Can You Repeat That in English Please?

There were a lot of ups and downs today. I don't know what was going on (maybe it is the lack of sleep and increase in caffeine) but I swung from being really giggly to really stressed. And as you all know me, you will realize that those in combination with each other is something that never ends well. With me anyway.

First up today was Chinese, as always. We have 2 hours of Chinese every morning (where they only speak Chinese to us. That gets interesting sometimes.) and then 2 times a week we have a small tutorial, where the teachers try to cram even more Chinese into our brains (as if we weren't already working hard enough.) One of my Chinese teachers doesn't speak any English at all (yay) and the other one does a little. Shen Lao Shi (申老师) is the teacher that speaks some English, and he is hysterical. He has the whole evil genius laugh thing down to pat. Cracks me up everytime. This morning, I was laughing so hard that when he asked me a question, I could only nod, and try to get oxygen back into my lungs (which is normally a good thing...)

After that was Chinese history. We have been learning about Confucianism, and all that good stuff. It seems to me that he just can't make up his mind about anything though. He just said "Be a good person" in a really fancy (and freakin long) way. We had a quiz on Confucianism today, and about half way through (as soon as I got to the short answer anyway) I got a little confused. I couldn't remember a whole lot. So, to make up for my surprising lack of knowledge, I simple started writing as much as I could, figuring that if I kept writing, I was bound to get the right thing eventually. (Mom, if you are reading this, just disregard that last part. It probably made you cringe.)

Calculus passed with surprising ease, and it was off to lunch for me. I swear, I don't think that people in China like us SYAer's. First off, they put our classrooms 6 long flights up stairs. Then, to make things even better, they put our cafeteria on the 3rd floor of another building (again with no elevator.) I can feel the love. Now, I know what you are thinking. "Sophie, grow up. It's just a couple of flights of stairs." Normally, I would agree with you. But when I have to walk up 6 flights of stairs twice a day, and then walk up 3 more just to eat (when I am already hungry and grouchy) it's no little feat. On the bright side though, I am going to have a really nice butt (and legs) when I get home. And I will kick butt at rowing. Just you wait.

Lunch was super fun (well, after lunch anyway. The eating part wasn't all that special.) We have a track meet coming up soon, and one of the events is Chinese jump rope. It's a team effort of 15 people, where you all get in a line and run through a huge jump rope very quickly. It's so much fun. I got dragged into participating after watching for 10 minutes, and had a blast. (I also didn't screw up and got lots of praises, so yay for me.)

Study and English went by relatively easy (although I always seem to have a huge laughing fit during English...) and then it was on to calligraphy class, one of my electives. That is the greatest class I have ever taken. The teacher is this old guy (with less than half his teeth) who has been teaching SYA kids for 11 years, and can't speak any English. So he spoke Chinese at us (with gestures and pictures for our benefit) for 40 minutes. We elected 2 translators from our group, but they too didn't know what the bloody hell was going on. So the class just dissolved into fits and giggles. We had a blast guessing what he was trying to say, and laughing about the whole thing. I don't think I got a coherent sentence in the whole time, I was laughing so hard. Everyone tried their hand at calligraphy, although there were a lot of 不漂亮's (not pretty) going around. We came to a joing decision that this was the best class ever.

The smog was so bad today that even things 100 yards away were hazy. The entire sky was iron grey. The air was oppressive, and you could feel it hurting your lungs. Because of this lovely fact, after school my friend (Robbin) and I rushed to the nearest tea house we could find, and spent the next hour there baring our souls, and playing with the flower he picked for me (lol.) My bike ride home was mui intertaining, because even though it was only about 5:30, it was already really dark, and starting to rain. There were also huge claps of thunder (and lightening) that sounded like it was going to ripe the sky in 2. I raced home as fast as I could.

Dinner was rather tame, and everything was edible (finally.) My homework load is insane. I am fairly sure that my teachers are just testing us to see what our breaking point is. I can't even finish mine tonight. But seeing as I get to school with more than an hour before it starts, I don't have a problem finishing it in the morning. As mentioned before, I have been waking up at insanely early hours. (Although I have a friend who has so much Chinese homework that he goes to bed at 10:00 and wakes up at 3:30. He basically just walks around school slightly dazed. Poor guy.)

Well, that is my life to date. I spend a lot of time desperately trying to translate what the rest of the world says to me, and constantly think in my head, "Can you repeat that please (in english?)" It's really nice here though. Even though my dad smokes, I still love my family, and my friends. It's nice to know there is a world outside of Davis. Until next time.