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.

The Day of Homework and College Apps

Even though I went to bed well past 12 last night, my body didn't seem to register that that meant I should sleep later. Instead, with the light pouring in from my window, I opened my eyes at 8:15, and kept them that way. Even though I had a lot to do this morning, I wasn't quite ready to do them. Instead, I grabbed my computer (what else?) and got comfy. I went to a movie website that my friend gave me, and started browsing. I had been thinking about buying Babylon AD, so I started watching that. I'm not going to lie, it looked like it had potential. But before I even got 20 minutes into it, I got a knock on my door. It was my mom. At first I thought that she was making sure that I was awake, but then she informed me that they were going to the market, because my sister needed to buy a bike. After a dance of Should I Go, Should I Stay (as everyone knows, when it comes to unimportant decisions, I am hopeless) I made up my mind to go, and ran to my room to get changed. (In case you were wondering, I wore my grey and black stripey dress with my black leggings, because it is so comfortable, and I felt like it.) On the way out, my mom handed me this Korean rice cake thing, which was basically just flavored sticky rice. It wasn't half bad, actually. That was my breakfast, so I ate it regardless.

I don't know what I was expecting when my mom said market, but it certainly wasn't what I got. First we went to a big food market, where there were a lot of sellers packed into a huge building. We (me, my sister, my dad and mom) went to the veggies first, and navigated our way through the massive amount of bodies to get to the wares. My mom kept offering me things, but I didn't know half the things she pointed to, so I just shrugged and said ok. If they are going to eat it, it probably won't kill me (although now that I am in China I may have to adjust that assumption...) I thought we were going to get away without going to the meat section, but I had no such luck.

It is quite an experience to go to the meat section of a Chinese market. You first see (and smell) the fish. Every where are huge tanks stuffed with so many fish that they can barely move. Most places also have crabs and shrimp, in a similar state. The ground is wet (don't want to think about that) and for people who don't like fish (i.e. me) the smell leaves something to be desired. My parents went to go buy fish (really long fish that was frozen, by the way) and my sister and I followed. I was trying to teach her the lyrics to Mamma Mia (she loves that song. No joke) and I told her that my mom wanted to hear me and her sing it. She got a kick out of that.

After buying the fish, we moved over to the pork/chicken/beef/whatever section. I watched as all the butchers hacked into huge hunks of meat. It was rather revolting. I will eat meat, but I would rather not think about where it comes from. Call me whatever you want, I don't care. I don't want to see what i am eating (especially not in China.) That whole trip into the meat only took about 10 minutes before we high tailed it out of there. I wasn't disappointed to see the end of it.

However, that wasn't even the market that my parents had intended on going to. So with our new purchases, we walked back to the car, and started driving again. I am starting to recognize some of the places we pass, which is nice. Maybe I will learn my way around the city after all. We went to another market, this time one that was all inside. (Apparently it is some french supermarket, or so my mother informed me.) We bought some bread (for my breakfasts) and Saqima (which is the greatest snack ever. I don't care if it is bad for me, it is tasty) before heading for the bikes. It didn't take long for my sister to pick a bike she liked (hey, I rhymed) and we were out of there. By this time, it was almost lunch time, and I was getting hungry.

My parents, clearly, were also getting hungry, and they certainly didn't feel like cooking. So they just ordered Domino's pizza. I didn't realize until it got to our house (actually, a friend told me, and then I realized) that cheese is a milk product, and I can't eat milk products. I told my sister and my mom this, but they told me not to worry about it. So I didn't worry. I haven't been eating milk products, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. And I didn't know what else I was supposed to eat for lunch.

After lunch, it was time to study. And study I did. It took me about 2 hours to finish my Chinese homework, and I didn't finish until about 4. Then it was history time (not only do I have to do the history homework for this weekend, I still have to finish the history homework from last week. Oops.) That didn't even get finished before people came over. (Seriously, when will people start warning me when we have company?) It was my cousin and her boyfriend, and my aunt (the aunt that really likes me, no less.)

Apparently my aunt wasn't feeling well, because my family busted out the Chinese medicine, and invited me to watch. All I had to see was the lighter and the jar of alcohol to know that this could have disastrous consequences. What happened was this. My aunt lay down on her stomach, and pulled her shirt up to her shoulders. My mom dipped a big hunk of gauze in the alcohol, and lit it on fire. She then proceeded to pop the flaming gauze into a jar, and then stick the jar onto my aunts back really quickly, so it created suction and stayed there. She did this with about 5 jars, and then we all left my aunt to rest. It was weird.

Dinner passed without a hitch, although as soon as my parents decided that I couldn't get the meat off of the bone without help, they decided to help me, and proceeded to put obscene amounts of meat onto my rice. I was tempted to follow Chinese tradition and simply grab my bowl and move it out of their reach. That seems to work well with other people.

My aunt kept trying to talk to me, and I kept trying to answer her to the best of my abilities, but it was hard. She spoke fast, and with a thick accent, and combining that with my tiredness and oncoming headache, I could tell that it was bound for trouble. But I gave it a go, and sometimes my mom would repeat what she had said, only slower. That was the best thing that worked.

The rest of the night passed without a glitch. I had to go back to my room to do homework, but I popped my head outside to say good bye to everyone. People don't hug here, so I have just settled for waving awkwardly. I'm not sure what else to do. And that, my friends, is my story. I'm starting to get into a habit of only writing half of the story and then stopping, but what are you going to do?