We ended this week of hard studying and tests with a cooking class from a world class chef. Here, we entered a glass entrance (some of us entered INTO the glass, lol) to a table full of uncooked beef, chicken, green beans, peppers, mushrooms, and noodles just waiting for us to show off our skills. The dishes turned out great, and now we actually KNOW what we're eating! Pictures from left to right in terms of appearance: me, Richelle, Victoria, Walter, Chef A, Chef B, Alliance staff, Cindy, Alliance staff, Alliance staff, Andrew, Max, Meah,Brad, Shelby, and Marina.
When I first came here I thought the work load was going to be manageable. However, after the first couple introduction chapters, this is not the case. Not only do we have 30 new words (not 30 new characters, since each Chinese word can comprise of up to 4 characters) from one book in the morning, then 30 more in the afternoon. However, I continued to use my Android's flash card applications to work on my vocabulary, and constantly talk with my Chinese roommate and other peers to help increase my listening comprehension and speaking abilities.
Our class has had very interesting debates about women's rights, the Chinese economy and government, America's role in global politics, and differences between American and Chinese students--all in Chinese! It's nothing less than amazing to think that after just 4 semesters of studying Mandarin, I can efficiently convey most simple and many complex ideas in this language.
It's been raining every other day this week and it's making the air very humid. I only brought my boots to China (since I was planning to go shopping earlier in the program), and the soles in my boots are wearing out so my shoes always get wet when there's water on the ground. No matter, some friends and I are planning to go to Qu'pu Lu tomorrow, a market that expands over 6-7 blocks filled with small shops, malls, and restaurants galore with an underground market exclusively for shoes.
Some of our classmates are going to Hang'zhou this weekend, and I'm currently planning a trip to Su'zhou for some of the Alliance students. It'll be a unique experience, and I'm looking forward to writing about it. See you on the flip side!
Our class has had very interesting debates about women's rights, the Chinese economy and government, America's role in global politics, and differences between American and Chinese students--all in Chinese! It's nothing less than amazing to think that after just 4 semesters of studying Mandarin, I can efficiently convey most simple and many complex ideas in this language.
It's been raining every other day this week and it's making the air very humid. I only brought my boots to China (since I was planning to go shopping earlier in the program), and the soles in my boots are wearing out so my shoes always get wet when there's water on the ground. No matter, some friends and I are planning to go to Qu'pu Lu tomorrow, a market that expands over 6-7 blocks filled with small shops, malls, and restaurants galore with an underground market exclusively for shoes.
Some of our classmates are going to Hang'zhou this weekend, and I'm currently planning a trip to Su'zhou for some of the Alliance students. It'll be a unique experience, and I'm looking forward to writing about it. See you on the flip side!