updates

Wow. I have really been slacking off with the updating. There really hasn't been anything new. Jinan is still Jinan, albeit getting a little bit colder. The homework is still the same. It's not too exciting, but it's nice to have some routine again (with classes and such.) I've been working on my Cities In Transition project involving the Baotu Springs, so I've been going there to take down fieldnotes and photos. However, its 40元 to go in, and therefore today I decided to stop blowing 40元 everytime I needed to enter. I ended up buying a 年票 (nian piao: yearly pass) for 100元. Now I get to enter whenever I want! Convenient, right? Anyways, that's about it. Just been studying and taking care of Link. I've also started eating MUCH healthier; buying cucumbers, tomatoes, and other varied fresh foods mixes up my diet. Eating in China kind of made me gain and lose weight. It's really weird. My day normally consists of a breakfast of instant oatmeal with brown sugar (yum! right, mom?) before classes, then lunch at the cafeteria- usually a bowl of rice with two vegetable dishes (i may be going vegetarian ... again), and then usually a late-night greasy dinner at the night market vendors. I always go to this sweet old couple that make a sort of burrito with big, flat crispy wonton strips and pickled vegetables and lettuce all wrapped up in a purple soft bread-y tortilla that has egg on it. The vendors only come out around 9pm, and there's always so much to eat that sometimes I go out of boredom and come back absolutely stuffed with delicious (albeit oily) snacks! Can't help it... haha. I'm going to miss the food when I go back to America. Hard to believe it's almost half over. I leave for Hong Kong on December 20th... which is basically in a month. Crazy. China's grown on me... I feel like my Mandarin has improved alot since being immersed. Now, I'm not so nervous talking to complete Chinese strangers. I used to basically shit my pants (not literally, mom! haha) with being so nervous and self-conscious of my terrible mandarin speaking skills, but now I'm really much more confident. My classes are still going well, and I like speaking to people all around the world in Mandarin. There are people from Russia, England, Korea, Australia, Holland, Germany, Israel, Canada, and Slovenia... it's pretty ridiculous. I find myself speaking a lot of English to basically all of the above I had listed minus the Koreans. They think it's pretty funny whenever I say "Hi (Annyong Hasaio)" or "Thank you (Gamsamida)" I'm sure my Korean spelling is heinous. But regardless, that's all I know in Korean, haha. Anyways, I went to the bookstore today and bought some new fine-felt tip pens and a book with tiny squares to practice my handwriting in, so I think I'm going to do that until I fall asleep. Class at 8am tomorrow! Goodnight :]

Oh PS: Another update: I've chosen my classes for next semester and they look really good. I'm taking Race Theory (philosophy), The Art of Translation (it's a chinese class), Writing and Embodiment in Ming-Qing China (also chinese), and Culture, Power, and Place in SE Asia (anthropology + chinese), and then of course, Piano! My schedule is also sweet, I have lunch breaks during the entire week (not like last semester when I didn't have lunch on Tuesdays or Thursdays). Silly me, always thinking with my stomach.  :]