't miss my bus, for the first time in a month. Today was just destined to be a good day.

I was hoping to hold onto this feeling, as I still had a midterm to do in my second Chinese class. I had a minor panic attack as soon as I got to school, because I realized that there was no way I would do well on my test. Out came the books, if only for 10 minutes, until I calmed down. My math teacher poked his head into the room where a lot of us were, and asked if we had done our calculus homework after the party last night. The awkward silence answered his question, and he left laughing. That was also the end of my attempt to do my homework, because it is basically impossible anyway.

My Chinese test went rather well. We all moved into a different room, and then walked back to the actual Chinese classroom for our oral test (again, speaking...) Shen Lao Shi didn't tell us when 2 minutes was up, so I just rambled until I ran out of things to say. We'll see how it went on Monday. Cross your fingers and toes, people. I finished about 20 minutes earlier than the class was actually over, so my friend Elle and I decided to go downstairs. I was on a mission to get a jian bing, but she wanted to buy puppets for the English poem recitation (don't ask, that is just how she is.)

I got my food first, because I was starting to get grouchy and oh so hungry. We had to cross the road to go to a puppet store close to the university, and there, we hit the jackpot. Elle bought 2 of those stuffed things that have heads at the end of a wooden stick. Know what I am talking about? If you don't, I'm sorry, but I really don't know how else to explain it. Use your imagination. Then it was back up 6 flights of stairs. Sometimes, I really just want to cry. Why is 6 flights of stairs really necessary? Answer: It's not. End of story.

First period for me was Calculus. My stuff was already in there from Chinese, so I didn't even have to move, which is about the only good thing that comes from having Calculus first on Friday mornings. I struggled through the work. I feel like maybe I am kinda starting to get it. I don't know. I know that now I will say that, and then not be able to do anything. Such is life. I couldn't get out of that class fast enough, and was more than happy to plop down in my history room next to listen to a class presentation on pollution. Once a semester, everyone has to pick a topic, and make a presentation on it. It was actually quite interesting today, although I am dreading having to do it myself.

I didn't go to the cafeteria for lunch, which was a rather smart intercept on my part. I'm afraid that the cafeteria food is going to give me food poisoning. No joke. Instead, Warren, Chris and I went to a small, but good restaurant down the road from our school. It is always packed, but by some miracle, we got a table in the front room. Another lady was quickly seated in the spare seat at our 4 person table, but I am learning that this is becoming common practice everywhere. We ordered 3 things of jiao zi. I should have learned not to go out to eat with people of the male persuasion anymore, but our 30 jiao zi were basically inhaled, and we were gone in about 10-15 minutes. A quick stop at our favorite drinks place, and it was back up to do homework for us.

I still had an English poem to memorize, so I walked up and down the hall, reciting the poem to myself like some lunatic that should be locked up. One of my friends was stressing over her class presentation on the Three Gorges Dam in history, so I just went straight to English. The entire class had to recite the poem, and for every person that recited, there were 3 student judges that gave judges. Predictably, everyone except 2 people got 100%'s (I mean, really. Who is going to be the black sheep and give less than a perfect score? They would meet a quick and untimely demise before the end of the day. This is high school, remember.) One guy, Sam, said 14 of 22 lines, and then sat down. Mr. Morison was not impressed, and gave him a C. But Sam in already in Princeton (he's a PG) so what is the point? I mean, really.

After English, I was free. I didn't know what to do with myself. After messing around for just about the whole period, I finally decided to go with Chris to yet another martial arts school. Warren and Sterling also decided to come, and after we all changed out of our school clothes (and left our bags at Chris's house, because he lives right behind the school) we walked 15 minutes to the subway, which is always fun to take. 2 yuan lighter, we arrived at the martial arts place. It wasn't quite as swank, but still intense.

After Chris had his meeting, we were at a loss of what to do. So we picked a direction, and started walking. We stopped in a couple stuffed animal shops, and I decided that we should go shopping (what can I say, I'm a girl, and I need some more makeup and some nail polish). We an alley with a lot of shops on either side, and just started wandering down the roads, looking for things to do. There was a quick stop in a bakery to look for garlic bread (which we found, and Chris and I split) and some entertainment via card tricks, before we bought sandwich's for dinner at a supermarket (and gloves for me, because I was freezing. I swear, I think I have bad circulation or something, because I get insanely cold.) We decided there was nothing else to do and hopped back onto the subway to XiDan, which is a huge underground shopping mall.

We had a bit of a mishap on the subway (ie, Warren, who is supposed to be the subway God, got us onto Line 2 instead of Line 1, so we had to transfer again) before we got to Xi Dan. And damn, it is huge. I didn't know what to do with myself. We headed to a magic shop, since Chris is a magic zealot. I left him there buying things, and went in search of a good red nail polish, which I found for 15 yuan (about 2 bucks). I just finished buying it when the rest of the crowd found me, and by a quick vote, decided to head to the arcade.

I have a confession to make at this point. In Davis, there are no arcades. At all. So I am, or at least was, an arcade virgin. I just about blew Chris away when I commented on this, and was immediately dragged to the nearest kick and punch arcade game, where I was forcefully shoved in front of the controls. We didn't make it past very many levels, but I did play. It wasn't that bad actually. Pretty fun. After that, it was on to the shooting games (can't go to an arcade and not play that.) I was absolutely bloody useless at that (surprise surprise) but I am a good watcher. As soon as I was killed (or ran out of money, actually) I just watched. Chris lasted for a surprisingly long time, before he too ran out of money.

All of us (Chris, Warren, Sterling and I) were all getting kinda tired at this point, so we started looking for an exit. Warren, who had been here before, dragged us in search of the "cool" exit. This didn't make any sense to me at all, but we went along with it. On the way, we were all distracted by a slightly emo shop. Chris and Warren had a slight disagreement over the purchase of a scarf (although Warren got it in the end.)

The cool exit was incredible. This Xi Dan shopping mall is the hugest thing I have ever seen. But in this exit, you just walk up some stairs, and out a door. If you turn around and look at it, all you see is a small drink shop. That is it. I can't acurately describe it, but it is totally incredible. Whoever designed that place was a genius, that is all I am saying.

The subway ride back was rather uneventful. It was rather full, although all of us got seats in the end. We all had to walk back to Chris's house to get our stuff, and by the time I retrieved mine, it was 10 to 10. That kicked me into high gear, and I sprinted for the bus stop. When I got home, and turned the key in the lock, the dog started barking immediately, and woke everyone up. I have never wanted to kick an animal as much as I wanted to kick him out the 12 story window at that point. Little shit dog. But I still love him.

I was exhausted, and gross, and after about an hour iChat conversation, and part of a movie, I was almost asleep. Now this blog is over. I have to go to bed soon. Keep reading for more updates.

Party Time!

I'm getting better at dragging myself out of bed in the mornings at 5:30. I have developed a system in which my alarm goes off, I stumble 2 steps to my desk, grab the nearest piece of homework, and get back into bed to study. It may not be the best way to study, but it works for me. It also lets me trick myself into believing that I am in fact still in bed, and study at the same time. I really dragged myself out of bed at 6, and my day started.

I got to school 6:45, but my homework load was out of control. I couldn't go to taiji, so I just stayed upstairs and edited my friend Chris's history paper, which we were all tricked into believing that it was due today. As it turns out, it was only a rough draft. But anyway, when Chinese started, I was ready for class, and after turning my homework in, my teacher announced the beginning of class, and we were off.

In my second Chinese class, our teacher told us that we had an oral exam (speaking, not anything else, you nasty's) as part of our midterm, and we had to talk for 2 minutes at least. I had no idea when the hell I was supposed to figure out what to say, but I put it into the back of my mind, and continued my day. After Chinese we had another break, of course, and it was back downstairs for the 4th time that week to go put on some weight (ie, eat the greatest thing known to man: jian bing.) I had to get 4, for the people with me, and one for my friend upstairs. It was also freezing, and I had to stand in the wind while she made it. That is true dedication right there.

English, and then tutorial passed rather quickly. (In tutorial, we just went over tests, and I didn't get a lot wrong, so I just studied for the Shen Lao Shi final I have tomorrow.) During lunch we had Chinese tables. I grabbed Shen Lao Shi to come be the teacher for 2 tables, and we settled in for a good lunch. Shen Lao Shi is rather hilarious. We talked about everything, and with one Chinese 7 and one Chinese 6 speaker, it was quite a good conversation. I just tried to laugh and smile with everyone else. :)

After lunch, I felt the urge to go do something worth while. So I walked back upstairs, and started to do homework, because I could just see myself getting home at 10 and not having done any homework, because that is just the way I am. I started on my Chinese, working on the speech I was supposed to give my teacher the next day, but I got easily distracted. You know how it is, when you have to study, you will do anything to be distracted. Anything. I am no different.

After lunch was Calculus, and we got our tests back. I did not do so well. Bugger. Our teacher also told us that these were the lowest scores he had seen in 7 years, and that made him depressed. Our immediate response was "It makes you depressed? That's funny." Our problems are hard right now. I seriously have no idea what the bloody hell I am doing. It sucks. After that disaster I call Calculus was over, it was off to history. More notes, and a rather intense conversation later, we were free.

Today after school, instead of our regular Chinese Society and Culture class, we just talked about our fall study trip that we are taking to Fu Jian Province at the beginning of November. It is going to be an amazing trip. We got the packing list that we are supposed to bring, and the itinerary and what Mr. Bissell calls the "Dao of Travel." It was great. The only thing I was confused about was that our list recommended we bring a skirt, and what the bloody hell am I going to do with a skirt in the middle of nowhere? Nothing, that's what. Although I guess that wearing a skirt would be better than walking around in my underwear. Probably.

It wasn't until after our last last class that things started to get crazy. The party that we were having was a Halloween party, with all of SYA and 70 Chinese kids. The people organizing it had 2 weeks to do so, so it was a huge effort. Setting up was not any easier. I helped Chris and a bunch of other people carry water, fruit and various other things over to the gym, and then put it in the right places. I left half way through with my friend Rebecca to get fried chicken (really really yummy fried chicken) for dinner for us and for Chris. We stopped in our alleyway shop to get drinks, and went back up.

The party, or at least the talent show, started at 5:30, with Mr. Pettus, the math teacher, doing a card trick that involved everyone. It was actually really cool, but don't tell anyone I said that. It's the cool thing to do to be nonchalant about these sorts of things. Then the rest of the night started. There were a couple more talents that were showed off, and the games began.

I don't know what you think about when someone says Chinese games, but I can just about guarantee that it is not right. First up was a truth or dare game. Chris, as he was the host, and very popular with the Chinese ladies, was up first. His dare: find 2 Chinese girls to kiss, on the cheek. It was great. All the girls immediately started moving away, and then trying to push their friends toward him. We all got a huge kick out of it. I participated in a game, but will not be going into details of it at all. I will just say that it involved 4 people (and their mouths), an increasinly small stick of pocky, and an awkward situation (right Julia?). That is all.

The rest of the night was pretty fun. The talent show lasted until about 8:30, with random dancing breaks in the middle. I myself am not a big dancer, as most people know (I just don't really like making a fool of myself in front of people, what can I say?), and I managed to avoid (only just) having to dance. Score one for the middle class white girl.

I stayed after the party to help clean up, even though I have a midterm tomorrow. There was a rather large mess (sort of) and I felt bad leaving a couple people to clean up. It took us about 20 minutes, and just about everyone had left by the time we were done, and we took the elevator upstairs to get our stuff from the lockers before heading our seperate ways. I was calmly talking to friends before seeing my bus pulling up to the stop, and made a mad dash to catch it. Seriously, I would have made Olympic athletes proud. But I hate waiting more than anything.

I didn't get home until about 9:30, and I really didn't feel like doing any homework. I worked on my Chinese a little, but soon came to the conclusion that it would be better to go to bed early and get up early to do homework than to stay up late. So afer setting my alarm for 5 (dear God, that is early) I am now off to bed, before I can't read anymore. I am bloody exhausted. Sorry it took me so long to get this out. My life is nuts right now.

Never Stop Moving

They say that with time comes experience, and with experience comes less mistakes. I don't know about the less mistakes part, but the experience, most definitely. Take this morning for instance. Because I am a lazy teenager with no self will (does that sound about right, people?) I have not been able to drag myself out of bed the past couple of days. But this morning proved to be the end of my lack of will power. When my alarm blasted to life at 5:28 this morning, I was ready. I kept my eyes open (knowing this helped) moved around (even better) and then dragged myself out of bed 10 minutes later. All of this has been proven by me to make it easier to get out of bed.

It was exceedingly dark this morning, but at 6:20, I put myself into harms way, and walked to the bus stop. I waited a good amount of time past when I woke up, and it was getting lighter. This morning, I didn't even miss one of my buses (pat on the back for me) and I got there (after a short sprint, of course) right when my bus pulled up. I could tell it was going to be a good day.

I bought 10 small bao zi for breakfast this morning (and got charged an extra 1 kuai again) and then hopped up the stairs as fast as my heavy backpack would let me. I met with my Calculus teacher as soon as he showed up, and did some 2nd to last minute cramming for the test that I had in 3 hours. After studying with friends, I had a shortish conversation with my friend Julia while she wrote out characters. (I was opening a package that my mom sent me. It was a big thrill.) I should feel bad about not working just then, but I was giving myself a break (and a chance to try to shake the headache I have had for the past 3 days...not a nice experience, by the way).

The time for my tingxie arrived rather quickly, and it was time to cross my fingers and hope. As it turns out, I didn't need to cross my fingers because I did rather well (20/20). That doesn't happen much. Maybe all the stress really is good for me. (Yeah, tell that to the bags under my eyes.) I get my midterm back from her tomorrow, so that will be fun. It was hard to stay awake in my 2nd Chinese class, but I again propped my head up on my waterbottle, and hoped for the best. If I stop moving, I fall asleep.

I had a short 30 minute break after Chinese during which I could study for calculus test. 5 of us (me, Chris, Elle, Warren and Mike) crammed into a small room and had a power session of studying. It has become a ritual among us; although, this particular ritual doesn't seem to be of a whole lot of helpl, because that test was still rather difficult. Not going to lie. My nonexistant math skills are becoming rather apparent now. Where is my math tutor when you need one?

For the rest of the math testing period (I finished with about 30 minutes to spare) I went downstairs twice. Once to get a jian bing, and once to get a drink. What the hell, I could use the exercise. My snack filled me up, and I felt ready to go to my Chinese Society and Culture class, which was really just an information session about our upcoming trip. Which is going to be amazing, by the way. I have to go buy a new camera, because the one I have right now just doesn't have enough memory. We are going to be walking through the country side, basically, after taking a 30 hour train ride to Fujian. We stay with families in these communal houses. I really can't even describe it right now, but I can't wait to leave. It won't come soon enough.

Lunch was rather uneventful. I was full, and Warren, who was going to a music lesson with me, was also full, so we didn't go back downstairs to get food. Instead, I showed both him and Chris my lovely smelling candle, which I happened to get from my mom. What ensued was me and then Warren fighting to get my candle back. It didn't end well. Chris held Warren off with one hand, and he literally literally lifted me up with one arm. That was when I quit. I only got my candle back because I had to beg the math teacher to get it back for me. I got crap for that later, but I don't even care.

Warren and I took the subway to our music lesson, and after flashing the guards our passes (you thought I was going to say something else didn't you? Get your mind out of the gutter.) we made the quick walk to the school. We arrived 30 minutes early (OCD anyone?) and waited around for everyone else to get there. My teacher arrived shortly after, and then my Chinese teacher, Ma Lao shi, who is taking lessons with me. We had a good lesson (I think it went an hour and a half) during which I learned how to play do re mi fa so la with 2 scales. It's pretty wicked. Next week I get an actual melody, which will be fun to play. It is always so much nicer to play an instrument when you can make a sound other than dying cat. Just a personal opinion.

I left before Ma Lao Shi, when the class was over, because she was staying to practice on the Yangqin at the school. I got another kiss blown at me as I left (I mean, really, how could you hate someone who blows kisses at you?) and then Warren, Elle and I headed back to the subway. The smog was absolutely atrocious today. It looked like heavy fog everywhere, and as we walked past TianAn Men square, it was especially apparent. What a gross thing to see everyday.

I was ditched before I got back to the school (Elle and Warren were going home, and didn't have to go back to the school) so I made a lonely trek by myself. Being the absolute genius that I am, I grabbed the wrong book out of my locker before I left, so I had to drag myself back up 6 flights of stairs (I think that was the 5th time today, a personal record of mine) grabbed my books, and went back down 6 flights of stairs to catch my bus.

For the rest of the night, it was homework time. Homework, homework, homework. I am amazed I haven't had more of a meltdown already. I realize that I have been giving off an out of control vibe, but really, there is no other way to describe it. What I write here is hard to understand, but me acting like this is totally normal. I am just trying to keep up right now. Things will calm down as soon as midterms are over. Now, I have to go to sleep, because I would like to sleep for more than 6 1/2 hours tonight. So, later lovelies.

That's What She Said

I did it again. Whoever said that the body and mind were connected lied, because that is so not the case. At least, not to students here in China. My alarm, set for 5:28, went off punctually, but I didn't respond how I should have. Instead, I turned it off, rolled over and went back to sleep. Again. And didn't wake up until 6:45, the time I should have been at school. After a record of 8 minutes getting ready, I practically ran to the bus stop. I watched 3 of my buses pull away before I got to the stop. It was around that time I started thinking "Why can't I just run faster?" But never fear, I had 2 pairs of trusty flash cards to review. I am never without flashcards these days. When the bus came, I was still studying. And who said I wasted time?

I missed Taiji this morning, because I just had too much homework to do. The first thing my friend said to me this morning when he saw me was "You look like you are in a rush." Thank you Chris, I didn't realize. My increased heart rate and light-headedness just weren't getting through to me. Cheers.

As it turns out, my rushing was actually unnecessary. I didn't have much homework, and my trusty memory came in handy for remembering all my characters. I got to class, and realized I had left my homework book on my desk, in my rush to get out of the house. Of course. I have just been so frazzled lately. It was a rather hard thing to laugh off, but recognizing my hazing and depressive state, my friend laughed it off for me. Sometimes, I really don't like other people. Just when I want to be whinny, they don't let me. Which could be a good thing, depending on your point of view.

I was still tired during class, but managed to stay awake for both. It helps when I prop my head on my water bottle though. (What? I can't take all the credit...) We got another composition assignment in Chinese, but I found that I actually like writing it. It doesn't take very long, and it's interesting. What can I say, I'm just a nerd that way. Don't let my teacher catch me saying that I like writing essay's in Chinese, otherwise my classmates will hate me for eternity. Seriously.

After Chinese was break, during which my friend Elle and I went downstairs to buy a jian bing, which is this egg wrap thing. (Descriptive, isn't it?) That was my breakfast, and because I am still sick, I needed it. (Seriously, I would give my first born to get my sense of smell back. Although if I have to smell what we have fondly termed "Beijing funk" then maybe not.) After a quick study group for my history exam, we were off to the races. My history quiz was easyish. The questions weren't surprising, just made me think (and all the writing hurt my hand...) I finished with time to spare, and found the "class reunion" in the hallway (all the classrooms are used in the mornings, so when we are let out early, the class just congregates in the hallway.) My history teacher thought it was hilarious.

Calculus came next, and we were oh so fondly looked after (not). It is starting to get hard, with differential rate problems (that is hard to say, much less do. I am foreseeing this ending badly...), which will be on the test tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me, please. I am going to need all the help I can get. No joke.

For lunch, Chris and I practically ran down the stairs to get fried chicken. Before getting to the food stall though, we decided to divide and conquer. I went to a small shop to get drinks, and he went to get the chicken, because it is imperative to get to the food stalls before the rest of the Chinese school kids. The term "line" does not apply here in Beijing, and it is easiest to just get in front of the mob rather than push in front of it. The great part of this story is that I am sure you think I am kidding. If only...

I had an extra long lunch break today, because I had my free period right after lunch. Procrastination was the foremost thought on my brain, and I quickly determined that I needed more flashcards (the piles of flashcards on my desk was quickly forgotten.) I roped my friend Stephanie to come with me (don't be fooled, I lured her with food) and after buying the necessities, we stopped at another alley store to get drinks and Oreo's. You know, staple foods and all. Kidney stones be damned, Oreo's are good.

The noise in the Fishbowl was atrocious, so Chris, Warren and I went into a small study room to work. Chris and Warren had to study for the history exam, and I wanted to read English. However, because I had already had history, I had to help them study (ie, I looked through the book and asked them questions.) I like history, because it is just a story of one thing leading to another leading to another. Story's make sense to me, so I quite enjoy it.

After wishing my friends good luck on the quiz, I went off to English as soon as my blissful study was over. In English, we read descriptive essay's, and then we had to write a paragraph about the hands of the person sitting across from us. I wrote a couple paragraphs before realizing that we had to read it out loud. When it was my turn, I felt that it was my obligation to announce "Mine is a little long, are you sure you want me to go?" Before my teacher could answer though, Reilly, my friend from New York automatically said "That's what she said." Loudly. (And she sits right next to the teacher.) There was an awkward pause before half the class just burst into fits and giggles. I totally lost it, laughing until my face turned cherry red, as it tends to do. My teacher just skipped me, and said he would come back. It probably took me 5 minutes to calm down.

After school, Julia, Hannah and I all decided that we had to catch up. After securing a piece of birthday cake from Becca, we were off. Destination: Happy Times Tea House. On the way, we picked up Chris, who decided to come. This place is amazing. You pay 18 kuai ($2.63) per person, and get all you can drink drinks. We got 4 drinks a person, and only had some mildly awkward conversations. I feel bad for Chris, he was trapped with 3 slightly hysterical teenage girls. He took one for the team though. It was impressive.

He left at 5 to 5, and that is when the real girl talk started. The only thing I will say about it was that it was intense. That is all. At 5:30, we all rushed for the door, thinking "Bugger, time to get home for dinner." I walked to the bus stop, and after a quite uneventful ride, arrived home with not a scratch on me (how's that for braving Chinese public transportation?) Dinner wasn't on the table when I got home, so I settled in behind my desk to do some serious studying.

I made a discovery tonight. My emotions are absolutely out of control. Even more so than normal for a teenage girl. Tonight, I would almost describe myself as hitting the wall. I even thought I was for about 2 hours, until I took a shower. You could call it the Epiphany Shower. While washing my hair, I simply decided to snap out of it. I was just being stupid. Sure, I am tired, and stressed, and I would love to just stop, but I am in Beijing, having the time of my life. And sure enough, as soon as I thought this, I started to feel better. Stupid emotions. Now, with a belly full of pork and fried lotus, I am writing this blog. I may not write much now, as a certain family member has alerted me to the fact that I am starting to sound whinny, but I will make an effort to turn my writing around. Comments are appreciated.

Now, my lovelies, it is off to slumber land for me. Can you count the sheep yet? I can almost see them...

Ready, Set, Study!

This morning, for some God awful reason, I got up 8:15.  I don't know why, because I went to bed past midnight last night, but my body just doesn't cooperate sometimes.  It is rather annoying. I felt a little crappy this morning when I woke up. My throat was as dry as a desert, and it was sore. My head hurt as well, which is never a good sign. I couldn't seem to wake up, but I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some other clothes, grabbed a kuai, and headed out the door. I had to go to school to get my back pack so I could do homework, and the sooner the better. I needed a kuai to get on the bus, and although I am pretty sure I looked (and felt) like I was about to keel over from exhaustion, I got on the bus. And the right bus, even.

There was a lot of construction going on on the gate of my school, but I got through and went up 6 flights, which should be against the law on a Saturday. All of the juniors were taking the PSAT, which is a requirement, so I felt bad for them as I viewed the door behind which they were all locked. I had to take the jing jiang rou si (pork) from the day before out of Chris's locker, because I am just that good of a friend. I also had to put his jacket into his locker, because I forgot to give it back to him last night before he got out of the taxi.

Of course, as soon as I grabbed the pork, the juice spilled all over my hand and onto the floor. So I spent 5 minutes grabbing toilet paper from the bathroom, and cleaning it up, before grabbing my own stuff out of my locker, and heading back down the stairs.  Even then, I still didn't feel awake or good. That was my first clue that I should just go home and get back in bed. The bus ride went quickly on the way home, and in no time at all I was back home.  

As soon as I got home, I turned on Skype, and called my parents, after putting one of my im's on hold.  It was nice to talk to my parents again, and catch up, because it has ben about a week since I last called them. I was almost starting to think that I was a proper adult, and we can't have that now, can we?  Everyone needs a little dose of their parents every now and then.  I may have given them the wrong idea about how I am doing right now (which is busy, and slightly sick) but I guess lying never got anyone anywhere, so what the hell.

For the rest of the afternoon, I studied Chinese. At least, I did until lunch time. At lunch, my mom made noodles, and this sauce thing that you put over the noodles. It was pretty good, a lot like this eggplant thing we had at my aunts house. I mostly really like the food I get here. I'm definitely not starved, that is for sure. I still didn't feel very good during lunch though, so I didn't talk my and ate slow, which may have made my mom a little concerned.

After lunch, I just felt even worse. So I put studying on hold for the moment, and started to watch a movie. It took me about 30 minutes to find a good one, and finally decided on Iron Man, which really is excellent. It was about a 2 hour movie, maybe a little over. I felt bad about watching it, but I was feeling sick, and feeling like I need a little self applied TLC.  So it was necessary. The only annoying part was that at the very end, it cut off the last 15 minutes. I can deal with that though, because I have already decided that I have to buy it, so that problem can be remedied quickly.

It actually took me most of the afternoon to watch Iron Man,  because I kept stopping it to do other things. For example, at one point, I stopped so I could read the passage from my Chinese book out loud to the my sister, so she could correct my tones, in preparation for my midterm on Monday.  And I busted out my history for a while, but quickly got bored of that.  By the time I actually got to the "end" it was about 5 o clock. 

When my mom came home from wherever she had been, her, my sister and I all went out to dinner at a restaurant around the corner from our house (my dad is in another province at a university reunion and isn't coming home until tomorrow night.) I didn't really feel like eating dinner (sick, remember?) but we went to a place where you order food, and then cook it up in a little individual soup thing. The whole thing is called huo guo, I believe.  It is pretty cool. You order meat and vegetables and noodles, and then just pick it out of boiling water and eat it.  

However cool it was, the bad boiled meat didn't help my stomach problems, and when my mom started getting worried that I wasn't eating enough, I explained to her that I have felt sick all day.  She stopped forcing food on me after that.  Although she did look a little worried about me.  After we all finished eating, we had to wait about 20 more minutes for more sweet potato bing things to come out for us, which were actually really good. They are these lightly fried pancake like things with red bean paste in the middle, and pretty delicious.

On our walk back home, I told my mom that as soon as we got home, I was going to take a shower, and then get into bed, because I don't feel well. And that exactly what I have done. I am sitting in bed, listening to Sugar and Spice by the Searchers right now, and writing in my blog, which I have been doing for about 30 minutes now. I am tired, and my head and stomach hurt now, so I am going to go to bed. Today was really not that interesting, I am sorry. Sometimes I just have these kinds of days.  Tomorrow probably won't be much better.  Until then.

The Snowball Effect

This morning did not start well for me. I had big plans to wake up at 5:15, and do homework. I even set my alarm for 5:15. But in practice, my plans never go well. When my alarm went off this morning, I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. Instead, I just kept dozing. I woke up at 5:50, and decided that that was still to early. At 6:15, I finally pulled myself out of bed, realizing just how late I was. I should have been out of that house at that point, not out of bed. I rushed around, trying to get ready and at least slightly fed, but it still took me 15 minutes to get out of the house.

By the time I got to school, it was 6:50, and I was feeling sufficiently hassled. I didn't know what homework to start, but decided to do Calculus because that was first up, after Chinese, and I didn't have any new words for Chinese. But as soon as it became obvious that I didn't know how to do my homework (logarithmic differentiations. Really now?) I just gave up, and contented myself to look out the window and wish for my bed. At 7:30, I did go in to see my math teacher for help, but he had an appointment with someone else and wasn't very much help.

My first Chinese class was just a review for our Midterm that is on Monday. I was having a problem staying awake in that class, and found further proof that I was probably in the midst of a breakdown. My teacher asked me why I like my Chinese family, and expected me to answer that question in Chinese. The problem is, I can't even answer that question in English, so she got a little mad at me. Ah well, what are you going to do? The second Chinese class passed without a hitch. It would be interesting to know what my grades are in both of those classes. I have absolutely no idea.

During break, I could feel myself starting to get a little hungry. So I recruited my friend Stephanie to walk downstairs with me to buy a jian bing, which is this egg wrap thing that is sold everywhere. It's pretty good, but it needs something else. I just don't know what it would be though. On the way back to school, Stephanie stopped in a shop and bought some Haichu's and a drink, and I bought my friend some Haichu's as well, because he asked. Haichu's are this chewy think, about the size of a couple pieces of gum, that are oh so delicious. I'm not sure how else to describe them.

Right after break was Calculus, and our teacher came in claiming that he was concerned because none of us could really do the homework. We spent the entire lesson trying to make heads or tails of logarithms, which I still don't understand.  History was next, and we were supposed to have a class presentation, but because the girl whose turn it was had been sick for a couple days, we talked about the Opium Wars instead (which I can now say in Chinese, by the way.) 

Chris, Julia, Jamie and I all went out to lunch at a restaurant in the alley next to the school.  We ordered a couple things of jing jiang rou si, which is pork that you wrap in tofu rolls, some beef soup, and a plate of broccoli for Julia, who is a vegetarian. Jamie and Julia were planning on going to "How to memorize characters" meeting that Mr. Bissell was having, but they decided that lunch was just too much fun. The owner, who was also taking the orders, was not particularly friendly, but we got our orders, and were done by about 1.  Then, it was back up the stairs for us.

For the half hour I had before English started, I worked on history, and wrote some more in my blog. When English started, I was ready.  I turned in my essay (after having to write a title in pen) and then we just talked about T.S. Eliot until the end of class. I have to say, I am not a big fan of poetry.  We have to write a poem for English, and I am not looking forward to writing it. It is going to be a disaster.

After English, I had a free period, but I didn't know what to do with myself. I thought about going to a park, but I wanted to go with someone. My problems were solved when Chris said that he was going to his martial arts school in Beihai, and invited Warren and I to go with him.  It was only a 20 minute taxi ride, so I put my bag in my locker, and went with Warren to buy hair gel (for him, not me) while Chris went to drop his stuff off at his house, which is right behind the school.  We met up again in about 15 minutes, and jumped in a taxi.

This martial arts was swank. There is a lot you can say about martial arts, but their training places are nice. And this place definitely was.  Everything just looked professional and lovely. There really is no other way to describe it.  It was also insanely cheap, and if I wasn't booked full with all of my activities, I would be tempted. Again.  

After that, none of us really wanted to go home.  I, stupidly, had forgotten my cell phone in my locker, so I called Shi Laoshi, who is basically our substitute mom, to get her to text my host mom's cell phone number to Chris's phone so I could call her and let her know that we were going to go out to dinner.  After assuring her where I was, us 3 foreigners had to find a place to eat dinner. We ended walking back to Beihai park, and then getting a rickshaw back to where we started. It was a lot of fun, because we got taken through hutongs, which are areas where the roads are really narrow, and we had a really friendly rickshaw driver. It was great.

We basically walked in the first restaurant we found, and tried to order. Unfortunately, all of us, ranging from Chinese 6 to Chinese 1, with me in the middle, couldn't really read the menu, so we just ordered a lamb dish and some rice.  It was expensive, so we just got one dish, which actually wasn't bad. If you like lamb. Although I am finding that I can handle it more.  I was out of money at this point (I only brought 100 kuai with me) so Chris paid for dinner, and we started walking. (It was also around this point that I stole both of their jackets, because I, of course, didn't bring mine. Sometimes I just want to hit myself.)

Still, no one wanted to go home, so we went to a lake to rent a boat.  We stopped at a place where Warren's "lady friend" worked, but she wasn't there. Instead, we rented a boat for 70 kuai and motored around on a lake for an hour.  It was pretty fun. Chris drove, because apparently, and I quote him here, "Stereotypically speaking, women and asians can't drive." Isn't that nice?  Yeah, that's what I thought too.  Hmph.  We did a stealth run to an island in the middle of the lake, dropped Warren off, circled around, and then picked him up. He probably wasn't supposed to be there, but he was anyway.  We only got honked at by the "harbor patrol" once, which is pretty good.  

By the time we got off the boat, it was about 7:40.  Warren called his lady friend, and she said stay where you are, I am coming.  But I was getting restless, and didn't want to wait. Then, again, I was saved.  Ian, another friend, called Chris, and invited him to the Night Market. Chris, in turn, invited both me and Warren. After another quick call to my mom, I decided to go, and we started walking to get a taxi.  Warren, however, didn't come, because he didn't just want to leave and not tell his girl that he wasn't coming (even though she stood him up before.) So Chris and I took a quick 10 minute taxi to the night market, and started the next adventure. 

I had no idea what the night market was, but then was informed that this was the place where the weird food was sold. Chris wanted to eat scorpions (and informed me that I too would be eating scorpions) so we set off in search of scorpions. There are food stalls that stretch on for about a 5 minute walk, so we walked up and down, looking for some.  We found beetles first, and Chris bought some, because I was out of money. You buy 4 on a skewer, and then the fry it and hand it to you. I ate one, and Chris ate 2, and we gave the last one to a French couple. Beetles actually aren't that bad. They are just crunchy, and because they are fried, they don't really taste that bad.  It was good. We attracted the attention of a french couple, who took pictures of Chris eating his beetle, and then we coerced them into splitting the 3rd one.  They in turn pointed us towards the scorpions.

We bought 3 small scorpions on a skewer, and these too were fried.  Scorpion was a little harder for me to eat, but eat it I did.  Again, not a whole lot of taste. It just tastes like something with legs that has been fried. It wasn't that bad. We kept walking up and down the food stalls for about 15 more minutes (Chris ate the last beetle, and I ate the last scorpion, bring the total up to 1 beetle, 2 scorpions for me.) We crossed the road, and started looking in at shops and supermarkets on the other side of the road, while we waited for Ian to get there. We saw this little toy car that could break dance, basically. There is no other way to describe what it was doing. It was amazing.

We went upstairs to the top part of a camera shop, where the owner had set up his painting studio. It was amazing. He showed us a lot of his paintings (I think he wanted us to buy something) before we could extract ourselves. It was about that time that Chris got a call from Ian, who said he was at the Night Market, but didn't know how to get to where we were.  (Little background. He is in Chinese 1, and he had taken the subway to get there, by himself. It was pretty ballsy.) We started walking down the road in search of him, and found him 10 minutes later under one of the big red arches of Wang Fu Jin.

Another 10 minute walk later, and we were back at the scorpion stall. Ian bought 3 of the small scorpions, and ate all of the them (although he got pictures, lucky guy) and attracted a crowd of Chilean tourists, who couldn't believe he was eating it.  Then both him and and Chris bought a big black scorpion each, and ate them together (or they planned on it, but Chris ate his before Ian had even finished buying his.) The tourists were disgusted with this, but we just laughed it off. By this point it was about 9:30, and we had to be home. 

Finding a taxi in that part of town was hard, and so we just started walking, and kept one arm out incase a taxi showed up.  I knew where we were (I did, I swear on my life) and so we just kept walking down the street. Eventually (ie, 30 minutes later) we got a taxi, and headed back to school. We (although mostly Chris) talked to the driver, although we were distracted by a phone call from Warren, who was just leaving the lake, and had no money to get home via taxi. I'm actually not sure how he got home, although I have the sneaking suspicion that he ran home. Oops.  

A few blocks before school, Ian hopped out of the taxi and started walking back to his house.  Chris got out right before school, but asked the taxi driver to take me home, because I lived past the school. Thankfully, he knew my road, and had no problems taking me home. Chris gave me money, and hopped out of the car.  5 minutes later I was home. 

I didn't have my key, as it was in my backpack at school, so I just knocked on the door, and was let in. I have the sneaking suspicion that at least my mom stayed up waiting for me to get home, which I feel bad about.  I was absolutely exhausted, so after eating an apple (I eat a lot of apples here) I told them I'm sorry, but I have to go to bed.  Now, I am in bed writing this, and I have to go to bed. This day was absolutely crazy. What started out as an innocent trip to the martial arts school snowballed into a much bigger adventure. It was a great night.  How about those scorpions? I know what you are thinking, what have I been smoking right?  Don't worry, I'll share.  Later everyone.

Are Your Nerves Rattled Yet?

5:25. That seems to be the new wake up time for me, no matter what. Although I don't actually get out of bed until 5:30 or so. It is hard to pull myself out of bed in the morning, no matter how much I know I have to. I probably only got about 6 hours of sleep last night, but that doesn't matter. I had to finish my history reading this morning, and so I got of of bed, grabbed my textbook, and started reading about the first Opium War. As luck would have it, I finished reading just at 6, which is the time I was planning on getting out of bed and getting ready for school. There is no reason to mention that part of my morning in my blog.

For some reason, I forgot that today was Thursday, meaning the day from hell. So when I walked out of my house at 6:30, I thought I would have a nice leisurely morning with plenty of time to study and prepare for class. Wrong. I held in my imagination that idea all through the bus stop and the walk to school. It didn't hit me that I had Taichi until I was halfway up the first flight of stairs, at 6:50. Typically, the only thought that flashed throuhg my head was "Bugger." Now, there wasn't as much time to do my homework.

For the brief interval of time (15 minutes) that I had to work on my homework, I reviewed Chinese, and history, although my heart just wasn't in it. I alternated between doing homework, and talking to friends. I hit a bit of a crisis when I remembered that I had to write a rough draft of my English paper for first period. That was when my computer came out of my back pack, and some hardcore typing started. There were a lot of people furiously typing away this morning.

I grabbed my friend, George, who was also doing Taichi, and we both walked down to our class. This morning's exercise started again with hip popping, and shoulder rolling. I was standing next to my friend Stephanie, and we talked and laughed through the entire warm-up, talking over the Samba music our teacher plays for us. I was told off as soon as the music ended, but still, good times.

We are using fans in Taichi right now, so there was a lot of twirling and swooshing as fans were popped out and back into formation. It was a blast. I am still not quite sure what I am doing, but I am having a good time trying to figure out. Besides, it is only 30 minutes twice a week, and that goes by rather quickly. Infact, when the end came, I just had to race back upstairs and do more homework.

Both of my Chinese classes passed without a hitch, and then it was break. For break, I set myself up in my English classroom, and kept working on my essay. I got through about a page and a half before deciding that it just didn't matter anymore (I already had a hard copy, and we weren't turning it in today) so I just shut off my computer, and went to find friends. They were in the history room, and I was social. When the bell rang, I made a mad dash for the English room, although I shouldn't have bothered, because my teacher is always late anyways.

In English, we talked about what makes a poem, and read the best line from our papers. He wasn't a big fan of mine, but I like it, and I know no matter what I do, I will never write a good enough paper. It is okay, I have accepted it. After English was my Chinese tutorial, which is probably the easiest tutorial I have had so far. There was only one other person with me today, Jeremy, because Elle was sick. Ma Lao shi, our tutorial teacher, said that she was going to talk to Jeremy for the first half of the tutorial, and me for the second half. So I just wrote characters on the board and practiced for my midterm on Monday, which was just sprung on us today.

As it turns out, there wasn't enough time for her to talk to me. I got the last 5 minutes of class, and then we went to lunch. (It was okay though, because I did some hardcore studying.) I was again hungry enough to eat a horse, but today we had to have Chinese table, which is when we sit with a Chinese teacher and only speak Chinese during lunch. I sat with Chris (Chinese 6) at a table, called Ma Lao Shi over, who was followed by James (also in Chinese 4 with me) and that was our table. It was a really fun table actually. James can't speak Chinese very well, Chris can, and Ma Lao Shi is always a riot. I love her, really.

After lunch, I had to go work on homework, again. I was still working on my English paper, but you have a computer out (that gets internet) and there are people around, it is easy to get distracted. And I started to surf the internet, and play songs, all because it was requested of me. Until it hit 1:30, and I had to make a mad dash for Calculus, and just cross my fingers that I understand what is going on. I am starting to hit the point where I have no idea what the bloody hell I am doing. I meet with my teacher in the mornings sometimes, but still. It is crazy. Who cares about logarithmic derivatives? I mean, really.

After Calculus was Chinese history, which is the worst class to have last. I don't know why, but it just is. It just consisted of yet another conversation. I forgot my notebook in my locker, but I will just copy someone's notes later. After history, my day was still not done. Instead, today we had Chinese history and Culture, again. And again, we had a guest speaker. It was the vice president of Coca Cola in China, who happens to be good friends with Mr. Bissell. He talked to us about when he came to China, and what he thought about it. (He and his family moved here when he was 14, and that was the beginning of a beautiful thing.) It wasn't until he started talking about the Olympics that things got interesting. He was talking about how they had to choose people to run the Olympic torch around, and then he pulled out this long box and opened it.

Inside was the Olympic torch. The real one, the one that went around the world and was on tv. No joke, this guy just whipped out the Olympic torch as though it was no big deal. Then, he passed it around. Seriously, we all got to hold the torch. Camera's came out, and it was great. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. How does this happen to me?

After Chinese Culture class, I headed out to go to WuShu class before I was stopped by Li Laoshi, who is our student activities coordinator. He wanted to get students to help him make a video for his best friends wedding. So 10 of us gathered in a room, put our arms around each other, and swayed to music that he had made, and sang "la, la, la, la, la." It was great. That was over in about 5 minutes, and then I had to run down the stairs to get to my WuShu class.

That class was a lot of fun. There is only one person who actually knows what he is doing (and is good at it) and the rest of us just fake it. I got lost half way through our "routine", many times, and the teacher had to help me. It was great. That was about an hour of embarassment, before the class was over, and we were free to leave. After a brief browse of the dvd shop, I hopped on my bus and went home. There were no seats, and I texted my friend while surfing the public transportation. Mad skills, that's what it was.

I had an insane amount of homework. It was literally so much, there was just no way I could finish it. First up on the agenda was my English essay, which took me at least 2 hours. By the end, I was so frustrated and confused (he wanted a lot of detail in 2 pages. It just wasn't happening) that I just wanted to cry. I think that I may have been hitting the wall for a brief momen, but I am not sure what hitting the wall entails, so I have no idea. I am just burned out, I think. I need a relaxing holiday, badly. Most of my homework got done now, although I am cutting myself off at 11. That is the latest I am staying up. And now I have to focus. Peace.

Lonely Adventures

I was feeling particularly confident last night (when I went to bed at 10:30) and set my alarm for 5:45, which is rather late for me. After leisurely getting out of bed, I jumped into my school clothes, packed my bag, and headed out. Yet again, I took the bus. I have found that I have become quite lazy lately, and I can't quite cope with biking the whole 10 minutes to school.

By the time I was upstairs to study for Chinese, it was 6:50. I busted out my flashcards that I made last night (yay for productivity.) I like using the white board to practice writing my characters. It is easier to memorize them that way. But my plans were foiled when the cleaning guy came in and told me that I wasn't allowed to use the whiteboard because the teachers liked them to be totally clean when they started using the boards. Hm. I waited until he had gone down the stairs before picking up my pen again, and started writing. Never underestimate the desperate need of SYA students to prepare for our tingxie's. Never.

Today's quiz was actually hard. No one got over 17.5/20 on it, meaning that we all had to write characters tonight. Ma Lao Shi (our teacher) was not impressed. I moved seats today on my accord, and according to Nick "messed with the FengShui of the room" (I learned how to write fengshui in Chinese by the way. It is 风水, which literally means wind water. Don't ask.) Anyway, it didn't seem to screw up our minds too much. I just thought it was something worth mentioning. Moving on.

Both Chinese classes went quite well, although I think that for once in my SYA life, the second class might have gone better. The first quarter ends next week, so I just hope that I will get an A in both of my classes, because they are bloody hard. There will be explanatory letters winging their way to colleges if I get B's. Never fear. When the bell rang shrilly announcing the end of class, we all breathed a sigh of relief, only to suck it back in when we remembered the math test that was next.

After a quick study session with Elle and Chris, I gathered my courage around me and walked to room 610, which is the biggest room for SYA, and can fit all the kids in it. Therefore, it also happens to be the room that we have our meetings and tests in. Rather convenient, really, because we don't have to walk downstairs to get to a bigger meeting room, and then back up 6 flights of stairs to get to class. We just stay on the same floor. If you understood that sentence, give yourself a pat on the back.

When I was taking the Calculus test, I didn't think I did a very good job. But when I turned it in, and saw the answer sheet he gave everyone, I realized I only missed parts of 3 problems, and he give partial credit. Cross your fingers, I get my test back tomorrow. As soon as we were done with the test we were allowed to leave the room, so when I finished 20 minutes early, there was a celebration going on im my mind. After grabbing my answer sheet to compare the answers I got on the test to the real answers, I walked to a study room to read a couple more pages in my English book. (Tsechi and Chris were there as well. Tsechi is sick though, so I lent her a couple of my jackets as a pillow so she could have a short rest before our next class. Poor girl.)

The last class of today (at least at school) was Chinese Society & Culture. We had a guest speaker come in and talk to us today. Hu Yonghong, (which was definitely a communist name) came to talk to us about international adoptions. Although it was very interesting (she spoke Chinese, and Mr. Bissell translated for us) it was right before lunch, and I was hungry enough to eat an elephant, so I was wating for her to finish.

She finished 10 minutes late, at 12:20, which was bad for me, because I had a college meeting at 12:40, which didn't leave me much time to get lunch. I ran downstairs with Chris to get a spring roll again (I swear, I am addicted. They are the greatest) and then back upstairs for the college meeting. But as it turns out, there was no need to rush. The guy that had a meeting before me, Warren, was taking a long time, so there was no time for me to meet with her, because I had to leave to go to my music lesson at 1.

When my friend Hannah finally got back to school (she was taking music lessons at the same place I was) and Warren got out of his lesson, we all started walking to the subway station, because it is quick and cheap to take the subway to the Forbidden City, where my music is, in case you forgot. It's about a 30-40 minute trip, including the waits and walks between places. My friends were just in time for their class, and mine wasn't starting until 2:30 so I had about a 30 minute wait. My Chinese teacher, Ma Lao Shi, who takes Yangqin classes with me, was already there and practicing, so after saying hello, I set myself up on the couch with my English book and started waiting.

45 minutes, and my teacher still wasn't there. In the end, we got someone to call him, and he said he would be right there. Because we had parent teacher conferences today, Ma Lao Shi had to leave, but I stayed. When my teacher swept into the room 10 minutes later, I was ready, and we started. It went pretty well today, if I do say so myself. I have learned to actually hit the strings (which is harder than it sounds) and he said that next week he would actually give me a melody to play. Woo woo.

Walking back to the subway by myself was interesting. I took a taxi back last time, and now I had to brave the subways' by myself, because all my friends had left 1 hour before me. My phone ran out of batteries (of course) so I decided to be brave, and just guess. It was actually a smooth ride back to JiShuitan, which is my subway stop. I only had to change trains once, and that was a line switch, not my screwing up, thank you very much.

When I got out of Jishuitan, the next order of business was to find my bus. I only had to walk up one bus stop to get to a stop that bus 635 stopped at, and then hopped on. My night followed the same pattern. I explained to my dad why I was later then I expected (in Chinese) and he told me about the parent teacher meeting. Apparently, my teachers told him that I was a good studier, and a hard worker, and there were no problems. I didn't even get instructed to practice my tones more, as some of my classmates did. Score one for the white girl.

Now, I have to go do homework. The rest of my night was not worth mentioning. Peace.

Another Day in Paradise

Even though I was sick, and went to bed after 10:30, I still set my alarm for 5:25. Why? I have no idea. It is very easy to say I will wake up after 6 hours of sleep (and then do homework) before you have gone to sleep, but the next morning, it is a whole new issue all together. Like this morning. My alarm went off, and it took me 10 minutes to drag myself out of bed and to the light switch. Before promptly grabbing my history reader and jumping back into bed to review for my history test. That worked surprisingly well, because I was still in bed (as everyone should be that bloody early in the morning) and I was retaining what I read. It was a win win situation.

At 6, I pulled myself out of the warmth of my blankets, and started to get ready for school (after a quick check of my email to make sure no one was dying to get into contact with me). I got out of my house early this morning, at about 6:15. My headache was coming back a little bit, but not too bad. I didn't see my bus pass in front of me this morning (meaning it was probably the first morning I didn't miss it in a while, which is a good thing). I kept studying history all through walking to the bus stop, getting on and off the bus, and walking to school (what can I say, I am a multi-tasker.)

I got to school early, and started doing homework. First up, history reading. That didn't last long though. Maybe 10 minutes before I decided it was a waste of time, and out came the flashcards. Those were much more useful, and apparently, much more sought after, because as people started coming into the room I was in, and saw that I had flashcard for the 40 odd characters to memorize, I started getting a lot of "So, can I use your flashcards?" I swear, I should have charged.

Chinese was first, as usual, and after a quick self quiz to make sure I knew all the words, it was Tingxie (听写) time. (That is our daily listening quiz.) I felt rather confident that I had done well, and the rest of the class continued on a positive note. Both of them did, actually. Our second teacher even quizzed us on our history terms, which was nice, because I had history first period, right after break. I was a little worried, I'm not going to lie.

As it turns out, I didn't really need to be worried. Of course, there was the customary question that no one prepared for (and which causes everyone to start piecing together some sort of answer that might possibly be right) and some that I was pretty sure I knew. Otherwise, it was rather easy, and not scary at all. I quite like having history first on Tuesday's, because I can get the test out of the way, and be done with it.

After history was Calculus (as per usual) which was totally normal. I still felt a little crappy when I went for Calculus; just enough so that I would just call out the answer I got when he asked, even if it was wrong. No harm in trying, right? Not sure my teacher agrees with that, but we still get along okay. I hope.

For lunch today, I went downstairs with Chris, Jamie, Julia and Gavin. We were originally going to go to a 10 kuai place, but when it became apparent that it was a restaurant where you had to sit down, everyone except Gavin backed out. Leaving Gavin to his own devices to make friends (which he did, being the people person that he is) we went next door to the supermarket to buy spring rolls, and a small shop on an alley to buy drinks. These spring rolls are amazing. They are probably one of the best lunches I have had. No joke. (P.S. all through lunch, I still got teased for writing about Jamie and Julia. From now on, no more mention of them except in passing. Sorry).

I thought that I had a college meeting with the college counselor here, so I went back upstairs with Chris to get ready for that (ie. print out my essay's for her to read.) But, of course, as soon as I got upstairs and checked my mailbox, there was a note, saying she had to leave to take her daughter to the clinic, and we needed to reschedule. As far as I am concerned, that is fine. I am on top of my college applications, and I needed the time to study. So out came my English book. I leaned against the table, put my feet up on a chair, and started reading River Town, our first book for English. I will give you my thoughts once I have read more than 25 pages.

After lunch I had break, so when the bell rang, I was in no rush to go anywhere. Chris, Warren and Julia were all sharing my flashcards for history, and were all quizzing each other/playing games to memorize the words. Since I could tell that my English was not going to get done (and after I checked that I didn't have to read it for class) I helped them study, because I had already taken the test. I didn't give them the questions, I just held up flashcards. Don't jump to conclusions.

Last period was English. What a drag. We got our vocabulary quizzes back. Although I improved from my previous score of 93 (haha) I still didn't get 100%. What can I say, one of our terms was pronoun antecedent, and it was a toughy. So sue me. After talking about romanticism vs. modernism, Mr. Morison set us loose on our creative writing assignment, in which we have to talk about some trip that we have made since being in China. I have decided that mine is going to be about a surprise dinner I had, which was exceedingly awkward. It should be a good story.

I had big plans for after school, but they didn't quite materialize how I expected. I had calligraphy for 45 minutes, during which I mindlessly doodled with my mao bi (the brush) and got teased by Julia for various things. I like teasing people, but can't take being teased, so I put an end to that nonsense very quickly. After that class, I thought I might go downstairs, and walk around. Instead, I "borrowed" Chris's computer, and loaded up my USB with his music. Sharing is caring, as they say. I did some homework as well, of course. That would have been hanging on my conscience otherwise. But as per usual, 5 o clock came way too fast, and we all trooped downstairs. Chris kept trying to recruit people for the talent show that we are having for Halloween, but it was not a successful mission, mostly.

I got a seat on my less than crowded bus, which amazed me. Sometimes the bus pulls up to the stop groaning under the weight of what looks like 1,000 bodies, and sometimes it pulls up with empty chairs. I have yet to figure out a pattern for it. There probably isn't one, but I like to think I am in control of everything. It's an OCD thing, you wouldn't understand. My walk back was painless (not that it should be painful or anything.) I balanced my Calculus book on my head for about 200 yrds, before deciding the looks I was getting from Beijing natives was probably a big indication that I shouldn't be doing that. I walked like a normal human being for the last half of my walk home.

No one was home when I got home, so I practiced my Yangqin, before turning to the computer and getting busy. I checked my email, and visited all my daily haunts on the internet, before opening iTunes and my Chinese book. Because tomorrow is Wednesday, I only have Chinese, which means not as much homework. Score one for the white girl.

My night was rather boring. It was the usual night: homework, dinner, shower, homework until 10:30, quick blog, bed. Nothing important. Lovely chatting, folks, but now, it is time to try to get rid of the bags under my eyes. Bye all.

So Much For My Flu Shot...

Before I start my blog, some announcements. First, apparently Julia is now mad at me because her friends and mother (ahem) read my blog and started bugging her about the term "couply stuff" (mentioned in the blog from Friday) which got me in trouble. So, from now on, no getting me in trouble. I don't mind giving all of you in America the 411, but at least keep her happy, because I have to see her everyday, and I don't like people giving me death glares. Got that? Second of all, I want to say hello to all you people (and if you are Hannah's friends, hello), because I haven't meet you, but I hope you enjoy reading the nightly rambles that I call a blog. So without further ado, the next in a series of increasingly strange events:

When my alarm went off at 5:20 this morning, I knew it was going to be a bad day. I just knew it. It was only Monday, and already I was waking up well before the sun rose. That is not a good sign. Add to that my headache that was still there, and the quickly approaching feeling of wanting to show last night's dinner to the world, and life wasn't looking so good. However, because I just couldn't face getting out of bed, I simply fumbled around for my phone, reset the alarm for 5:45, and closed my eyes again. I felt rather proud of myself for thinking of that. That way, I could still get up early enough to do homework, but I could prepare myself to get out of bed. Score one for the whitey.

On the agenda this morning was history (because I have a test tomorrow) but I didn't get a lot done, before I had to get ready for school. I felt crappy, and definitely like I might A) lose my dinner or B) see my brain for the first time, because my headache might split my head open. Needless to say, I took the bus to school. I was actually later than normal getting there (who knew it would take longer to get ready when you don't feel good?) but luckily didn't miss my bus.

I put my bad feelings down to just my body revolting from waking up so early, and moved on. This morning, I couldn't sit in my Chinese classroom, because Sterling, one of my classmates, was talking to his friends and family via his computer. I didn't want to intrude. So I worked in the fishbowl (the student hang out room) and tried to focus on the history in front of me (which surprisingly didn't go well.) I still wasn't feeling better, and my spirits did not rise when Jamie walked in the door and said "Damn Sophie, you look wasted." Yeah, thanks Jamie.

I got through a couple more pages of history before quitting, and busting out Chinese. That only lasted for a short while (long enough to make sure I knew all my characters for the daily listening quiz) before helping my friend Chris learn his characters (poor guy, he gets at least 30 a night, and they are freaking hard ones). I quite like quizzing people on their characters. I get to yell at them when they get one wrong. :)

Chinese is kinda a blur for me. My quiz went well, and there was nothing particularly thrilling that happened. In either class. Although I did notice that the smog was particularly horrid today. It looked like a really bad case of fog, except this fog didn't go away. Mostly, everything was just shrouded in grey. Be glad if, wherever you are, you can see blue sky. Be glad and think of me.

After Chinese was English, and we had to retake our vocab quiz in that class. I was a little upset about that, but it was rather easy. Just a waste of my time. I'm not a big fan of wasting time. The rest of the class passed rather quickly, and ended with me running out of the room as soon as the bell rang, as per usual. I just went to the cafeteria for lunch, because my friends Julia, Hannah and I all had to have a gossip session. We try to have one of these every once in a while. For some reason, it's just refreshing. Well, it is for me anyway. As long as the attention isn't on me. What can I say, I'm a hypocrite. And because I was still feeling sick, I didn't eat much, so there was more room to talk.

After lunch was history, during which I felt slightly comatose, because my head was pounding. By this point, it was quite obvious that I was sick, and I so did NOT want to be in school. But that was pointless, because at school I was. My teacher helped us get ready for the test tomorrow, and then set us loose. Being set loose for me was to be sent to Calculus. Because I was feeling daring (feeling like you are going to die can do that to you) I just kept calling out answers when he said to. I didn't get one right, but I tried. That is the important thing, right? My friends laughed at me, but words can never hurt me. (of course...)

After school was not quite the riot it could have been. Partly because I was sick, and partly because I had an obscene amount of homework, I just set myself up at a table, and started working. I was a little distracted, but mostly I just zoned out. Although I did zone back in when I didn't understand a math problem so I could grab someone to help me. Luckily, I have friends in high places (ie they know math) so they just help me. It's great.

After a quick break to walk downstairs to buy a drink and flashcards, it was back to studying. I have started following my friend down the stairs at 5, because otherwise I figure I need to get home early so I can actually do homework. It is good for my mental state. And if I leave with someone, I will actually get on my bus and not just mosy my way around to the bus stop. Once home, and once I discovered that no one else was home, I started practicing my Yangqin. It is still hard to play, but I can hit the strings now, so that is an improvement at least. I have a lesson tomorrow, so things could get interesting. Wish me luck.

It wasn't until I got home, and sat down to do homework that I realized I was running a bit of a fever. Nothing serious, just something to make me slightly uncomfortable. I was advised to drink a lot of water, and drink I did. I still felt like crap, but had a beast load of homework, so I sat down and started working. Which is surprisingly hard when you feel like defenestrating yourself (that was one of my vocab words, it means to throw something out of the window). I considered not going to school tomorrow, but because of my history test, I just sucked it up.

I told my dad that I had a headache, but when I assured him that I had medicine and was drinking water, he was fine. He told me to massage my head in certain ways to get rid of my headache, but I didn't. Oh well. The rest of my night was rather boring. I ate, I did homework, and now I am writing my blog. I didn't finish my homework, but I am waking up at 5:25 to finish it. That should be fun. Well, peace out peeps.