Thank God It's Friday

Thank god it's friday. What a perfect line. That includes every single emotion that people feel when you wake up on a Friday morning, and you think "This is the last push, and then it's home free to the weekend." That's what I thought this morning, anyway. I know, I know, it's Friday. And that means test day for me. But lets be real here. I couldn't have cared less about my tests today. It was the first week back at school after a week off to do my own thing, and it has been a hell of a week. So really, all I cared about was getting through the next five hours, and getting to the weekend. As far as the tests were concerned... well, my thinking in the morning is that if I don't know it by now, then I am not going to learn in the next half an hour.

The world was on my side this morning. I actually had hot water when I took a shower. And I mean hot water, not just body temperature luke warm water. I can't even tell you how excited I was. I almost didn't get out of the shower. ALMOST. That was the first sign that today was going to be a good day. I know what you are thinking. Hot showers in the morning? I am far too spoiled. What can I say, some people just walk in the light.

My test was actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I got a couple of the grammar points wrong, sure, but in my defense, they were not on our review sheet. How was I supposed to know that I was supposed to review them? Honestly people, work with me here! I finished early, and immediately put it out of my mind. No use whining over spilled milk, or whatever the phrase is. Onto bigger and better things! In this case, the bigger and better things included my speaking tests, which was 1) reading parts of my text to my teachers, and 2) giving a speech on my Social Studies project. The text part was first.

It actually didn't go as badly as I thought it was going to go. Maybe my Chinese really is getting better. My tones are horrendous though. It's hard to remember which character has what tone, and then to say them all very fast. It makes my head spin. I think it was better today than it normally is though. Well, at least I am moving in the right direction.

The speech part was a lot of fun. I listened to two of them (my classmates) before I was up. The two before me definitely had fun with it. One of them talked about comedy in Beijing (so that was obviously fun to listen to) and the other talked about trying to maintain the tradition of Beijing opera. I'm a little conflicted on my thoughts on Beijing opera, but it was still a good thing to listen to. The last student, who went after me, talked about the pollution in Shanghai, which was fun. Her conclusion was that Shanghai really is doing basically nothing to combat pollution. Take that Shanghai! I talked about Chinese medicine (obviously). I bored them to tears with a basic history of Chinese medicine, and then told them my story of going to the hospital to get acupuncture done. That woke them up a little. I think it has also made them think that I am completely insane. And I will be the first to admit, it is more than a little crazy. I hate needles, and yet I let someone stick 10 of them into my head. That is a contradiction for someone else to figure out. I'm too tired.

For Chinese tables we went to the local Muslim food restaurant, that is right on campus. It is actually pretty good food. However, the room we were in did not have enough air conditioning, and held way too many people. Needless to say, we were all sweating rivers by the end of the meal. Attractive, no? But the food was good. Really good. I ate way too much. (In fact, at dinner time, I was still so full from lunch that I just skipped dinner. Jack would be proud. I think.) After eating myself into a food coma on meat and veggies (and their lovely lovely nan...) I dragged myself back to my room, and put on a good movie. Good movie meaning Avatar, obviously. What else is a girl going to do on a Friday afternoon in a smog infested city?

I met up with my language partner tonight. My new one. The old one left without ever saying goodbye. Well, good riddance. I like the new one better anyway. Her name is Qiao Xue. Super nice. I feel like I hit the language partner jack pot. When I met up with her tonight, there was obviously the awkward moment where neither one of us knew what to say or what to do, but as soon as we started walking down towards the shops, things started getting better. We walked around one of the malls for a bit, and then I actually ended up heading over to the DVD store, which was, conveniently, right around the corner from her house. We rode the bus over there together, chatting the whole way. Like I said, language partner jackpot.

I was parched (I love that word. You never have the chance to use it in normal conversation) when I got off the bus, so I headed over to what used to be my favorite juice shop, right outside my old Chinese high school. While I was waiting for my drink, this Chinese lady came in, looked at me, ordered a drink, and then asked my if I spoke Chinese. I told her that I spoke a little bit. We started talking. As it turns out, she is a teacher in the US, and she knows the head of the Chinese department in Vermont. We walked across the street together, talking about Chinese, and then she invited me over to her house for dinner. I'm pretty good at carrying a conversation, but I am not entirely sure if I am comfortable with going to a strangers house for dinner. I feel like that would be super awkward. I think that this may just be a cultural thing though. It's not that I don't trust her, or that I feel uncomfortable around her: she was super friendly, and I completely believe that she was just trying to be nice. I just didn't want to go to her house right at that moment. So I made some flimsy excuses, gave her my phone number, and told her that we would get in touch later. We'll see what happens. What do you think? I am interested.

I obtained some articles of entertainment at my favorite DVD store (as this was part of my excuse) and headed back home. It was 95 degrees outside, after all. I was sticky and sweaty, and desperately in need of a cold bottle of water. And it is way too hot to be outside. Obviously, the only solution is to stay inside until the weather decides to cooperate. I may be here for a while.

And now, i am sitting in my room, having just finished a movie, listening to Radio Rounds and writing my blog for all you lovelies to read. I have to go to bed soon though, the words are starting to blur together on the page. That is never a good sign. Good night all!