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.